American Airlines and Starlux Launch a Codeshare Linking the U.S. West Coast With Taiwan

American Airlines and Taiwan's Starlux Airlines have announced a codeshare partnership that upgrades an existing interline agreement, with the codeshare taking effect for travel starting September 30. Under the arrangement, American places its code on Starlux flights between Taipei and U.S. West Coast cities, including Los Angeles, Ontario, San Francisco and Seattle. A Phoenix route is expected to be added later, pending regulatory approval.

The deal also works in the other direction. Schedule filings reported by AeroRoutes show Starlux-coded flights operated by American from Los Angeles to a list of domestic cities including Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York JFK, Orlando and Philadelphia. Starlux had not yet filed its own codeshare schedules at the time of that report, so the exact domestic list may change.

For passengers, the practical benefit is smoother connections: one ticket, through-checked bags and the ability to book a Taiwan itinerary on American's website. AAdvantage members can earn miles and loyalty points when they fly a codeshare itinerary operated by Starlux. American's announcement says redeeming miles on Starlux is a future step with no set timeline, and travel blogs noted that premium award seats are already scarce.

The partnership gives American another route into Asia, while Starlux gains connecting traffic from American's large domestic network.

Reporting based on American Airlines' announcement and coverage from PointsCrowd, AeroRoutes and Airlinegeeks.