Ahead of a big announcement next month, Emirates and United Airlines have teased the rekindling of a strategic partnership that could have wide-ranging implications for flyers on both airlines.
United Airlines And Emirates To Renew Partenserhsip – What Are The Implications?
A cheesy exchange on Twitter clues us to the fact that a big announcement is coming on September 14th:
👋, @united!
— Emirates Airline (@emirates) August 30, 2022
Meet you there, @united! 🤝
— Emirates Airline (@emirates) August 30, 2022
Interestingly, this will be a bit of a blast from the past, as both Continental Airlines and United Airlines once partnered with Emirates.
While details are scant, here is what we know:
- Emirates President Sir Tim Clark has talked for years about forming a bilateral partnership with a major U.S. network carrier (American, Delta, or United)
- United’s ability to serve India has been compromised by the ongoing war in Ukraine, with no end in sight
- Without the use of Russian airspace, planned India routes are likely not viable
- A relationship could see reciprocal frequent flyer benefits, including the ability to earn and redeem miles on respective carriers
- A relationship would certainly see codesharing on many United domestic routes and Emirates routes between Dubai and the Indian subcontinent (and potentially beyond)
I tend to think that United will announce a new service from Newark (EWR) to Dubai (DXB), a route that Emirates currently serves via Athens (ATH) [side note – I wonder if Emirates will drop its Fifth Freedom flight between Newark and Athens as part of this deal?]. We might see the resumption of the Washington (IAD) to Dubai route or the launch of Chicago (ORD) – Dubai as well, even though Emirates already serves both routes nonstop.
Theoretically, United would be offering a better business class seat on its Boeing 777 than Emirates will…if United can just step up its soft product, it could overcome the allure that Emirates is better (in business class at least).
Meanwhile, Emirates will benefit greatly by being able to sell connections all across the nation to its long-haul customers. While that benefits United too, I tend to think Emirates will be the larger beneficiary here (perhaps to the detriment of United’s joint venture partners). United will theoretically be able to sell onward conenctions from Dubai on its new route(s).
This move comes as we’ve seen U.S. carriers (thankfully) move beyond the stale charges of protectionism that were historically launched against Gulf carriers in a bid to squeeze out competition. American Airlines and Doha-based Qatar Airways have greatly expanded their partnership and AA now serves Doha (DOH) from New York (JFK).
Finally, I predict the new relationship with United will come at the expense of Emirates’ relationship with JetBlue.
CONCLUSION
We’ll have to wait for the official announcement, but Emirates and United are on the verge of a partnership announcement that will finally give Emirates a major U.S. airline partner. While I think the partnership will help Emirates more than United, there is potential for both carriers and exciting implications for frequent flyers if MileagePlus members will have access to fuel-surcharge-free redemptions on Emirates.
What are your thoughts on a new United-Emirates partnership?
Wow, this is pretty crazy! Patrick Quayle is a legend.
I don’t think United will launch routes to Dubai though, those have never worked. Go look at American’s JFK-DOH flight, it is completely empty, it is just a matter of time until that’s cut.
I tend to think you are correct about AA’s foray into DOH from JFK, but I do think Newark to Dubai could work, especially if EK sells the codeshares braodly.
The problem is that UA catering is so below EKs and folks know it, that they won’t pay the privilege of an inferior product.
Wealthy friends of mine could fly UA to ATH, but chose EK for the better soft product.
Quality matter no matter what Scotch Kirby thinks.
@jared
Do you fully expect many AA passengers to know where Doha is? I don’t know lol
AA is also a dying airline for what it’s worth.
Should’ve kept Kirby, he’s crushing them now!
I remember when folks referred to Dougweiser and Scotch Kirby when they headed up America West dba. US Airways.
I disagree. I used to take the UA IAD-DXB all the time before it went away and it was sold out about every night but back then UA was the carrier for US Government flights. People would go in to Dubai and catch a flight to Iraq or Afghanistan. With EK running an A380 IAD-DXB why would US lay on one of their metal? Gives UA access from cites from all over America to the EK DXB hub
Emirates flights are already no longer bookable through JetBlue as of 10/30
Interesting. The US government contract fare between IAD and DXB for the new fiscal year (10/1/22 – 9/30/23) remains with Jet Blue.
I also noticed UA did not pick up the contract for IAD – Amman in 2023 even with it’s new non-stop. It remains with AA.
David, what exactly does this mean? Is UA not going to be returning the Amman route?
Emirates already sells lots of connectivity across the US on JetBlue. This will change now with the new relationship, I’d imagine.
So United clearly is going all in on being the US’s premium airline, and with a network like they have I think they can accomplish that, as it is far superior to Delta’s network, but when is the soft product going to improve?
If you’re partnering with Emirates now, you need to step up the food game. The hard product and network is there, but the soft product needs to step up.
