Today the world is more accessible than ever. With thousands of airlines operating out of nearly every developed country on the globe, it seems no corner of the earth is left out of reach. But with so many options, most of which are available only in specific regions, coordinating connections and maintaining miles would be a nearly impossible feat of logistics. It’s a good thing the airlines have taken care of this, so we don’t have to.
What Are Airline Alliances?
Airline alliances are exactly what they sound like: groups of major players in the airline industry working together to increase their reach and customer base. For example, instead of a U.S. airline spending the time and resources required to provide enough routes to China in order to be competitive, they might partner with a well-established Chinese airline to provide those services for them. In exchange for coordinating connecting flights with one another and honoring the miles and benefits accrued by each other’s customers, each airline gains the increased traffic provided by passengers of one airline wanting to travel to the other’s region. Symbiosis!
Three major airline alliances have been established globally. In order of passenger volume they are: Star Alliance, Sky Team, and Oneworld. The partnerships of each alliance span every continent and are as follows:
Star Alliance
- Aegean Airlines (Greece)
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- All Nippon Airways (Japan)
- Asiana Airlines (Korea)
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca (Columbia)
- Brussels Airlines (Belgium)
- Copa Airlines (Panama)
- Croatia Airlines
- EgyptAir
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air (Taiwan)
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa (Germany)
- Scandinavian Airlines (Sweden/Denmark/Norway)
- Shenzhen Airlines (China)
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Swiss International Air Lines
- TAP Air Portugal
- Thai Airways International
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
Sky Team
- Aeroflot (Russia)
- Aerolineas Argentinas
- Aeromexico
- Air Europa (Spain)
- Air France
- Alitalia (Italy)
- China Airlines (Taiwan)
- China Eastern Airlines (China)
- Czech Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Garuda Indonesia
- Kenya Airways
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Netherlands)
- Korean Air
- Middle East Airlines (Lebanon)
- Saudia (Saudi Arabia)
- TAROM (Romania)
- Vietnam Airlines
- XiamenAir (China)
Oneworld
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
- Finnair (Finland)
- Iberia Airlines (Spain)
- Japan Airlines
- LATAM Chile
- LATAM Brasil
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas (Australia)
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc (Morocco, membership pending)
- Royal Jordanian (Jordan)
- SriLankan Airlines
- S7 Airlines (Russia)
How Can I Take Advantage of Airline Alliances?
Multiple airlines partnering together to honor one another’s frequent flier benefits means that you, the frequent flier, can accrue miles that you may have otherwise been unable to, and that those miles can be redeemed with an airline other than the one that they were earned with.
Quite simply, all you have to do to take advantage of this system is to travel within one alliance as frequently as possible. Since airlines will by default choose their allies when booking international flights, this makes your job pretty easy; however, it helps to be aware of alliance memberships when purchasing one-way tickets during multi-city trips. If you fly to London with British Airways, cross the English Channel on Air France, and return home on a United flight, you’ll have accrued a small number of miles with all three of the alliances. Had you stuck with one alliance for your entire vacation, all the miles would live under the same roof and you’d be on your way to a free vacation far more quickly.
If you wish to use your miles to travel internationally, being aware of airline alliances is perhaps even more important when flying domestically. If you fly cross-country with Delta and return with United, you haven’t stayed within one alliance, but at least each of the airlines have foreign partnerships that can be taken advantage of. However, many popular U.S. based airlines such as Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, and Frontier Airlines are not part of any alliance at all, rendering all your hard earned miles useless for travel outside the country.
Wander&Wonder 