On November 28, China Southern Airlines and American Airlines renewed their code-share cooperation agreement, a frequent flyer cooperation agreement and a memorandum of understanding on lounge access, leading to further commercial and strategic ties between the two flag-carriers.
The two sides plan to expand their cooperation in code-sharing, frequent flyer benefits and lounge access starting from January 2019, pending approval from local civil aviation authorities.
Their code-sharing cooperation will cover major Sino-US routes operated by both carriers and extend to their domestic route networks in China and the United States.
The two airlines will operate up to 64 code-share international flights per week on the major air routes between the two countries during peak hours. These include the flights between Guangzhou-Los Angeles, Guangzhou-San Francisco, Guangzhou-Wuhan-San Francisco, Guangzhou-New York and Shenyang-Los Angeles operated by China Southern Airlines, and the flights between Dallas-Beijing, Dallas-Pudong, Los Angeles-Beijing and Los Angeles-Pudong operated by American Airlines.
Both will also have code-share arrangements for domestic flights to 21 cities in the United States from Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York and 20 cities in China from Beijing and Shanghai Pudong.
Passengers will be able to book China Southern’s code-share flights operated by American Airlines via designated channels of China Southern, and vice versa for American Airlines’ code-share flights operated by China Southern.
The two sides also signed a frequent flyer cooperation agreement and a memorandum of understanding on lounge access. China Southern members can choose to have their mileage with American Airlines added to their China Southern accounts, and redeem tickets with either carriers. American Airlines members can also have equivalent privileges.
On a daily basis, American Airlines AAdvantage members can thus accumulate and redeem mileage through more than 3,000 flights to 224 destinations in more than 40 countries, while China Southern members can accumulate and redeem their mileage through 6,700 flights to nearly 350 destinations in more than 50 countries.
