You’ve probably heard the news by now, Virgin Australia has entered a new codeshare arrangement with Air Canada.
It’s an exciting time for both airlines because it means they get to reach more people through each other’s networks and offer their own guests access to new destinations.
The first stage of the codeshare is scheduled to take off from early next year and Virgin Australia’s Group Executive, John Thomas, believes it’s an opportunity to enhance the airline’s services from Australia and in North America.
So how exactly do travellers benefit from the codeshare?
First, Virgin Australia customers will be able to book travel on Air Canada’s flights from Los Angeles to four Canadian cities – Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal.
When these services are booked, travellers will still be able to earn Velocity Points. The two carriers are also looking at introducing reciprocal frequent flyer redemption benefit on each other’s flights – but this is scheduled to be available a little later in 2017.
For Air Canada passengers travelling on the airline’s daily services from Vancouver to Brisbane and Sydney, the agreement will allow them to fly to other Australian and New Zealand cities via Virgin Australia’s flights to Adelaide, Canberra, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth, Christchurch and Auckland.
They can also travel on Virgin Australia services from Sydney to Brisbane, Sydney to the Gold Coast and Brisbane to Wellington.
Members of Air Canada’s loyalty program Aeroplan will earn Aeroplan Miles when booking these codeshare services.
And in a later phase of the agreement, the codeshare will see Virgin Australia place its code on Air Canada’s direct flights between Brisbane and Sydney to Vancouver.
“We are thrilled to be working closely with a world-class airline in Air Canada to deliver new benefits for our customers, including the planned introduction of direct codeshare flights between Australia and Canada.”
John Thomas, Virgin Australia Group Executive
“Our agreement with Air Canada will provide our frequent flyers with more opportunities to earn – and soon redeem – Velocity Points.
“Canada is also an important inbound tourism market for Australia, with visitors spending AU800 million in 2015 and visitor arrivals increasing by three percent.”
