Understanding what airline alliances are and which airlines are in each alliance is a key that unlocks the door to the next level of miles and points earning and usage. The basics of airline alliances aren’t all that difficult to understand, and that knowledge will allow you to use your miles in ways you never thought were possible.
There are three major airline alliances: SkyTeam, Star Alliance and oneworld (oneworld is purposefully spelled like that. Here’s why). These alliances are groups of airlines that make agreements to work with one another to get passengers to more destinations around the world. For example, airline alliances make it easier to go from the U.S. to South Africa on a single ticket, using several different airlines, without having to check in at each city. Imagine having to price out and buy a ticket from your home airport to New York City, then from New York to Frankfurt, and a final ticket from Frankfurt to Johannesburg. Alliances allow airlines to have a global footprint without expanding into areas where it’s not profitable for them to do so.
Not surprisingly, each alliance has one (or more) of the major U.S. airlines as a member. American Airlines and Alaska Airlines are part of oneworld, Delta Airlines is a member of SkyTeam and United Airlines is a Star Alliance member. This is important for using miles and points because besides using your miles on the U.S. airline you earned them from, you can also use those miles to book flights on airlines in the same alliance.
Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Here are the alliances and the member airlines of each:
oneworld
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Finnair
- Iberia
- Japan Airlines
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian
- SriLankan Airlines
SkyTeam
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- Aerolíneas Argentinas
- Aeroméxico
- Air Europa
- Air France
- China Airlines
- China Eastern Airlines
- Czech Airlines
- Delta Airlines
- Garuda Indonesia
- ITA Airways
- Kenya Airways
- KLM
- Korean Air
- Middle East Airlines
- SAS
- Saudia
- TAROM
- Vietnam Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Xiamen Airlines
Star Alliance
- Aegean Airlines
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- All Nippon Airways
- Asiana Airways
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- EgyptAir
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Swiss International Air Lines
- TAP Air Portugal
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
Unless you’re a global mega-traveler, you probably haven’t heard of many of these airlines. However, knowing these alliances and their member airlines will allow you to make those bucket list bookings with your miles. Remember our $25,000 trip that cost less than $1,000? Using miles on alliance member airlines allowed it to happen.
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
Our business class flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Tokyo, Japan, was on Thai Airways. Because both airlines are Star Alliance members, I was able to book this trip using my United Airlines miles.
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This is where it gets fun. Look at all those miles you have in your frequent flyer account. Do you have a bunch of Delta Skymiles? You COULD use them to fly back and forth from Atlanta to Salt Lake City a few times, but wouldn’t it be more fun to fly from New York to Paris on Air France (a SkyTeam member), and take a totally legal picture of the Eiffel Tower? But don’t take an illegal picture of it!
I’m not going to get into all the possibilities of how you can use miles to book trips and believe me, there are many possibilities out there. Just being aware that alliances exist and knowing which airlines are in each one is the first step on a journey of learning how to best use your miles and points.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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