American Airlines and GOL are deepening their ties with each other, with American Airlines signing a definitive investment agreement with GOL.
The combined networks will provide customers with more than 30 destinations in the U.S. served by American and more than 34 new destinations in South America served by GOL.
American Airlines has served Latin America since 1942 and offers service to 17 destinations in South America, including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, from its U.S. hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami and New York-JFK.
GOL serves 63 destinations in Brazil.
The move comes as part of an investment agreement previously announced last year.
American Airlines will invest $200 million in 22.2 million newly issued preferred shares of GOL in a capital increase, for a 5.2% participation in the company’s economic interest. The execution of the other agreements described in this press release, and the closing of the equity investment, are subject to certain conditions, including government and regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
Benefits for both sets of travellers
For those who maintain loyalty, with either American AAdvantage or GOL SMILES, there’s very good news ahead.
Members will gain access to their status benefits on both airlines, such as priority check-in, priority security, priority boarding, a larger checked baggage allowance, lounge access and preferred seats.
The two airlines also expect to offer an enhanced joint loyalty offering to give customers more ways to earn and redeem miles in the future, opening further travel options.
No date for these measures or offerings to be made available to the customers yet – however, one would suspect this would be after the deal is complete.
It will be interesting to see how the changes are deployed and what the combined offering will look like – be it in the form of deep codeshares, redemptions and earnings options.
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