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British Airways and JetBlue apply for permission to codeshare

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In a surprising move, given the close relationship between British Airways and American Airlines, BA and US carrier JetBlue have applied for permission to launch codeshare flights.

We are likely to see this sooner rather than later as:

“The Joint Applicants respectfully request expedited treatment so that they may begin
offering the code-share services described herein.”

British Airways and JetBlue codeshare

You can see the list of routes covered in the US regulatory filing (PDF).

The deal will allow:

  • British Airways to sell connecting flights from the UK to multiple US destinations via a connection to JetBlue in New York or Boston
  • JetBlue to sell connecting flights from New York and Boston to selected European cities via a connection to British Airways in London

The European destinations covered are Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Lisbon, Lyon, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Stockholm, Warsaw and Zurich.

It is important to note that JetBlue’s transatlantic flights are not included so you won’t be able to earn British Airways tier points on JetBlue’s transatlantic services. You can already earn Avios on these flights by crediting them to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account.

You WILL be able to earn British Airways tier points and Avios on JetBlue domestic flights, as long as they carry a British Airways flight number. This will only be possible if you are connecting to a British Airways transatlantic flight.

Even if approved, this arrangement does NOT allow British Airways to offer JetBlue reward flights to Executive Club members, and vice versa. This doesn’t matter, however, as you can already redeem Avios for JetBlue flights via Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

It’s worth noting that British Airways and JetBlue use different terminals in both New York JFK and Boston so transfers between the airlines will not be seamless.

It’s not clear where this deal leaves the British Airways relationship with American Airlines, and it’s not clear if this is another step (following JetBlue’s partnership with Qatar Airways) to the airline joining the oneworld airline alliance.

Any attempt to add JetBlue to the BA / AA / Finnair / Iberia / Aer Lingus transatlantic joint venture agreement would see strong regulatory pushback, especially after JetBlue lobbied heavily to obtain Heathrow landing and take-off slots on the basis of increasing competition.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (39)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Thywillbedone says:
    25 May25 May 05:36

    “Any attempt to add JetBlue to the BA / AA / Finnair / Iberia / Aer Lingus transatlantic joint venture agreement would see strong regulatory pushback, especially after JetBlue lobbied heavily to obtain Heathrow landing and take-off slots on the basis of increasing competition.”

    Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey?

    • ADS says:
      25 May25 May 18:13

      surely the UK CMA will have to object to this … on the basis of creeping reduction in competition on LHR-JFK and LHR-BOS ?

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
    25 May25 May 06:27

    “It’s not clear where this deal leaves the British Airways relationship with American Airlines, and it’s not clear if this is another step (following JetBlue’s partnership with Qatar Airways) to the airline joining the oneworld airline alliance.”

    1. Did the B6 link up with AA affect AAs relationship with BA? I don’t think it did. The link up ended because of a court ruling rather than the airlines having a falling out.

    2. If AA’s link up didn’t bring B6 closer into the OW fold then why should this one? Has B6 ever intimated they want to be in OW either as a full or connect member?

    The issue of airlines not using the same terminal is hardly a new one and doesn’t seem to bother a lot of people. At both LHR and JFK AA and BA operated from separate terminals for decades.

  • Phillip says:
    25 May25 May 07:00

    I view this as BA actually being concerned about B6’s transatlantic ventures so rather than make the effort to compete, they join up.

    • ChrisBCN says:
      25 May25 May 11:05

      BA are lacking a distributor airline to middle-sized-town America from many US airports (AA mostly goes only to their hubs from JFK; B6 (JetBlue) serves more places from JFK that BA don’t already fly direct to).

      And clearly the biggest distributor for B6 from Heathrow (again, to places BA don’t serve direct from US) is BA.

      So I see this as a win-win for them both – and I guess they do too.

      • Expat in SJC says:
        25 May25 May 13:24

        B6 don’t serve middle sized town America. Their route network is heavily major East Coast cities and then poor frequencies to West Coast airports (LAX and SFO aside). Half of the B6 routes selected are served directly by BA or are very close to BA destinations. The remaining B6 routes selected as part the codeshare have easy access via ORD, DFW, MIA or CLT.

        The airlines serving middle town America are AA and UA.

        To me this would have made more sense for BA if the AA B6 tie up was still in play. lucky at OMAAT has some interesting views also.

        Still B6 and BA would have more of a clue than we do as to their reasons.

        • ChrisBCN says:
          25 May25 May 18:22

          You are confusing ‘middle sized towns where changing in JFK makes sense’ with ‘all middle sized towns in America’ .

    • ChrisBCN says:
      25 May25 May 11:10

      You’ll also see that at the European end, there are no codeshares to Spain (protecting sister companies Iberia/Level) or to Finland (protecting transatlantic partner Finnair).

      Instead, the codeshares are mostly into Lufthansa group territory – arguably BA’s biggest (or second biggest) competitor.

      • Sean says:
        25 May25 May 23:37

        There are no codeshares to Finland because BA don’t fly to Finland.

  • No longer Entitled says:
    25 May25 May 07:15

    Welcome to the cartel.

  • HertsSam says:
    25 May25 May 07:20

    What is B6 please?
    @Rob if the definition is not clear or easy please can it be placed in the glossary?
    Also I note many topics/articles are updated and republished. Would you consider doing the same for the glossary and the article linking to it?

    • HertsSam says:
      25 May25 May 07:24

      Perhaps BA was meant instead of B6? If so sorry for not getting it earlier.

    • Richie says:
      25 May25 May 07:37

      B6 is JetBlue’s IATA 2 digit airline designation code. Today’s JetBlue flight LHR-JFK has a flight number B62220.

    • Rob says:
      25 May25 May 08:37

      Glossary link is in the footer on every page.

    • BBbetter says:
      25 May25 May 08:37

      You can always google something if you can’t find it in glossary. It’s a useful life skill.

      • Scott says:
        25 May25 May 13:38

        You’re suggesting googling ‘B6’ ? What do you think the results are going to be about?

        • Rhys says:
          25 May25 May 16:28

          Google ‘B6 airline’ and guess what the first result is 😉

    • ChrisBCN says:
      25 May25 May 11:12

      I didn’t see B6 used in the article, so it is the fault of the commenters – when using lesser known terms, it is always better to spell it out.

      • Rob says:
        25 May25 May 11:34

        We don’t use airline codes in articles.

      • lumma says:
        25 May25 May 12:23

        Drives me mad when people use obscure airline and airport codes in comments. Don’t see anyone calling easyJet U2 though

        • Richie says:
          25 May25 May 13:38

          At least we don’t use A0 for a Gatwick based airline.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          25 May25 May 13:42

          B6 is hardly an “obscure” airline!

          It’s featured often enough in articles on here to make it not obscure,

          Plenty of people use U2.

          Drives me mad when people use AL when they mean EI.

  • Richie says:
    25 May25 May 07:53

    BTW B6 have a good fleet of A223 aircraft which seems more appealing than AA B737 MAX aircraft.

  • Boon says:
    25 May25 May 08:14

    This is good news for ex-UK travelers to USA destinations… More routes available for one-stop (via JFK or BOS) that will earn tier points.

    Plus Jetblue is miles better onboard (both economy and mint) than AA domestic.

    So this is great for BAEC members. Potentially lucrative new tier point routes (maybe LHR-BOS-SFO? 280TP for business each way?) or a more enjoyable domestic flight leg.

  • Matt says:
    25 May25 May 08:36

    Is EI actually in the transatlantic cartel yet? I didn’t think it had got approval so far.

    • Nick says:
      25 May25 May 09:14

      EI has approval but not yet the technology to actually do it fully.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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