Remember that whole Delta/US Airways slot swap deal? US Airways gave most of its slots at New York’s La Guardia airport to Delta in exchange for most of Delta’s slots at Washington’s National Airport along with a couple of other considerations. As part of that, Delta had to put 24 slot pairs up to auction for new entrants. That happened last week, and now, we know the winners . . . sort of.

At La Guardia, there were two bundles of 8 slot pairs being auctioned off. That means that two airlines will get the right to operate 8 takeoffs and 8 landings per day at good times. The bidders had to be either new entrants or airlines with very small presences at the airport already. One of the winners has been officially announced . . . WestJet.

That’s right. Those crazy Canucks are swooping in to fly 8 daily trips to La Guardia. It’s not a surprise that WestJet was interested. The rumors were that WestJet’s proposed partnership with Southwest ended over something closely related to La Guardia. See, WestJet wanted to be able to partner with multiple airlines in order to help feed its network. This was important at La Guardia, where Southwest couldn’t add much. Southwest supposedly didn’t want to see WestJet partner with anyone else. The partnership ended so that WestJet would be free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment, er, um, multiple partnerships.

Earlier this year, Delta launched an interline partnership with WestJet. I imagine we might see it get a little cozier now that Delta will have so many flights that could feed WestJet. Someone is going to need to fill those 8 flights, most if not all of which are undoubtedly bound for Toronto.

But what about the other eight? That’s a bit more of a mystery. Though it hasn’t officially been announced, Bloomberg reports that JetBlue won that bid. It also is said to have picked up the 8 slot pairs down at Washington/National as well. That’s a big win for the Blue Crew.

JetBlue’s interest should be no surprise. It already runs just shy of a dozen daily flights out of La Guardia to Ft Lauderdale, Orlando, and West Palm Beach. At National, it has nine with flights to Boston, Ft Lauderdale, and Orlando. This will help the airline expand its reach at those airports with a nice chunk of new slots.

So is anything surprising about this whole thing? You bet. The most surprising thing is that Southwest didn’t win anything. It has a gajillion* dollars in the bank (*rough estimate) and certainly could have outbid anyone if it wanted. It has made serving big cities a priority lately as a way to get its customers wherever they need to go in the US.

Southwest fought its way into La Guardia when it got 8 slot pairs there to start flights to Baltimore and Chicago. It gained more when it acquired AirTran, which has about 20 slot pairs. It acquired its first beachhead at National with AirTran’s 12 slots there. So you would think it would have been hungry for more, and in fact, it has expressed great interest in the past. It just somehow got outbid this time.

So, Southwest fans won’t be thrilled, but JetBlue lovers should be. There will be more JetBlue flights coming soon, assuming the deal gets done. And Canadians can rejoice that they will have another option to get to New York.

Now we just have to wait for all the “i’s” to be dotted and “t’s” crossed. Oh yeah, and we’re still waiting for final governmental approval in a couple areas. But things are starting to shape up nicely.

If you want to follow this closely, head on over to Things in the Sky. Dan Webb is keeping a close eye on this.

[Original photo via Flickr user Bob n Renee/CC 2.0]

In a move that surprised nobody, Southwest told WestJet to take a hike last week after their relationship fell on hard times. It looks like Volaris will now be Southwest’s first modern codeshare partner while they look for other options on how to serve Canada. That’s too bad. Looks like the Canadian Mountie costume I wore to Southwest’s Halloween a couple years back was all for naught.

This little fight became publicly known in late March when new WestJet CEO Gregg Saretsky said he wasn’t happy with how long it was taking for Southwest to get its act in order. Then he went on to say they were talking with Delta about a codeshare, conveniently fitting with Delta’s plan to transfer 5 slots to WestJet at LaGuardia. Uh huh.

Southwest said that WestJet had asked for some material changes to the agreement awhile back and then on Friday, the axe fell. Southwest walked away. So what were those material changes? If I had to guess, I’d say it was related to other partnerships that WestJet wanted (duh). Did they give Southwest blanket exclusivity? I’m sure not, but I’m guessing Southwest wasn’t too happy with them trying to link up with another large domestic US airline. So that’s over.

Now, Southwest says (in a very stilted way) this:

We remain interested in exploring the possibility of one day offering service to Canada if it makes sense for Southwest and for our Customers. That would not rule out future codeshare relationships with Canadian carriers, or flying north of the border ourselves.

Hmm, future codeshare relationships? Well if it’s not WestJet and I can’t imagine Air Canada, that leaves some pretty slim pickings. Air Labrador is probably working on trying to feed Sun Country and its burgeoning Gander hub. Maybe Southwest can connect up with Buffalo Airways in Yellowknife? No, I know. It’ll be Aklak Air in Inuvik. Like I said, the pickings are slim.

At this point, Southwest probably needs to look at whether it’s even worth flying to Canada at all. Without WestJet, I imagine a codeshare opportunity is dead, so it becomes a matter of whether they want to build up a tiny operator in Canada (I doubt it) or start flying there themselves. There aren’t going to be that many cities that are attractive for high frequency service on a 737. I mean, look at Air Canada. They fly 70-80 seaters on a ton of routes to the US and they have all kinds of feed coming from within Canada already. Yes, Southwest can bring feed from the US, but I’m just not convinced it’s worth it.

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Leave it to those wacky Canadians to launch one of the more unique and straightforward frequent flier programs. WestJet has rolled out its Frequent Guest program along with a WestJet Mastercard, and I like the idea even if it’s not the most lucrative program around.

As I said, the program is simple and it’s only targeted at frequent fliers. In other words, “if you fly Air Canada, please stop and fly us.” Once you reach $1,500 in spend on airfare within 12 calendar months of enrollment, you get a $50 credit to use for a future flight. After that, for every $1 you spend on WestJet, you get 2.5 cents to spend on a future flight. Oh sure, there are a couple of tweaks, mostly around WestJet Vacations spend, but otherwise, that’s pretty much the deal. The dollars you earn must be used within five years. The credit card works the same way. You get 1.5 cents back per dollar you spend on regular “stuff” and bonuses for spend on WestJet.

So how do you spend these magical “dollars”? Each dollar is worth one real dollar when you spend on WestJet. Well, not one “real” dollar. It’s actually one Canadian Dollar, but close enough. So it’s effectively like a cashback card but instead of cash, you get a bank of dollars to spend toward travel on WestJet.

On top of that, you also get a bonus for every $1,500 you spend. When you spend $4,500 a year ($3,000 for this year only), you get a free companion ticket to be used within Canada along with a few advance seat selection vouchers (everyone else pays) and a couple lounge passes. Swanky. At $6,000 a year, you get a companion ticket for international travel along with more free seat selections and lounge passes. You also get some bonus bucks at each level along the way.

So is this a great deal for travelers? If you’re an infrequent flier, no. It’s worthless to you, because if you don’t spend $1,500 a year, you get nothing. But those are people who are more than likely shopping on price anyway. This is a fight for the lucrative business traveler.

But even if you are a business traveler, whether or not it’s better than Air Canada’s program is highly dependent upon what you’re doing. If you fly from Vancouver to Montreal, you’ll earn about 4,600 miles roundtrip. Six of those and you get a free trip domestically, if you can find availability. On WestJet, let’s say the price is $500 per roundtrip. Six of those and you get $105 to use on a future flight, any flight you want. If you spend more, you earn more, of course. So we’re really comparing apples and oranges.

The reality is that this is a nice, if small, bonus to keep those fliers that really wanted to get some sort of recognition flying with WestJet. It’s not the most lucrative program, but it’s simple and straightforward, and that’s something we’re lacking in this industry all too often.

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