Airlines frequently band together to offer flyers of another airline facilities and benefits they’d usually offer to their own customers. How can you benefit from it?
AJ
Most airlines do not have the wherewithal to reach out to the entire globe and cover all destinations a passenger might want to fly to. That led to the birth of airline alliances, where airlines come to an agreement to cooperate with each other on a substantial level. This means you can fly with your favourite airline and its partners, expecting to get similar treatment from all the airlines in the alliance for frequent flyers. What’s more, as a frequent flyer, you can accrue your miles on one frequent flyerprogramme rather than so many. For the airlines, it means they can offer an extended network, shared offices and airport facilities, and the ability to manage a crisis better, in case there is one. Currently, there are three big alliances that exist in the airlines world, with one of them dominating the airline space.
Star Alliance, the oldest of them all, was formed in 1997 when Lufthansa, Air Canada, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways and United Airlines came together. Since then, the alliance has grown to 25 airlines and covers over 1,200 airports globally. Combined, they fly over 600 million passengers per annum. From India, you can find a Star Alliance flight to most parts of the globe via member carriers Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Thai, United, Swiss, Turkish and South African Airlines, amongst others. Frequent flyers can usually sign up for the frequent flyer programme of one of the member carriers and get the benefits across all the airlines. If you fly enough to be qualifying as Star Alliance Gold, you would get extra baggage, lounge access across the world and other entitlements such as priority boarding and preferred seating. You can find more details about them at www.staralliance.com
Oneworld is perhaps a smaller but a more premium bouquet of airlines than Star Alliance. American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and British Airways got together in 1999 to form this alliance. They fly to over 800 airports around the world with over 300 million passengers annually. From India, you can head around the globe on oneworld, with flights available on British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Finnair. Much like Star Alliance, oneworld frequent flyers get benefits on all the member carriers of the alliance, including first-class lounge access, priority boarding and other entitlements. You can find more details about them at www.oneworld.com
Skyteam, the other big alliance out there, covers over 900 destinations and flies over 450 million passengers every year. Air France, Delta Airlinesand Korean Air got together in 2000 to form this alliance, and they now have KLM, Alitalia and Aeroflot as some of the other prominent members. From India, Delta, Air France, Korean Air and Aeroflot are some of the alliance members that operate flights across the world. At www.skyteam.com, you will find all the details.
Indian airlines have been in talks to join these alliances for a very long time. Air India was supposed to join the Star Alliance in July 2011 but it was not able to come up to speed with membership conditions of the alliance. Kingfisher Airlines was supposed to be joining oneworld as of February 2012 but the precarious financial health of the carrier did not allow them to. Jet Airways has been courted by all the three alliances but Jet hasn’t made up its mind on which alliance to go with yet. However, it seems Star Alliance is in the lead, but they will only get Jet Airways after they let Air India in.
So, the next time you fly, check out the alliance you are flying with and make sure you get the benefits due to you.
AJ writes a travel and aviation focussed blog from India at www.livefromalounge.com. You can follow him at @livefromalounge on Twitter