American Airlines and China Southern Launch Loyalty Partnership

Members of America’s largest airline have a new carrier on which they can earn frequent flyer benefits. Last week, American Airlines partnered up with China Southern, the largest carrier in Asia by fleet size and revenue, to offer reciprocal frequent flyer benefits to loyalty program members.

Moving forward, AAdvantage members are now able to earn and spend miles on China Southern while Sky Pearl Club members can expect the same treatment on American.

Notably, frequent flyers will also be able to earn miles when booking direct through the other carrier — not just on codeshare flights or when connecting through from one to the other. That’s great news for customers who want deeper reach into China with all of their frequent flyer benefits. But it also resurfaces the question: Why doesn’t China Southern flat-out join the Oneworld alliance?

— Grant Martin, Business of Loyalty Editor

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Skift Business of Loyalty Editor Grant Martin [[email protected]] curates the Skift Business of Loyalty newsletter. Skift emails the newsletter every Monday.