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Boston-Logan International Airport is proving to be a critical battleground for three major U.S. airlines. In the past few months, Delta Air Lines and the American Airlines/JetBlue partnership have ratcheted up their presence in Boston. American Airlines and JetBlue's partnership has arguably given the two airlines a significant advantage.
However, Delta is not giving up its presence in Boston without a fight. Delta recently announced a new partnership with Cape Air — a small commuter airline with routes throughout the Northeast and the Midwest. Here's what this new partnership means for travelers.
What is Cape Air?
If you're not based out of the Midwest or the Northeast, you're probably not familiar with Cape Air. That's fairly understandable given Cape Air's limited route network. Cape Air is one of the larger airlines that operates a network that consists exclusively of commuter flights.
Cape Air got its start in the Northeast in the late 1980s. The name Cape Air comes from Cape Cod, home to some of the airline's original routes. Now. Cape Air operates routes throughout the United States and the Caribbean. In addition to a robust route network throughout the Northeast, Cape Air maintains a presence in the Caribbean and also operates a number of routes from a base in St. Louis.
Cape Air already offers partnerships on several routes. The commuter airline has partnerships with American Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and United Airlines. However, Cape Air recently added a new airline to its list of partners: Delta Air Lines. Here's what that partnership looks like.
An Overview of Delta and Cape Air's Expanded Partnership
Delta's expanded partnership with Cape Air is limited to select routes. According to Delta:
“SkyMiles Members can earn miles and earn towards Medallion Status on Cape Air flights arriving to/departing from Boston Logan International (BOS) that are purchased in Delta channels (operated and marketed by Cape Air and ticketed by Delta).”
So, what exactly does that mean. Unlike American Airlines and JetBlue Airways' recently expanded partnership, Delta and Cape Air's partnership is quite limited. Only flights that are sold by Delta Air Lines and operated by Cape Air qualify to earn SkyMiles.
How do you know if a flight operated by Cape Air will earn SkyMiles? Here are the flights that will be eligible to earn SkyMiles:
“Cape Air-marketed (flight numbers that include the “9K” airline code) and Delta-ticketed (featuring a ticket number beginning with “006”) flights”
Earning SkyMiles on Cape Air Flights
On those eligible flights, SkyMiles Members will earn miles based on ticket price. You'll earn 5 miles per U.S. Dollar (USD) spent on base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges (but excluding government-imposed taxes and fees).
To celebrate the airline's expanded partnership with Cape Air, Delta Air Lines is offering customers 500 bonus miles. Now through August 31, 2021, passengers that book and fly eligible routes will receive 500 bonus SkyMiles. No registration is required. All you have to do is book a flight and travel by August 31.
It's also worth noting that you can redeem your SkyMiles for travel on flights operated by Cape Air. However, it's not always a great idea to do. Here's one Cape Air flight next month that you can book with SkyMiles:
At 60,000 miles, this short hop from Boston to Hyannis requires around the same amount of miles as a round-trip flight to Europe in economy.
Luckily, 60,000 miles is more of an outlier than the norm. You can book flights operated by Cape Air for as little as 5,000 miles one-way. However, summer fares average around 10,000 miles one-way.
The Bottom Line
It's always great to see a major airline expand its reach by adding new partners. Delta frequent flyers based in the Northeast will benefit from Delta's expanded partnership with Cape Air. Cape Air's northeast network is quite expansive offering hundreds of new flights to SkyMiles frequent flyers. What is quite odd is that this expanded partnership does not apply to Cape Air's Midwest and Caribbean flights. Nevertheless, this expanded partnership is welcome news — and a quick way to earn 500 bonus points.
What do you make of this new partnership? Do you plan on trying to earn the 500 bonus points?
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
As indicated in the article it’s a non-sense asking 60000 miles for a very short flight such as Boston Hyannis.
In the other cases with more modest quantity of miles requested could be more convenient flight to some destinations.
I think Alaska used to partner with Cape Air, and you could flight routes for 7,500 miles what Delta now wants 60,000.
If I have the opportunity to earn the points by flying Cape Air, I certainly will. I find flying on the smaller aircraft very fun and I have had some spectacular flights on small planes while earning points for the mainline companies. Now, if we could only earn points with the Kenmore Air Seaplanes out of Seattle, that would be amazing.
I was excited when you mentioned its St. Louis base, but unfortunately the partnership is limited to Boston-based flights, so I won’t be able to get much, if any, use from it.
Great news. I believe that such partnerships are always positive in the air market and also for customers.
Expanding partnerships with delta are always a step in the right direction for the customer!
It very much looks like a better earning than redemption option.
Nice to see Delta offering more options in the North East.
Cape air ? never heard of it, sounds like a small partnership.
Not surprising, as it’s a commuter airline with just a regional presence. But, if you live in the right location, in this case in the Northeast, it’s not an insignificant partnership.