Carl Woodin views himself as a US Airways passenger even when he's flying on the planes of US Airways' foreign partners: Air Canada, Lufthansa, All Nippon Airways, Thai or Singapore Air.
Woodin, 47, a multimedia producer from Maple Glen, Pa., hasn't crossed the psychological barrier of calling himself a "Star" passenger, though he prefers the pampering he gets on the foreign members of the Star global airline alliance to what he gets on domestic flights on US Airways, also a Star partner.
"Being based in the Philly area, US Airways is the dominant carrier," he says. "I still think of myself as a US Airways passenger."
Paul Mayo, 60, a Maryland-based Middle East sales manager for a maker of high-end voice communications systems, has crossed that barrier. "I fly Star alliance," he says, declaring his allegiance.
Mayo is an elite-level frequent flier at United Airlines, also a Star member. But that's by default, he says. If the Star alliance's foreign members didn't offer him the best options for quality service in reaching his international destinations, Mayo says, he'd be flying another U.S. airline in one of the two other big global alliances: SkyTeam or Oneworld. "I would be a Delta or American flier," he says.
Mayo is among the vanguard of international travelers who are coming to see themselves as loyal to a global alliance of airlines rather than a single carrier. And the way the foreign air travel market is developing, chances are the next generation of global travelers will be even more likely to view themselves as Star customers — or as Oneworld or SkyTeam customers.
The airlines say alliances let globe-trotters such as Woodin and Mayo more easily book flights and get to foreign destinations, because partner airlines act in concert on reservations and schedules. They also argue that alliances result in more stable and less expensive fares for such customers.
Financially troubled airlines also see alliances as a way to compete and make a buck in the $500 billion, 2.3 billion-passenger global travel market.
There are different levels of alliances, but the ones that seem to work the best for passengers and carriers have two critical elements: antitrust immunity and a joint-venture operating structure. Immunity lets airlines talk to each other about which one should fly what route at what time, and what prices they should charge for their jointly offered seats. A joint-venture structure lets them operate in their shared markets as if they are a single airline.
But alliances face critics and potential stumbling blocks. The Justice Department, a vocal minority in Congress and some consumer advocates have expressed concerns about their effect on competition. And the European Commission's competition office is looking into the way that some members of all three global alliances cooperate.
ALLIANCES AND MEMBER AIRLINES
Star: Adria Airways, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Blue1, bmi, Brussels Airlines, Continental, Croatia Airlines, EgyptAir, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore Air, South African Airways, Spanair, Swiss, TAP Portugal, Thai Airlines, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways.
SkyTeam: Aeroflot, Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta, KLM, Korean Air. Associate members:AirEuropa, Kenya Airways.
Oneworld: American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Chile, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas, Royal Jordanian. Pending:S7 Airlines of Russia is scheduled for full membership this year. Oneworld announced this week that Kingfisher Airlines of India will join the alliance in the near future.
Starting and stopping
Alliances as they exist today have evolved after 17 years of trials, debate and squabbling.
Michael E. Levine, who as executive vice president at Northwest Airlines in the 1990s put together the first alliance with KLM, recalls that the rest of the industry originally dismissed their approach.
"We were two airlines that, frankly, didn't matter much to the world on our own," says Levine, now Distinguished Research Scholar and Senior Lecturer at New York University's School of Law.
But what Northwest and KLM created was the concept now known as "metal neutrality," says industry consultant William Swelbar, a research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's International Center for Air Transportation. Immunized joint-venture alliance partners now want to get to where Northwest and KLM were in the 1990s, he says, "to the point where ... it doesn't matter to them which partner's plane you fly on, because they're each going to get the same amount of revenue from you either way."
Northwest and KLM saw their immunized partnership as a chain of separately owned stores selling the same products, Levine says, such as fast-food franchisees operating under the same brand. Commonality, consistency, sharing overhead costs and joint price-setting were critical to the success of the alliance. The more customers understood, trusted and valued the combined brand, the better each franchisee would do financially.
That approach produced eye-popping results that other airlines ultimately couldn't ignore. Travel on routes between Northwest's Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul hubs and KLM's Amsterdam hub exploded even though there's little natural travel, cultural or business demand between the two cities.
