What is an Airline Alliance?

Peanut butter and jelly, Jordan and Nike, and hot chocolate with marshmallows…there are some things in life that go better together. This is true for the airline industry as well because of partnerships and airline alliances. 

An airline alliance is when a group of airlines come together to offer reciprocal benefits to one another’s loyal members, as well as share routes and resources to reduce total costs. It makes sense for airlines and customers to form alliances, as it makes the world easier to travel, a win-win situation.

The Benefits of Alliances

The biggest advantage of airline alliances is the ability to connect from one flight on one carrier to another flight on another carrier. For example, someone coming from the U.S. could fly American to Sydney before connecting on Qantas to fly to Perth on one ticket.

This makes traveling around the world easier and allows you to book flights using your preferred airline even if they don’t fly to your destination. It also makes it easier that your bag can be checked through to your destination rather than having to collect your bag and recheck it onto a second airline. 

Additionally, there are shared loyalty benefits for elite members of alliance airline programs. For example, if you have American Airlines’ status, you get free checked bags with British Airways, free seat assignments, priority check-in and possibly even free lounge access, among other benefits. 

It also makes it easier to earn airline elite status since you can earn qualifying elite miles on flights from a partner carrier to the carrier of your choice. Your ANA flight can be credited to United to help you requalify for United status while your British Airways ticket can be credited to American to help you earn American status because of the partnerships of airline alliances. 

The same holds true for earning and burning points and miles. You can earn Delta SkyMiles when flying Air France because of their alliance and you could use the Delta SkyMiles to book a flight on KLM.

The Big 3

There are three main alliances (and some much less notable smaller ones): One World, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam. Just like there are three main legacy carriers in the U.S., each one is a founding member of one of these alliances: American with One World, Delta with SkyTeam, and United with Star Alliance. 

While Star Alliance was the first airline alliance, as well as the biggest with 26 different airline members, different alliances have different benefits depending on where you are trying to fly. For example, Star Alliance has Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss and more, which could be helpful if you are flying to one of their hubs such as Singapore.

Alternatively, if you want to fly to Paris or Amsterdam, flying on an airline associated with SkyTeam could be helpful when booking a ticket on KLM or Air France. The same applies to the SkyTeam alliance between London with British Airways or Madrid with Iberia. 

The Last Point

Airline alliances build flexibility into your travel, and make the sometimes difficult travel experience much more enjoyable by being able to attain elite perks on airlines where t you don’t have elite status. They also make traveling easier by only requiring one ticket without the need to recheck baggage. 

Alliances also benefit the airlines since they encourage loyalty to its partners when flying abroad, bringing reciprocal benefits with the other airlines’ customers when they come the other way. Airline alliances are here to stay as a win-win for businesses and consumers alike.