This feels intentional at this point.
I fly LAX–LHR pretty regularly and usually book through Alaska on AA or BA metal nonstop. For years it’s been roughly $800–1100 RT in economy.
Ever since Alaska launched the SEA–LHR route, partner pricing from LAX has gone crazy. I’m now seeing $1400–1500+ RT for the exact same AA/BA nonstop flights. That’s a massive jump, like 50% overnight.
Meanwhile, surprise surprise, Alaska conveniently offers LAX–SEA–LHR on their own metal for around $1300 RT, undercutting the now inflated nonstop partner fares.
I don’t buy that this is partners suddenly charging Alaska more. These same routes were priced normally before SEA–LHR launched. It looks a lot more like Alaska is forcing higher fare buckets on partner flights to push people onto AS metal via Seattle.
For anyone not based in SEA, this just means longer travel times and worse routings for no real reason.
Curious if others are seeing the same thing on their usual partner routes.
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