New Midwest and Northwest codeshare

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

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Midwest is extending its codeshare agreement with Northwest. For travel beginning on January 8, the codeshare agreements will include Northwest’s routes from Indianapolis to Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tampa. The stated benefit is to increase the networks of both carriers and offer passengers more flight options.

But will that benefit outweigh the possible downside? Ben Mutzabaugh over at USA Today notes that the move to forge more connections may increase speculation about just how passive Northwest’s new investor role actually is.

It’s certainly increasing speculation here. Will Midwest be able to hold onto its golden reputation if Northwest, with all of its problems and inefficiencies, gets too involved? Will passengers expecting the service Midwest is known for see their loyalties tested by Northwest-operated flights? We’ll keep you posted on the answers as they come.

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