Airline alliances: what are they good for?

The world has three big airline alliances: Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam. Virgin Atlantic spent 39 years steadfastly outside them all. Yet now the carrier is to join SkyTeam from “early 2023”.

Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive, Shai Weiss, says: “Joining SkyTeam is an important milestone. Our membership will allow us to enhance established relationships with our valued partners at Delta and Air France-KLM, as well as opening up opportunities to collaborate with new airlines.

“It will enable a seamless customer experience, with an expanded network and maximised loyalty benefits.”

Well, allow me to take issue with some of that. I am not sure that there was any obstacle to Virgin Atlantic transferring passengers to or from Aeromexico, Kenya Airways or Vietnam Airlines, to name some of the further-flung members of SkyTeam.

I believe passengers connecting between airlines on a single ticket have a right to, and generally receive, an experience as seamless as possible: check-in for both legs at the start of the journey, baggage checked through to the final destination, etc.

Nor can I see that the network possibilities for those of us who like to fly on Virgin Atlantic will be expanded: you could always combine Sir Richard Branson’s airline with Garuda Indonesia or Saudia (though be warned that Virgin’s generous free alcohol policy is not reciprocated on the latter).

But those “maximised loyalty benefits” are certainly going to materialise for frequent flyers. Aligning the carrier fully with Delta, Air France, etc, means that elite members of Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club will get lounge access, priority check-in and “more opportunities to earn and redeem miles” on other SkyTeam members. This is all about business travellers, or well-heeled leisure passengers.

Schedule analyst Sean Moulton points out that the move makes London Heathrow a hub for both Oneworld and SkyTeam – while more Star Alliance partners serve LHR than any other airport. And he says, “The move has the potential to create a true hub for Manchester – with Air France, KLM and Saudia having the potential to feed Virgin’s US flights from Manchester.”

That opportunity will not affect British passengers (except, possibly, through the extent to which more links are created to meet demand from connecting overseas customers).

So what does Rob Burgess, editor-in-chief of the UK frequent flyer site Head for Points think about it? His joy is not exactly unconfined.

”My wife and I have around one million Virgin points between us, so you’d expect me to be heavily invested in this issue,” he says.

“My initial reaction, however, was ‘meh’. I suspect that 90 per cent of the value I will get from being in SkyTeam already arrived when the existing joint venture between Delta Air Lines, Air France and KLM launched. You can already earn and redeem Virgin points on these three airlines, and get reciprocal status benefits.”

He believes the added benefit of extending Virgin’s links will not make much difference: “There is certainly nothing wrong with airlines such as Korean, XiamenAir, Tarom, Czech, etc, but for the majority of Head for Points readers they are never going to be a key part of their ‘earning’ or ‘burning’ mileage plans.”

More intriguing, Mr Burgess believes, is what the Virgin move may signal about the concept of alliances – something that the two large UAE-based airlines have never bothered with.

“We had all begun to think that alliances were over, and that joint ventures were the way forward. This is certainly what Emirates and Etihad believe.

“Either Virgin Atlantic has smelled something in the air which the rest of us have missed, or it is arriving at the party just as everyone else is heading home. Let’s see.”