Yesterday, a TPG article said “Some of these luxuries haven’t returned yet, but from what I understand, the full P.S. service will return in the coming months.” Does anyone know if there is any truth to this? Frankly, it isn’t even called P.S. anymore, so it doesn’t seem like he even knows what he is talking about, but curious if anyone else has heard anything?
That’s huge, might have to dust up my MileagePlus account for this!
I am really excited about this and yet another reason my choice to switch to UA in March was a good one. A few areas:
1. I do see EWR as one market that EK gives to UA. And it will come at the expense of the Athens flight as I can’t imagine it’s doing much beyond cargo for EK (though I could be wrong).
2. IAD is an interesting one. I will tell you that EK has been having no problems filling aircraft out of Dulles. I know, I am on them. As well, given that EK is a morning departure from IAD (less than ideal) and a middle of the night from DXB, this opens up an easy addition for UA to supplement it with an evening departure out of IAD to feed to the night connections at DXB eastward. It’s a perfect match.
And yes, agree Matthew, if UA would step up on catering, flying in J I would be happier with UA over EK to DXB.
Speaking of ATH-EWR, EK have recently announced a codeshare agreement with Aegean that [inter alia] covers that as well as another transatlantic route they have from MXP (I think it was JFK).
Should the title be “…rekindle TALK OF…”? There wasn’t an announcement, just some cheeky tweets.
An inside source at UA has confirmed the partnership.
There is a media event at Dulles on the 14th with Kirby and Sir Tim Clark. It’ll be officially launched then, and maybe with a few Dubai routes on UA metal. I could see DC to Dubai on a 787-9.
Also, DEN is currently the only united hub emirates doesn’t serve, I could see Emirates launching Denver to Dubai, given how many domestic connections Denver would give them.
Nice tip, Jared. That’s great news and it appears to be more than just a casual thing if they are doing a media event at Dulles.
I agree on the IAD additional and fully expect United to start an evening departure to DXB to compliment EK’s morning flight. And that’s an interesting guess on Denver. Could very well be. I always thought Atlanta would be the next for EK but with this new partnership Denver makes more sense now.
In addition, we might also see ORD and IAH get the A380.
I hope so! Ord has always been bereft of the a380. Only regular visitor was BA. I flew it in the middle seat a couple of times :))). Only worth it for the novelty. Noting that I loved the BA 747 upper deck
IAH is back to A380 as of 12/1/22
Unless the schedule changes, the A380 will return IAH-DXB as of Dec 2022. It’s already showing in their schedule.
Yes! Yes! Yes!!! I have been waiting for this for a while. Just hope MP award travel is easier to book than on SQ, which practically takes an act of God.
Matthew & Jared and others who have insights,
Is EK joining or on the path to joining Star Alliance?
Haven’t EK already partnered with Aegean and Air Canada, and now United?
That’s a great question. I honestly don’t think it will be them joining Star Alliance, I think it’ll just be them launching a partnership with United, and maybe each airline launches a new route into each other’s hub (I’m guessing UA launches IAD-DXB and EK launches DXB-DEN).
However, with the other partnerships they have formed with other Star Alliance members, especially the more recent Air Canada one, I could also see why they might now want to join SA. It just would be a drastic change for them as they have really avoided joining alliances to-date.
Will be really interesting to see what all they announce in a few weeks. Regardless of its Star Alliance or just a partnership, there will be some big news that will surprise people. If you’re hosting an event with Kirby and Clark you know it’ll be a big announcement.
EK will not join Star Alliance, at least not while Tim Clark is at the helm. He has voiced his desire that EK partner with a major network carrier in the USA, but not join an alliance.
On the one hand, Sir Tim Clark is pretty focused and rarely deviates from the plan. On the other hand there are new realities in commercial aviation that might eventually loosen his stance on an alliance.
1. Aircraft manufacturing delays. God knows when they will get the new 777’s now.
2 Qatar and Oman now One World may force him to rethink things.
3. Pilot shortages. With Regional airlines increasing pay worldwide it will be harder to lure pilots from these carriers to Dubai like before to manage attrition and growth.
4. Reduced capacity and flight restrictions at major airports since Covid.
5. Covid, Russia, and all the unknowns going forward.
I just have this feeling that given all of these headwinds facing EK that joining an alliance, while previously not an option, may now be on the table for Clark.
As well, I think at this point Etihad will have no choice but to fully join an alliance or risk becoming a backwater airline like Gulf. We could very well see an announcement regarding SkyTeam.
Sky Team is always the alliance airlines come to as a last resort and when in desperation haha.
Good old Sky Team!
IAD is important for EK. Note that DXB-IAD-DXB was the only consistent US route where EK offered the game changer business and first class product (not even on DXB-JFK-DXB on a consistent basis). I recently flew on IAD-DXB-IAD route on the 380. It was packed on both first and business class cabins. UA will complement EK’s morning departure with its own evening departure from IAD, maximizing connection opportunities.
What AC type do you expect UA to use?
While they don’t currently have any 787-9s operating to and from Dulles, they soon will have to for Cape Town, so that’s what I’m expecting, but could also use a 777.