Everything you need to know about aviation alliances and the basics of taking advantage of different loyalty programs
If you want to accumulate points and take advantage of frequent flyer programs, you need to fully understand what aviation alliances are and how they work
Star Alliance
SkyTeam
Oneworld
In the introductory guide to the operation of frequent flyer programs. I mentioned the concept of air 'alliances' a couple of times. However, this concept I had left out at that time, since it is very important and deserves to be dealt with separately.
In this article:
Airline alliances had already been discussed here on TFC, if you really have no idea what they are, it is best, before going any further, go and read that post.
In any case, since it doesn't hurt to repeat, we can say. Most airlines belong to one of three alliances Oneworld, SkyTeam or Star Alliance.
Mind you, I said most of the companies, not all of them, for example, most of the low-cost companies do not belong to any alliance, but there are also big companies that are not part of it, such as Emirates and Etihad.
The major European companies, on the other hand, all belong to some alliance, indeed, they practically 'cover' them all.
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AirFrance and Klm in fact are SkyTeam, British and Iberia are OneWorld while Lufthansa is from the Star Alliance group.
ITA Airways is currently Skyteam, as the old Alitalia was, but being in the process of going into business with Lufthansa will most likely move to Star Alliance.
ITA's talk also makes you realize that alliances are not eternal. Although it happens rarely some airline may join the group, leave it, or move to another. Sometimes it's better to check the list on the alliances' sites or the individual airline's, just so you don't make a mistake 🙂
To date in each case the situation is this
OneWorld: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, SriLankan Airlines, Fiji Airways, Oman Air
SkyTeam: Aeroflot (currently suspended), Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeromexico, Air Europa, Air France, China Airlines, China Eastern, Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia, ITA Airways (the above applies), Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia, TAROM, Vietnam Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, XiamenAir
Star Alliance: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, CopaAirlines, Croatia Airlines, EgyptAir, Ethiopian, Eva Air, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Arilines, South Africa Airways, Swiss, TAP Air Portugal, THAI, Turkish Asilines, United.
Benefits for all
Membership in an alliance offers many benefits to both airlines and customers.
The main one, although many people now hardly realize it or take it for granted, applies to all customers, even if they are not enrolled in a frequent flyer program and is The ability for the individual airline to sell its customers even flights that it does not actually make, but which are actually operated by another company in the same alliance.
Which is very, very convenient, even for users, so they can make one reservation, on one site, without having any kind of problem.
To give you an example, if you wanted to go from Bologna to Denver, Colorado, direct flights there are none. In fact, it seems to me there aren't any from Italy at all, and very few from Europe--you'd have to make some stopovers.
Doing the search on your favorite airline's website, I would guess the one of the frequent flyer program you are enrolled in, if alliances did not exist, the likelihood of finding the flight you are interested in would be virtually ZERO.
I did a couple of simulations on that very route. It's possible to do it several ways.
- From Bologna to Amsterdam with KLM. From Amsterdam to the USA with KLM or Delta. From some major US stopover (NEw York, Minneapolis etc) to Denver always with Delta.
- Alternatively you can go to Paris, this time with AirFrance, intercontinental also with AirFrance or Delta, and domestic U.S. flight with Delta. All of this you can book simply as you choose, either on AirFrance's site, KLM's site, or Delta's site. One booking for all flights.
This is because AirFrance and KLM have many European domestic flights to their main hubs, from there intercontinental flights to major U.S. airports depart, and then once there, Delta takes care of it.
The talk of course would be very similar with Lufthansa, British, and any other airline.
Repeat, Without alliances, getting to Denver from Bologna would be very complicated, you would have to find yourself a flight probably to one of the big European hubs and maybe with the same airline another flight to the U.S. and then look for a domestic flight with a U.S. airline, x separate bookings, with the risk of getting the stopover times wrong, having problems in case of delays etc... could be very complicated.
This we say is a win-win, it applies even if you are not enrolled in any frequent flyer program (I wonder why you are not, but that's another matter).
On the other hand, if you are (good!!) enrolled in a frequent flyer program you have additional benefits from alliances.
Firstly, For each flight made with any airline in the same alliance, you will get points on your program. If you are enrolled in AirFrance's flying blue program, no matter if you fly AirFrance, Delta or any other SkyTeam group airline, you will get points on flying blue (of course always indicate your code)
Same if you are a member of Lufthansa's Miles & More, you can fly AirCanada, Turkish Airlines or any other Star Alliance airline and you will get points.
You will get points/reward miles and, if you are interested in obtaining the elite level in the program also status points and qualifying flights.
Please note, in order to obtain the points it doesn't even matter where you booked from, you can book from any site that sells you a flight and by indicating your code when booking or checking in the points will be credited to the program you indicate.
So if you want to do Milan London, it doesn't matter if you book (and pay) on British, Qatar, or American Airlines site or where, just put in your code from a OneWorld program and the points will be recognized.
Basically, to avoid losing points by flying with most airlines, you only need to be enrolled in three frequent flyer programs, one per alliance, and perhaps one from companies that are also partners with american express, so you can possibly convert points also obtained with the credit card.
The other major advantage, for the user is somewhat related to the fact that a single company also 'sells' seats on flights operated by other companies in the same alliance.
I put 'sells' in quotes because it applies whether you pay for the place with cash or if you want to 'pay' for it with points. In fact, you can request award flights using points from a program on virtually all partner airline flights (assuming there is availability). And similar speech applies to using points to request an upgrade.
Great, but-yes I know there's always a but, and in this case it's also a pretty big but that complicates things somewhat.
What we have seen so far is all correct, at least in theory; in practice, however, things are not so simple.
How to accumulate points
As far as getting points in fact, yes, are obtained by flying with all the companies in the alliance, but you may not necessarily get the same points for the same flight operated by different companies. Each program has a section on the points you get from flying with partners, check carefully, sometimes it changes sometimes it doesn't.
The difference is often most noticeable using Programs that credit miles based on the cost of the ticket. In the case of flights with parters for tickets acquired on the partner company's website, not knowing the price, the calculation of points is done according to the class of the flight and its length.
Redeeming an award flight with a partner can also have complications, either because of the number of different points required, because of availability of award seats (usually companies have more availability on flights operated with their own planes) or because, and it happens often, you can't find the flight on the page dedicated to booking award flights and so you have to go through call centers--I recommend call centers of your frequent flyer program, not of the company you want to fly with.
Upgrades as far as possible have an additional 'complication'. The upgrade must be requested from the company that runs your frequent flyer program, simply because otherwise it does not see your points balance, which must of course have the available seat on the flight you are interested in, but more importantly it must be able to see the reservation you have made.
So it doesn't matter what SkyTeam airline you fly with if you are enrolled in AirFrance's program and want to request an upgrade using flying blue program points the reservation (even of the paid part) must be made through AirFrance, otherwise they will never be able to handle the reservation for you and so the upgrade, even if it was a flight operated by Aerolineas Argentinas, must be done ALL through Airfrance, otherwise no upgrade.
Last important advantage, but this concerns only those who have, o want to get status on a program, so we will talk more about that in another time, flying with any airline in the same alliance will get you tier points and qualifying flights, and if you have status you will also get any benefits.
