A statement released from Delta Air Lines announced that its interline ticketing agreement with Emirates Airline will be discontinued effective as of Saturday, November 28, 2015.
Official Statement
Here is the statement in its entirety:
Delta to Discontinue its Interline Ticketing and Baggage Agreement with Emirates Airlines
As part of a continuous review of commercial agreements with airlines across the world, Delta will discontinue its Interline Ticketing and Baggage Agreement with Emirates Airlines (EK), effective November 28, 2015.
Customer Reaccommodation
All reservations made with tickets issued prior to the Interline Ticketing and Baggage agreement discontinuation dates as outlined above will be honored as issued. Alternatively, refunds will be permitted if a reservation is made on flights operated by any of the above carriers and tickets are issued on DL (006) stock. Please contact Delta Sales Support or Delta Reservations for assistance with refunds.
Questions
Please direct any questions regarding the interline agreements for these carriers to Delta’s Sales Support Center, Delta Reservations or your GDS Help Desk.
Termination of Interline Agreement With American Airlines
A similar interline ticketing and baggage agreement between Delta Air Lines and American Airlines was discontinued effective as of Tuesday, September 15, 2015. “Thanks to employees’ stellar operational performance, Delta customers enjoy an industry-leading experience. Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach an agreement with American that adequately address the number of IROPs customers that American transferred to us,” said Eric Phillips — who is the senior vice president in the department of revenue management at Delta Air Lines. “In July, for example, American sent passengers to Delta for reaccommodation at a five-to-one ratio. At that rate the industry agreement was no longer mutually beneficial.”
The reason for the termination of this interline agreement with Emirates Airline was not disclosed from Delta Air Lines; although one reason could be the very public debate between the three legacy carriers of the United States and the three big carriers based in the Middle East.
Interline Agreement to End With Other Airlines?
According to what was posted here by FlyerTalk member kop84, the interline ticketing and baggage agreements between Delta Air Lines and other airlines — specifically, Air China, Hainan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and probably Bangkok Airways, as the BK airline code is supposedly for Potomac Air — could also be discontinued. “After a call to DL about EK they said also CA, HU, SC, 3U, BK being announced today or tomorrow.”
Summary
I would not go so far as to venture that this news portrays a trend of any sort — especially as FlyerTalk member ClipperDelta noted that American Airlines dropped its interline agreement with Emirates Airline back in 2014.
Still, this news only affects you if you happen to have flights operated by both Delta Air Lines and Emirates Airline on the outbound or return portions of your itinerary — that is, changing flights from one airline to another. For example, you will be responsible for collecting your baggage from a flight operated by one airline and checking it in before the connecting flight operated by the other airline.
In an unrelated observation which may be considered pedantic, I find it interesting that Delta Air Lines — whose name specifically has Air and Lines as two distinct words in its name and insists upon that — referred to Emirates Airline as Emirates Airlines in the aforementioned statement…
