Mike FriedmanGuide to Airline Alliances
One of the most important benefits of miles at the Big 3 (American, Delta, United) is the ability to earn and redeem miles through other airlines in their alliances. Simply put, airline alliances are a partnership between two or more carriers, making long-distance travel easier. There are three main alliances: Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam. While two US Airlines can be in the same alliance, the greatest benefits come from domestic and international partnerships.
You need to book a flight from Miami to Munich. Since American Airlines is the largest operator out of Miami, you choose them for your flight. But American doesn’t have a flight to Munich. Rather, it relies on British Airways, its Oneworld partner, to pick up the connection in London. You’ll fly American from Miami (MIA) to London Heathrow (LHR), land at 9:00 am, and then change to a British Airways flight there for the connection to Munich. Here is how the page on American’s website looks. Note that it tells you that the connection is on a different airline but allows you to book the whole thing on its site. This way, you don’t have to search for connecting flights yourself.
Airline Alliances – Earn in One Program from Multiple Airlines
From a mileage perspective, these partnerships are extremely important, because airlines usually allow you to earn miles on a partner’s flight. In this case, the passenger can earn American Airlines (Oneworld Alliance) miles (or British Airways Avios, if you are so inclined) on not only the portion flown on American but also the portion flown on British Airways, thus building your collection of miles on one airline.
Other Benefits – Airline Alliances
The goal for the airline alliances are to make your travel as seamless as possible. In a perfect world, you wouldn’t even know that you are flying a different airline.
Well, the world is rarely perfect, but they have found a way to make the travel experience a little better. In addition to sharing routes, airline alliance members generally share amenities, so if you have benefits on your “home carrier,” you’ll generally get them on the alliance partner, as well. There are always one or two exceptions, but for the most part…
- Checked bags are easy. Outside of customs/immigration requirements, you don’t have to worry about connecting your bags, for instance. The airlines will generally do that themselves.
- Elite benefits. If you have benefits with a particular carrier, such as priority boarding or lounge access, you will usually have it with the alliance partner, as well. You’ll always have a nice place to wait for your next flight!
- Frequent flyer miles will credit wherever you want them within the alliance. For instance, if you are on a Delta flight that codeshares with an Air France flight, you can get your miles on either carrier. In fact, you could credit your miles to any partner in the SkyTeam alliance. At a future date, we will do a post on non-US carrier programs, and why US residents may want to send their miles abroad.
Again, the single goal that the airlines are striving for is a seamless experience, where the only difference to you is the paint on the plane.
What is a Codeshare?
On this flight, the two airlines also have a Codeshare Agreement. The codeshare means that more than one airline are selling seats on a particular flight using different flight numbers. For instance, in the above example, American Airlines is selling you the flight from London to Munich as part of your connection from Miami. For you, that flight is AA 6545, although it is flown by British Airways.
But you’re not the only passenger taking that flight. For instance, if a passenger in London simply wanted to book the London-Munich portion, they’d go to British Airways (Oneworld Alliance) and book the following:
Same Flight – Same Plane – Different Flight Number
Same flight, same plane, but a different flight number, in this case BA 0952. Note the “BA,” since it was booked through British Airways. To further complicate matters, there may be people from all over the world with several different flight numbers, even though it is the exact same flight!
Codeshare Agreements Sound Complicated – They are NOT
Fortunately, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. The flight number represents the original airline that booked the flight and is simply a way to facilitate connecting. For you, it doesn’t matter how many different flight numbers there are; the computer does all the work for you. You simply need to know that your flight is called AA 6545, even though it is actually operated by British Airways. There’s the benefit of the airline alliances: American is delivering a Oneworld Alliance passenger to BA, who picks up where American left off. This allows passengers to make a virtually seamless connection instead of having to find their own way among different airlines.
It works the same way when you redeem miles. Simply choose your destination and the computer will do the tough work for you, finding you the most logical connections.
Related: Guide to Points and Miles – The Basics
Related: POINTS AND MILES – FOUR STEPS TO AIRLINE POINTS
A Win-Win Scenario
The bottom line is this: Airline alliances work well for everyone. For the passengers, it opens up a whole network of cities that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. For the airlines, it means that they can offer those destinations, without having to take on the cost of flying there themselves.
