On weekends I will do spotlights on different aspects of the travel industry that you may not know about. Submit your requests for topics in the comments below or at wennecorp.com and I'd be happy to cover them (if I'm knowledgeable enough to write about them!).
P.S. I know it's not a weekend, but alliances are important to understand before you start earning miles!
Today's post is a precursor to the next few posts about mileage programs. In order to understand the full benefit of a particular airline's mileage program, we first must understand the airlines that they partner with.
An airline alliance is just that: a partnership of airlines. If you fly on one, you can earn miles with another. If you have miles with one, you can fly on another. Sometimes they even have reciprocal benefits for their elite members.
How does an alliance work?
I created a fun little graphic to illustrate how an alliance works. This example is from the Star Alliance:
The three alliances (from largest to smallest)
Star Alliance - Wenneker Stamp of Approval
27 airlines
190 countries
1,293 destinations
U.S. members
United Airlines, U.S. Airways (will switch to oneworld after merger with American)
Other key members
Air Canada, Lufthansa
Star Alliance is by far the largest alliance of the three. United miles on their own get you very far because United has an incredible mileage program, but the ability to use their points to also fly all over the world is an added bonus. Also a tip of the hat to U.S. Airways for having the easiest miles to earn. Even though their program isn't fantastic, you can use your miles on United flights or any of the other Star Alliance carriers, so they're still valuable. I give it my stamp of approval because it flies everywhere and the miles are easily earned and burned.
SkyTeam
19 airlines
187 countries
1,000 destinations
U.S. members
Delta, Alaska Airlines (kind of)
Other key members
Air France/KLM
SkyTeam really shines in Europe, having Air France/KLM, Alitalia, Aeroflot (Russia's national airline), Air Europa (Spain), and TAROM (Romania) with it. And Delta itself in North America is a huge airline. That being said, I HATE Delta's mileage program. That's not to say Delta sucks. Delta is actually an incredible airline. But their miles are often worthless within the U.S. We'll get more into that later.
The reason I say Alaska is "kind of" a part of SkyTeam is that, while it is not officially in SkyTeam, it has a partnership with Delta that is basically a mini-alliance. Alaska Airlines is a valuable partner for getting to Hawaii on the cheap, and this alliance shouldn't necessarily be thrown out entirely for that reason.
Oneworld - Wenneker Stamp of Approval
13 airlines
147 countries
766 destinations
U.S. members
American Airlines, Alaska Airlines (kind of)
Other key members
British Airways
This alliance is the little engine that could. American Airlines is a smaller airline in the U.S., but soon enough it will be one with U.S. Airways and will be the largest airline in the world. What I really love about oneworld though is British Airways. I will get into their mileage program later on, but to leave you with a little teaser, British Airways is the cheapest way of flying short-distance in the United States.
Got questions? Feel free to send an email to info@wennecorp.com.
I lurve you :)
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