KLM merged with Air France in 2004, and Delta acquired Northwest in 2008. But the original Northwest-KLM joint-venture alliance with antitrust immunity is the template for the immunized alliance between Delta and Air France, SkyTeam's co-founders and dominant members.
Ever widening
Since 2003, when the European Commission concluded a six-year investigation into alliances and let the airlines move ahead with joint ventures, the three big immunized alliances have largely operatedin the trans-Atlantic market. Now, they're spreading across the Pacific.
Japan Airlines and U.S. partner American in February requested immunity to form a joint-venture alliance under a tentative new "open skies" agreement initialed by the United States and Japan in December that opens up access to markets. United and its longtime Japanese Star Alliance partner All Nippon Airways have made a similar request for immunity that also includes Continental.
Open skies agreements are a key factor behind the movement toward alliances and what increasingly is a global airline industry. Since signing the first agreement with the Netherlands in December 1992, the U.S. has negotiated deals with nearly 100 nations and the European Union to tear down international travel barriers that had kept tight limits on which carriers could fly into markets.
Although the agreements and immunity grants have been authorized under five U.S. presidents, not everyone in government is a fan of the alliances.
Twice in the last nine months, the antitrust division of the Justice Department, supported by some travel consumer watchdog groups that fear less competition will result in higher fares, has sought to block requests to form immunized joint ventures. In both cases, the Justice Department was overruled by the Transportation Department, which has the final say.
The European Commission's competition arm again is investigating the three big alliances, though last month's reorganization of the commission has put Spaniard Joaquín Almunia in charge of competition oversight. He's viewed by the airline industry as pro-business and someone inclined to favor immunized joint-venture alliances, especially since Spanish airline Iberia is one of the five Oneworld carriers that in February received tentative approval from the Transportation Department for immunized joint-venture status.
Some in Congress, notably Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., also have raised questions about whether alliances are good for travelers. Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, last year pushed through a measure that would end existing immunity grants and force carriers to reapply if they want to continue to have them. That provision hasn't gotten Senate approval, however.
Not the same
Though alliances appear to be the future of global travel and passengers are starting to identify with them, distinct product differences remain. And travelers notice.
Take, for instance, why Woodin, the Pennsylvania-based multimedia producer, prefers flying on foreign members of the Star alliance over their U.S. partners. "When taking Air Canada to Australia, the (first-class seat) pods were more comfortable than some hotel beds," he says. "The food on Thai and Singapore is better than some restaurants."
Frequent flier Saul Klein, CEO of a San Diego software firm, says all airlines and alliances "have their nuances," so dealing with issues such as a seating upgrade or a ticket change "can be a challenge," he says.
Klein says he always stands a great chance of being upgraded to first class on United because he's a 100,000-mile-a-year frequent flier. But on Star alliance partner Air Canada? Not so much. Its own high-mileage fliers get first crack at the upgrade.
Marcelo Almeida, an international sales executive who lives outside Dallas, says some employees at some airlines within the same alliance simply do a better job, regardless of whether the passenger is a frequent flier.
"It's not the alliance partner or whether you are a premium-level passenger that necessarily affects the service you receive," he says. "It's the attitude of the people you encounter. The level of attention and politeness you receive from someone at Japan Airlines ... is greater than what you receive from an employee of, say, British Airways," even though both are Oneworld carriers.
Oneworld Star SkyTeam
Founded 1999 1997 20001
Total revenue2 $98.4 billion $171.2 billion NA
Nations served 142 175 169
Airports served 727 1,077 856
Daily departures 8,387 19,700 13,133
Annual passengers 328.2 million 603.5 million 384.0 million
Airport lounges more than 550 980 more than 415
Fleet3 2,280 3,993 3,140
Employees 295,164 458,817 316,445
1 = Alliance between Northwest, now owned by Delta, KLM began in 1993; 2 = Total revenue is from member carriers' most recently reported fiscal years. Not all carriers operate on a January-December fiscal year; 3 = Fleet totals include those of member airlines, associate member airlines and airlines affiliated with member and associate member airlines.
Sources: Star, SkyTeam, Oneworld
By Dan Reed, USA TODAY - Updated 3/4/2010 7:57 AM
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The 10 best airlines you've never flown
There aren't many airlines nobody has flown — those don't last very long. But quite a few aren't well-known stateside, and others are known only in a small market.
