Alaska Airlines has announced an expansion of its partnership with British Airways, a founding member of the Oneworld Alliance. alaskaair.com British Airways flights are now available for booking.

Travel to London from Select U.S. Cities

This enhancement in partnership allows for a seamless travel experience between London Heathrow and select Alaska Airlines-served desintations in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, as well as Chicago and New York JFK. Guests can now easily book British Airways flights through Alaska Airlines’ website, simplifying their journey to London.

London Is Popular With Travelers

London ranks as one of the most searched-for international destinations on alaskaair.com. Particularly for guests in the Pacific Northwest, service between Seattle and London is among the most in-demand routes.

Andrew Harrison, Chief Commercial Officer for Alaska Airlines, expressed his confidence about this development:

“We’re excited to add our longstanding partner, British Airways, to our growing portfolio of book direct airlines. London is one of the most requested global gateways by our guests and no one serves it better than British Airways and the Oneworld alliance.”

Andrew Harrison, Chief Commercial Officer for Alaska Airlines

alaskaair.com British Airways Partnership Cities

British Airways offers several flights to London from multiple West Coast cities, all of which can now be booked directly on alaskaair.com:

• Seattle: Two daily flights
• Portland: Daily flight
• San Francisco: Two daily flights
• Los Angeles: Three daily flights
• San Diego: Two daily flights
• Chicago: Three daily flights
• New York JFK: Eight daily flights

Tickets for British Airways flights beginning on June 18 and beyond are available for purchase now. Later this year, travelers will also be able to book Alaska flights connecting to British Airways services, as well as flights beyond London on British Airways.

Neil Chernoff, Chief Planning and Strategy Officer for British Airways, highlighted the benefits of this partnership:

“We are extending our partnership with Alaska Airlines to offer travelers seamless access to British Airways flights to London directly at alaskaair.com. It will enhance the travel experience for our customers, providing convenient connections between London Heathrow and Alaska’s key gateway airports.”

Neil Chernoff, Chief Planning and Strategy Officer for British Airways

Alaskair.com British Airways Analysis

As an Oneworld frequent flyer based in the Pacific Northwest, I am thrilled alaskaair.com British Airways flights are now supported A couple of things I would like to comment on:

• Dallas (DFW) not included
• British Airways IT

I find it interesting that Dallas (DFW) airport is not included in the partnership, BA currently flies the A380 there, so I’m sure the whale has enough capacity to sell to Alaska Airlines in this agreement. Additionally, Dallas (DFW) happens to be a OneWorld hub, where founding member American Airlines is headquartered so I’m sure Alaska Airlines has feed to pass on to BA flights.

British Airways IT is not the best. They already have server capacity issues:

The cynical person in me sees this as a way for BA to offload some traffic to Alaska Airlines and save on server costs. British Airways could pay for additional load balancers to evenly spread traffic through its servers thus avoiding the high demand problem. Another concern I have is BA may take a while to issue the ticket (ie email a confirmed ticket/ PNR), for award tickets BA only processes them in batches and prioritize the tickets based on the date of travel.

Overall I see this partnership a step in the right direction, allowing customers to easily book flights from Alaska Airlines’ website should allow for a much better travel experience. Since the flights are one ticket which in theory should allow customers to check their bags through to London and in the future on connecting British Airways flights.