American and JetBlue End Their Interline Agreement at JFK and BOS

American Airlines and JetBlue Airways are terminating their interline traffic agreement and reciprocal frequent-flyer program mileage accrual agreement.

The two carriers’ interline traffic agreement and reciprocal frequent-flyer program mileage accrual agreement has operated on select routes from Boston Logan International Airport (IATA code BOS) and New York JFK.

American Airlines took delivery of its first Airbus A321 on November 21, 2013

From March 10, each airline will no longer accept new interline sales for travel on the other carrier. Then, from April 1, customers of JetBlue Airways or American Airlines will no longer earn miles or points when traveling on eligible routes operated by the other airline.

All American AAdvantage miles or JetBlue TrueBlue points already accrued through this partnership will be credited to customers’ accounts and are not affected, according to American Airlines and JetBlue Airways.

The two airlines say they are working together to ensure these changes have little impact to customers.

American and JetBlue have not disclosed a reason for terminating the two agreements. However, following its merger with US Airways, American Airlines is now placed to receive feed traffic from and provide it to US Airways, which has a significant presence in both the New York and the Boston markets.

JetBlue Airways has introduced a new tailfin design, ‘Prism’, with the delivery of its first Airbus A321. The Prism tailfin design, JetBlue’s ninth scheme to be featured on more than one aircraft’s tailfin, is exclusive to its A321 fleet

Ultimately, US Airways is almost certain to be merged operationally into American Airlines and thus American may well feel it has no need to continue providing feed traffic to and receiving it from JetBlue Airways.

Additionally, JetBlue Airways is increasingly a competitor of American Airlines on its major transcontinental routes from New York JFK to Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport.

Both carriers have recently launched significant upgrades of their service standards on these two prime transcontinental routes, both operating new Airbus A321 jets on the routes and offering flat-bed seats for premium-class travelers.