The Wall Street Journal today reports the proposed alliances of the major carriers appear to be coming apart.
1. Northwest and Continental have cancelled the planned combination of their FF programs, reciprocal lounge access, and code-sharing. The WSJ reports that Continental's CEO has stated that things will go ahead only if Northwest improves its customer service and the pilots approve code-sharing.
2. AA and USAir have aligned their FF programs and lounge access, but USAir recently stated that approval from the pilots will be not be requested for linking the two carriers flight schedules.
3. Delta and United are still planning linkage of their FF programs effective September 1, but Delta pilots have said they will not approve code-sharing unless they receive a seat on Delta's board. Delta rejected this recently.
I wouldn't be surprised if this time next year these airlines are rolling-back the FF program links.
The American-USAirways alliance is the only one to offer pooling of miles. The other alliances have not announced pooling of miles. The American-USAirways alliance was given a thumbs up by InsideFlyer magazine in this months magazine, although Randy "came out" against the alliances a month ago.
As a primarily United flier I agree that the United-Delta alliances does not seem to offer anything to me. I think that this one could benefit Delta members but be detrimental to United members. I have posted on this in the United thread.
OK, maybe I spoke up too soon about the benefits of pooling. After I spent 3 days finalizing reservations and discussing the mechanics of pooling US and AA miles and transferring in Diners Club points, US finally decided to tell me that pooling is not allowed for partner airlines of either US or AA, and even for each others' flights you can only pool to redeem the awards each offers to the other's program members. For example, you can't pool US and AA miles for a reduced mileage, 2-ticket award on AA (either through the US program or the AA program), because it's not on the list of AA awards offered to US program members.
Oh, well, at least they gave me back my Diners Club points.
Relax, folks, it's not going to be so easy for the hoi polloi to take away your award seats after all.
For one, I will be quite unhappy if the AA/US alliance falls apart. They began allowing the pooling of mileage to redeem awards this week, a great benefit to those of us who accrue mileage on both airlines. With only minimal date juggling, I was able to get 2 business class tickets to Thailand through US Airways on ANA, during the high season no less. It would have taken me considerably longer to accrue enough miles on only one of the lines.
I think a lot of you are missing the advantages these alliances offer. I am a Delta Gold Medallion member for instance. What this offers me is the added convenience of being able to fly non-stop to Denver, Dulles, Chicago, and San Francisco and still get my Delta miles.
If I was a United Permier member, I'd have the added nonstops of Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City, as well as being able to fly to some cities I couldn't even get to before, like Huntsville, AL (and there are others, I just don't know what they are).
The advantages certainly will be greater for those, such as myself, in non-hub airports, but I think these advantages are significant, and I welcome them.
Continental dispels doubts
Airline says alliance with Northwest remains intact despite labor problems
August 24, 1998: 12:11 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Continental Airlines Inc. said Monday it remains committed to its alliance with Northwest Airlines Corp., despite a published report that Northwest's labor problems and a slow-moving regulatory approval process could jeopardize the deal.
In January, Northwest announced it had agreed to buy a controlling stake in Continental. The two airlines also entered a strategic alliance that would include code-sharing, which would allow the carriers to sell tickets on each other's flights, and a crossover of each other's frequent-flyer programs.
Northwest, however, faces a possible strike by pilots Saturday, as well as an imminent battle with machinists. The carrier's service has suffered during the labor dispute as planes have run consistently late, and a prolonged strike could cost the No. 4 airline hundreds of millions of dollars.
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A report in Monday's Wall Street Journal said the airlines have canceled that deal until Northwest settles its labor problems and improves its service.
But Ned Walker, a Continental spokesman, said plans for the alliance remain intact.
"We are as committed as we were in January to that alliance," Walker said. "We feel we have a deal which we intend to honor, with a schedule that makes sense to both sides."
Walker said Continental has judged Northwest's labor problems "short-term in nature."
"Once the labor issues are resolved, we believe Northwest's service will return to their award-winning levels," he said.
