A LoyaltyLobby reader from Brazil alerted me about a recent development with the United Airlines and Azul Linhas Aereas partnership.
The airlines signed an interline agreement back in January that merely means that the airlines can issue tickets on each others flights, issue boarding passes and tag bags to final destination. Most of the established airlines have interline agreements in place with each other, even when they are not part of the same alliance.
Now, United and Azul have taken this a step further (likely due to TAM’s leaving of the Star Alliance on March 31, 2014). United MileagePlus members can start earning and redeeming miles on Azul flights from April 1, 2014.
The Azul Linhas Aereas is a Brazilian airline that has its main base at Campinas airport close to Sao Paulo. The airline was founded by David Neeleman back in 2008 after he was ousted from JetBlue, which he also is a founder of.
Neeleman was a co-founder of Morris Air back in the 1980’s that was later sold to Southwest. It must not be a surprised that the word azul means blue in Portuguese. Neeleman was able to start the Brazilian airline due to his dual citizenship.
United currently flies to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos and Rio de Janeiro’s Galeao airports that Azul also servers. This partnership makes it easier and rewarding for those that fly on United to connect Brazilian cities served by Azul.
You can access Azul’s web site here. The English version is very limited in depth. There is no information at this time for Azul’s frequent fliers earning points/miles on United flights, but that must be coming as well.
Azul’s flights from Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos
Azul’s flights from Rio de Janeiro’s Galeo
Azul’s main Campinas hub
United MileagePlus Azul
The awards on Azul are only available by calling United. They are not available online. You can access United’s web page for this partnership here.
Conclusion
Although the airline now commands a 17% domestic market share in Brazil, I have never flown Azul. The Campinas airport is bit inconvenient if you are in the downtown Sao Paulo, where the Congonhas domestic airport is the most convenient one. In Sao Paulo, I try to avoid Guarulhos at any cost and same goes for Galeo in Rio.
It is interesting that United inked this partnership with Azul because Avianca Brazil is going to become member of Star Alliance at some point, as it is owned by the same investor group as Avianca.
Maybe United needed a stronger partner now and Azul was the best option? Gol, which is now partly owned by both Delta and Air France-KLM, is likely to become a SkyTeam member at some point. TAM that merged with LAN is moving from Star Alliance to Oneworld alliance on March 31, 2014.
If you have time, it is easy to reach Campinas Airport from downtown São Paulo, as Azul has several bus services (free) for their passengers.
When AF bought a stake in Gol, there was a clause that the only European airline that they could codeshare with (other than AF/KLM) is TAP, and I’d expect that there is something similar regarding Delta.
The situation with *A companies is that Avianca Brasil has a weak network, even though GRU is one of their main hubs, but even though Azul has a larger network, they are weak at GRU, so there isn’t any carrier that can effectively replace TAM.
Star Alliance is having bad luck with its Brazilian airline partners. First Varig went under and now TAM leaves for Oneworld.
Azul is the best airline in Brazil so far. There is no midle seats, the seats in economy are gint size leather seats like in business, and there is private tv and also cable tv alive for all passengers . Campinas is the biggest city in the State after São Paulo Capital, and it’s very easy to reach São Paulo downtown, as Azul has their own buses which is Free and takes you to many stops in São Paulo, also many other cities in the state, you just need to show your boarding card. Azul domestic network is huge and the biggest in Brasil comparing to the other airlines. Thanks God that Tam merged to One World, if Azul becomes a Star Alliance member, which I believe it will happens still this year, it will be a such great news! I love Azul. They are a very very good airline.
I have never flown Azul, but I would say that Avianca Brasil (OceanAir) is more likely destined to Star due to its ownership.
Agreed, flown on 4 different Brazilian Airlines ( GOL, Avianca, Azul, Latam) Azul is my favorite and you can earn Miles and Status Qualifying dollars from United.
I am on United to Azul next week at GRU, arriving from he U.S. Does Azul have a desk to recheck my bag after passport/immigration and customs, in Terminal 3 where United is? And where is Azul in the 4 terminal at GRU now. The maps on line are not up to date.