Alaska Airlines
Home base and hubs: Primary hub Seattle-Tacoma
Airport, Seattle; secondary hubs at Portland (Oregon), Los
Angeles, and San
Jose.
Market area: Blankets the West Coast, Alaska to Mexico, plus
Hawaii and 16 important destinations in the Midwest and on the East
Coast.
Alliances and partners: No alliances, but has partnerships with 15
lines, including Air France/KLM,American
Airlines, British
Airways, Cathay
Pacific Airlines, Delta Air Lines,
Emirates, Korean
Air, LAN
Airlines, Qantas, and several smaller lines.
What's special: Bigger than you think: Alaska has outgrown its
regional name and now resembles the late, lamented Western
Airlines. It is the "smallest big line," operating hub-and-spoke
schedules, two classes, and a full-featured frequent-flyer program. It
generally earns good marks in traveler surveys for both performance and cabin
service.
Downside: Very poor frequent-flyer program for leisure
travelers looking to escape the cattle car. Plus, mileage upgrades are limited
to full-fare coach tickets, and scoring low-mileage-level first-class seats is
virtually impossible.
Home base and hubs: Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
Market area: Large Canadian cities from Thunder Bay to
St John's, plus six important business and vacation destinations in the
eastern U.S.
Alliances and partners: None.
What's special: Almost all Porter Airlines flights operate to,
from, and through Toronto's ultrafriendly, close-in lakefront airport on
Toronto Island, just two miles from downtown. Also, its all-coach seating
(34-inch pitch) and cabin service have earned it excellent marks in
international traveler surveys, and it joins JetBlue Airways as
the only North
American lines with four-star Skytrax ratings.
Downside: Porter operates entirely with turboprops—which
many travelers dislike—and it can't provide preclearance for travelers headed
for the U.S., at least not yet.
Allegiant Air
Home base and hubs: No "hubs" in the big-line sense;
bases in Bellingham, Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Las
Vegas, Los Angeles, Mesa/Phoenix, Myrtle Beach,
Oakland, Sanford/Orlando, and St. Petersburg/Clearwater.
Market area: Flies out-and-back from base cities to dozens
of smaller cities and outlying big-city airports throughout the U.S., including
border airports catering to Canadians.
Alliances and partners: None.
What's special: Allegiant provides the only low-fare, nonstop
flights in mainline airplanes from small communities to 10 of the nation's most
important visitor destinations. Although other start-up airlines have copied
its business model, none have succeeded. Allegiant plans to offer similar
service from small Western communities to Hawaii starting later this year or
early next.
Downside: Most routes operate only two or three times a
week, often at inconvenient hours; Allegiant charges fees for almost everything
beyond a seat, and the big online travel agencies and aggregator airfare search
engines do not display its fares and schedules.
Home base and hubs: Istanbul Ataturk Airport.
Market area: Flies nonstop from Chicago, Los Angeles, New
York, Toronto, and Washington, D.C., to Istanbul, with
connections to cities throughout Eastern
Europe, theMiddle
East, Africa, and Asia.
Alliances and partners:Star Alliance, plus a few small regional lines.
What's special: Turkish Airlines earned the "Europe's best
airline" moniker with Skytrax, and the ratings are generally high for all
classes of service. It offers what is reported as a good business class, an
above-average economy class, and an excellent new premium economy (but so far
on only a few planes).
Downside: From North America, Turkish Airlines serves
destinations that are less popular than those to the west of Istanbul.
LAN Airlines
Home base and hubs: Home base, Aeropuerto de Santiago; secondary
hubs at Bogota,Buenos
Aires, Guayaquil, and Lima.
Market area: Flies from Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New
York, and San
Francisco to much of South
America and from South America to Europe and across the South Pacific.
Alliances and partners: Oneworld alliance, plus Alaska, Aeromexico, and
TAM Linhas Aereas.
What's special: One of the two largest South American lines,
it operates as a group of five LAN companies based in Argentina, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru and provides good coverage of western South
America. And (in some planes) it offers a better economy class than the other
giant South American line, TAM.
Downside: None, if schedules and prices are right.
Home base and hubs: Home base and primary hub, Sydney Airport;
secondary hubs at Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth.
Market area: Virgin Australia provides full cover of
Australian domestic routes and flies nonstop from Los Angeles to Brisbane,
Melbourne, and Sydney and from Honolulu to Sydney.
