Delta and AA Can't Come to Deal, So Interlining Ends

Delta and American are no longer cooperating with each other on ticketing, rebookings and baggage transfers. The airlines' previous interlining agreement expired on Tuesday.

The expiration of the deal means that travelers dealing with canceled or disrupted flights on either Delta or American cannot be rebooked on the other carrier. In addition, flight itineraries can no longer be booked with segments on both airlines and the carriers won't transfer baggage from one line to the other.

In a statement posted to the Delta website, spokesman Anthony Black said negotiations over a new agreement broke down because the two airlines couldn't reach compensation terms that addressed the number of passengers that American was sending Delta due to operational disruptions. American, Black said, sent Delta five times as many passengers as Delta sent American.

"At that rate, the industry agreement was no longer mutually beneficial," Black said.

According to DOT data, nearly 84% of Delta flights were on time in 2014, well ahead of the approximately 76% on-time rate achieved by American. Through July of this year, 2.1% of American flights had been canceled compared with just 0.7% of Delta flights.

In an email statement Thursday, an American spokeswoman responded only indirectly to Black's comment.

"While this is a change, it will not affect our commitment to re-accommodate customers during irregular operations," she wrote. "The new American now has the world's largest and best network and our team is doing a great job of running a reliable airline. With nine hubs and gateways and nearly 7,000 daily flights, we have more ability to reroute our customers during operational disruption than any other airline in the world."