An airline alliance is a very handy thing for frequent flyers. You are a member of your chosen airline’s programme and earn miles and points when you fly.
When you travel to far flung places, you travel on other airlines in the alliance and still have an opportunity to earn miles and points. Benefits are usually reciprocal in one way or another as well.
Wedded To An Alliance
I confess, I am wedded to my alliance. I am a oneworld boy through and through. Part of the reason is that I joined Qantas Frequent Flyer years ago and they are a member of this alliance.
Through this link, much of my flying is with oneworld carriers. They are familiar, I know what to expect and more importantly my status is recognised no matter who I fly.
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- It’s the oneworld alliance! Look at all the great airlines here!
The goal is to one day fly on all of the oneworld airlines. I will fly on my seventh airline in April – or ninth if you count Malev and Aer Lingus – so there are still many to go.
I am so attached that I rarely consider flying with other airlines. If oneworld is more expensive, I justify it with all the perks I will get instead like miles, lounge access and so on.
How About An Alliance Card?
Frequent Flyer cards already act as de facto alliance cards as you earn on all the airlines, can redeem on many of the airlines and are recognised when flying.
Therefore, is the next step just to have a card that covers the alliance? No more Marco Polo Club at Cathay Pacific or AAdvantage at American Airlines, just a oneworld card. Goodbye KrisFlyer at Singapore Airlines or FlyingBlue for KLM and Air France and hello to your Star Alliance card or SkyTeam Alliance card.
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- Could the future be Star Alliance airlines?
I think it would make a lot of sense to harmonise earning and benefits across an alliance as there are cases where things differ a lot between airlines. One card with one set of rules could be the solution.
Clearly I am not naive enough to think this would be an easy thing to introduce or something that would be introduced but it is something to think about.
Overall Thoughts
As someone who really likes the frequent flyer programme he is in, even I baulk a little at the idea. However, with globalisation becoming more and more prevalent thanks to the communication revolution, things could go this way with loyalty programmes. It certainly is an option and it is not necessarily a bad thing.
What do you think? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via oneworld. Star Alliance image by Dahab777 via Wikimedia Commons.
An interesting concept. I fly mostly oneworld, but have Star Alliance points, as well as Emirates. Wouldn’t it be nice if ALL were combined!
Haha – it would be nice but it would definitely defeat the purpose. Even alliance wide would be a stretch as companies are so precious about their brands (understandably!). We can dream!
If all the airlines in that alliance offered the same premium products, then I can see the benefits of having an alliance card — but I doubt this will happen. In fact, the 3 alliances are quite different from each other (oneworld allows first class lounge access to all top-tier oneworld alliance members yet star alliance and skyteam do not; skyteam allows you to redeem miles to any partners’ business/economy seats but the first class cabin has to be individually negotiated airline to airline, etc.) I used to be solely a skyteam alliance guy (used to fly Continental a lot… Read more »
You’re right on that – product would need to be more closely aligned. It varies quite a lot within alliances with some airlines being better than others. Sometimes notably so. I’d be curious what you think of the difference between Skyteam and Star – are the airlines similar or would one alliance’s airlines be better than the other in your experience? I don’t fly with them so I am not up on the other alliances as I’d like to be. Thanks for the comment!
Yes and no, Although we (I) enjoy collecting frequent flier cards and luggage tags, it would be nice to have an alliance card but depending on the airline one still gets better perks on a specific airline they have status with. Applying that across the board is rough. But who knows?
Yes, I see what you mean, it would be hard to apply all the benefits that all the different airlines offer into one card that satisfies all members. It’s a thought anyway! Thanks for the comment!