Alliances and partners: No alliance, but partners with Delta, Air New Zealand,
Etihad,Hawaiian
Airlines, Singapore
Airlines, Virgin
America, and Virgin Atlantic.
What's special: Virgin Australia recently combined formerly
separate domestic and transpacific operations and now is eclipsing the fading
star of Qantas in that part of the world. Its international economy product is
fairly good, and it offers good premium-economy and business-class service. And,
as with the rest of the worldwide Virgin group, nobody can beat Sir Richard
Branson's particular brand of airline hype.
Downside: Limited U.S. gateways.
CityJet
Home base and hubs: London City Airport.
Market area: Flies from London City Airport to nearby
destinations in the U.K. and
Europe (as far as Dundee and Florence).
Alliances and partners: CityJet is a subsidiary of Air France-KLM,
thus a member of the SkyTeam alliance and the Air France-KLM Flying Blue
frequent-flyer program.
What's special: The watchword at CityJet is "quick."
Quick airport access, quick check-in and security, quick on-and-off with small
planes, and quick baggage delivery. CityJet operates the largest number of
flights from close-in, user-friendly London City Airport. That field, in
London's developing Docklands area, provides a welcome alternative to the
hassles and crowding at Heathrow and the taxi-unfriendly extreme distances of
Gatwick and Stansted. London's Docklands Light Railway operates directly to the
terminal. In effect, it's London's counterpart to Toronto's lakefront airport.
Downside: One-class economy seating in Avro and Fokker
planes is cramped. Pricing is keyed more to business travelers than to
tourists. Its "CityPlus" isn't a true premium economy; it's mainly a
more flexible fare with seating in front rows.
Icelandair
Home base and hubs: Keflavik International Airport, about 30 miles
from Reykjavik.
Market area: Gateways in Boston, Denver, Halifax, Minneapolis,
New York (JFK), Sanford/Orlando, Seattle-Tacoma, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.,
and services 22 airports in 14 European countries via Keflavik hub
stops/connections. Many routes are seasonal.
Alliances and partners: No alliance; partners with Alaska, Finnair,
JetBlue, and SAS Scandinavian Airlines.
What's special: Icelandair offers no-charge stopovers in
Iceland on North America/Europe through tickets, plus optional hotel and
sightseeing packages. Icelandair (then Loftleidir) originally became important
in the pre-deregulation era when it flew from the U.S. to Luxembourg at fares
that undercut the regulated big-line fares. The line—with its stopover—became
known as the "backpackers' airline" because its low fares attracted
so many wandering young people. Since then, its key appeal is the ability of
passengers on any ticket to visit one of the world's unique and fascinating
destinations for no extra airfare.
Downside: Iceland is an expensive destination;
Icelandair's product is unexceptional.
Home base and hubs: Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (formerly
Chiang Kai-shek Airport), Taipei.
Market area: Flies from Los Angeles, New York, San
Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver to Taipei with connections to
multiple destinations in Asia and Oceania.
Alliances and partners: In the process of joining Star Alliance.
What's special: EVA Airways pioneered the concept of premium
economy, and its version is still one of the best and the one with the least
markup over regular economy. EVA's regular economy is also among the best
across the Pacific, and business class is competitive. For connecting
travelers, EVA's affiliate, Evergreen Hotels, at Taipei operates one of the
world's few full-service, inside-security airport hotels.
Downside: None, if schedules and prices are right.
Asiana Airlines
Home base and hubs: Incheon International Airport, Seoul.
Market area: Flies from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San
Francisco, and Seattle to Seoul, with connections to many destinations
throughout Asia and Oceania.
Alliances and partners: Star Alliance, plus partners Etihad
Airways and Qatar.
What's special: Over the years, big Asian and Middle Eastern airlines—Asiana, Cathay
Pacific, Qatar, and Singapore Airlines, in varying order—dominate top
ratings in worldwide traveler surveys. Although those surveys are heavily
biased toward business class, these lines also score well for economy. We chose
Asiana because it has the best economy product (per Skytrax) of the bunch and
flies to more North American cities than the others. But you won't go wrong
with any of them; all get especially high marks for cabin service.
Downside: None, if the schedules and prices are right.
http://travel.usatoday.com/deals/inside/story/2012-04-12/The-10-best-airlines-youve-never-flown/54178736/1
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