(Photo by Matthew Smith)
American Airlines on Tuesday announced that the company has signed an agreement with Air Berlin to outline a codeshare and frequent flyer relationship.
The commercial agreement will allow customers of each airline to book and travel on the other’s network and earn frequent flyer miles, American said in a statement, adding that both companies are awaiting government approvals to implement the codeshare.
American currently serves Germany with services to Frankfurt from Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago. Meanwhile, Air Berlin offers service to more than 160 cities in Europe, Russia and the Middle East as well as to six cities in North America, including New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fort Myers, Fla., and Vancouver in Canada.
The agreement also will allow customers traveling on codeshare flights to earn mileage credits in American’s AAdvantage or Air Berlin’s topbonus frequent flyer programs.
“We’re very pleased to announce this partnership with Germany’s second largest airline, Air Berlin, which has established itself as a highly respected European airline over the last two decades,” said Gerard Arpey, American’s CEO. “This relationship will add significant value for our customers by substantially growing our worldwide network.”
American also said that Air Berlin was invited to join the oneworld alliance, one of the world’s three largest global airline alliances, that includes airlines such as British Airways, LAN Airlines, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Iberia, Mexicana, Finnair, Malév and Royal Jordanian.
