[TRAVEL] Update to Airline Alliances (August 2, 2014)

I have written about my airline portfolio and explained that I generally earn the points of at least one airline per alliance. There are several reasons for this diversification.

I never know which airline is going to give me the best price for the ticket that I buy. So regardless of which airline I fly on, I can earn points with one of the partnered airlines for that flight. For example, I earn Delta SkyMiles. If let’s say I wanted to fly to France with Air France, then the points I earn with Air France will be banked into my Delta SkyMiles account. This way, I can consolidate all my points into one airline per alliance.

Another reason is because we never know which program is going to be hit with a devaluation. If, for example, one airline takes a massive devaluation hit, then I can still depend on other airlines. For example, I currently earn British Airways Avios points and American Airlines points, both with Oneworld actually. If let’s say Delta took a massive devaluation hit, then I can shift over to American Airlines for the time being, while I consider another SkyTeam member to earn points with. If American Airlines also takes a hit too, because it is an airline from the same country as Delta, then I can focus on British Airways for the time being.

So even within alliance members, I would consider earning points with more than one airline. Award Wallet is my key to keeping track of all these accounts. Diversification may not be everyone because it does take a little more effort, especially with keeping track on preventing points from expiring, but I do want to prevent myself from being hit too hard by devaluations, so I am more than happy to diversify.

As I’ve often said, the points game is the type of game where the more effort you put it, the more rewarding it can be.

As for Canadians, it could be interesting to see if WestJet can eventually join an alliance. Oneworld would make the most sense because WestJet already has a partnership with American Airlines. Of course WestJet Rewards would have to revamp its program to be more in line with the other members. Such a move would definitely give Aeroplan some much needed competition.

Below are updates to the memberships within three major airline alliances:

Oneworld	SkyTeam	Star Alliance
Air Berlin	Aeroflot	Adria Airways
American Airlines	Aerolíneas Argentinas	Aegean Airlines
•  US Airways	Aeromexico	Air Canada
British Airways	Air Europa	Air China
•  BA CityFlyer	Air France	Air India (added on July 11, 2014)
•  British Airways Limited	Alitalia	Air New Zealand
•  Comair	China Airlines	All Nippon Airways
•  OpenSkies	China Eastern	Asiana Airlines
•  Sun-Air	China Southern	Austrian Airlines
Cathay Pacific	Czech Airlines	Avianca
Dragonair	Delta Air Lines	Avianca Brazil (to be added in 2014)
Finnair	Garuda Indonesia	Brussels Airlines
•  Flybe Nordic	Kenya Airways	Copa Airlines
Iberia	KLM	Croatia Airlines
Japan Airlines	Korean Air	EgyptAir
LAN Airlines	Middle East Airlines	Ethiopian Airlines
•  LAN Argentina	Saudia	EVA Air
•  LAN Ecuador	TAROM	LOT Polish Airlines
•  LAN Express	Vietnam Airlines	Lufthansa
•  LAN Peru	Xiamen Airlines	Scandinavian Airlines
•  LAN Colombia		Shenzhen Airlines
Malaysia Airlines	Possible future members to SkyTeam:	Singapore Airlines
Qantas	Air Madagascar	South African Airways
Qatar Airways	Air Mauritius	SWISS International Air Lines
Royal Jordanian	Gol Transportes Aéreos	TAP Portugal
S7 Airlines	Hunnu Air	Thai Airways International
SriLankan Airlines	Uzbekistan Airways	Turkish Airlines
TAM Airlines	Virgin Atlantic	United Airlines
Possible future members to Oneworld:
TAM Paraguay