American Airlines Has A Code-Share Agreement With Vietnam Airlines?

Intro

I tend to follow aviation quite thoroughly, pretty much 24 hours a day. In addition, I have always been especially intrigued by airline code-share agreements due to how cool it is to see, for example, United having a code-share flight with Malaysian Airlines.

The Details

So, I was booking some flights for Christmas from New York to Hanoi, and found one of the coolest routings I have seen in a while. The flight was on American Airlines from New York (JFK)- Tokyo on a 787-9. Following that, the connecting flight was onboard a Vietnam Airlines A350-900 from Haneda to Hanoi.

American Airlines Code-Shares with Vietnam Airlines

So naturally, I went to Google like one does and dug into some research. The only article mentioning this was from the Vietnamese embassy in the USA. The extract reads as follows:

By code sharing their flights Vietnam Airlines and American Airlines will provide their passengers traveling between points in Viet Nam and the U.S. with the most convenient services, and millions of Vietnamese residing in the U.S and the America will greatly benefit as well. Among other things, Vietnam Airlines and American Airlines will focus their cooperations in the fields of flight operation, maintenance, safety and security.

The new marketing alliance between Vietnam Airlines and American Airlines is a good result of cooperative goodwill and mutual understanding between the two sides. It will also foster greater economic and cultural relations between Vietnam and the United States of America.

Reading that, I am not quite sure what to think. Let me explain further.

My Thoughts

Vietnam Airlines is part of Skyteam, not Oneworld. Delta Airlines, which is also part of Skyteam, offers considerably more flights from across the US to Eastern Asian cities such as Tokyo/Seoul, etc.

Even onboard the A330-900neo

So, I am still quite unsure as to why American Airlines is codesharing with American Airlines on some of these routes. American Airlines only operates in Tokyo from three destinations. These are Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York (recently restarted).

All that being said, I am not complaining in the slightest. As a family member is pushing on to becoming concierge key (potentially), this provides a great offer to gain some loyalty points on the way over to Hanoi for a reasonable price.

Final Thoughts

This is the first article I have seen speaking about the hidden code-share agreement between American Airlines and Vietnam Airlines. On paper, I don't quite understand it, but I am definitely not complaining! The more options, the better!