I do not want to start an Internet riot, but personally, I would be more than happy if the Delta/United alliance never happens. Personally, I do not want the Delta Flyers having access to United awards. As far as I am concerned, Delta has nothing to offer to United flyers and Delta flyers have everything to gain. (Anyone care for a trip to Salt Lake in a worn out L1011?)
Some observations from the Asia Pacific: Passages, a frequent flyer alliance between 3 major Asian airlines (SQ, CX and MH) is actually disbanding into their separate components: PPS, Marco Polo and MET (as opposed to the US trend of merging programmes with alliances). Even where there have been recent alliances (eg SQ, Air NZ and Ansett Australia) the frequent flyer programmes have not come together. QF and BA have had an alliance for years ever since BA bought a chunk of QF in the early nineties but their programmes remain essentially independent (even though you are able to earn on redeem points on each other;s programme).
Don't hold your breath, but, United might wake up and "align" their program with Delta so as not to have miles that do not expire. (assuming the alliance goes through)
Matt ~ I don't recall who offers more destinations in total off the top of my head, but I do recall that Delta does have more non-United destinations than United has non-Delta destinations.
As I said, the big advantage will be to those folks living in non-hub cities, as they will now have roughly twice as many non-stop destinations and even more connection possibilities, but in all honesty, this will only mean something if they offer code sharing and upgrading, which it doesn't appear is coming any time soon.
News & Finance::
Calyons Neidl upgrades rating on airline stocks, cites steep drop in airlines expect to get a big relative break on energy spending in coming quarters.
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ICPAC Hearing Minutes from November 2, 1998::
We are coming. 11. at this with some real background, to be sure, the OECD, UNCTAD, and so forth, to the airline computer reservation service. All of that
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In other words, the alliances as they were originally announced sounded good ... what we're actually getting seems to be falling quite short.
Well, Chazaz, that'd be REALLY unfair if they made anything SIMPLE. Why should it be any easier to book reward tix after the formation of alliances than it was before (speaking as one who has made AMEX take miles back --after numerous letters -- after a United reservations agent gave me bum information).
Personally, I don't like the idea of the alliances anyway. The frequent flyer mileage programs were created to promote loyalty to one carrier. What is the point of having frequent flyer mileage programs if you can fly a competitor and still get miles on the airline competing with the one you are flying on? Maybe this is the long-term plan to get the airlines out of the mileage game for good?
I have to agree with mpclaw. The United fleet is newer, larger and serves more destinations. I would be really happy if I were Delta medallion, because I'd be getting access to more, mostly better options. Looking at the routes and planes, I doubt if I'll ever get anything at all from Delta (certainly not the carribian access that United so lacks). And having just taken a delta flight ATL-IAD, (after taking a bump off of a United flight -and btw, boy are they being cheap with bump rewards) the service and conveniece of even flying out of the Delta hub just left me appreciating United all the more. The only thing I ever looked forward to at all with this alliance was the possibility of reciprical club rooms and free delta drinks...well, guess what delta just cancelled...yep, free crowne room drinks.
So, I say, (in the Virgin Airways spirit): DL-UA NO WAY!!!
I wouldn't mind flying to SLC (skiing is great) for the Olympics.
Mileage Addict... you make a very interesting
observation about one reason why these
alliances are taking off. I have said I am
not the biggest fan of their program mergers
(Westin and Sheraton too) and one of my first
reactions when these were announced was "In
a few years there will be one or two programs
with so many restrictions it will take a lifetime to get an award."
I wonder if the airlines thought these deals
through, esp. when it comes to their most
important asset... us, the frequent flyer.
CATMAN
In response to MileKing:
Your statement makes a lot of sense. To make matters worse, you'll probably need to reserve that free biz class seat to Europe two years in advance!
chazas provides perhaps the first proof of what many of us discussed on this forum several months ago - that the FF program alliances will lead to more competition for award seats. In this case, someone who did not have enough miles in a single program to claim a free seat was able to do so by pooling his mileage from AA and US. I wonder how many other people are out there in similar mileage situations. Indeed, I don't have enough miles in either program to claim a first class ticket to Asia, but if I pool my miles I do. Things will only get worse as the uninformed start to realize that they can do this too. Ugh!
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Airline alliances - coming apart?