The topic of airline partnerships, or alliances, is one that many travelers overlook. Many fliers don’t even know what these are. In this article, I will dive into the details of these airline partnerships and why it’s important to know how to navigate them for full benefit.
Separately, I’ll provide a real-life case study for why understanding these is so important. I used this knowledge to purchase the cheapest flights I could on a two-week trip to Europe.
FIRST THINGS FIRST, WHAT ARE AIRLINE PARTNERSHIPS?
So what is an airline partnership, even?
In its simplest form, airline partnerships are relationships between airlines that allow benefits to be earned across partners.
If you are a lover of Delta’s Skymiles program, you can still earn miles when flying on one of Delta’s partners, such as Korean Air.
Every travel optimizer should be taking advantage of this benefit.
The consolidation of frequent flier benefits in these partnerships is something that should not be overlooked. Unless you’re a frequent business traveler or super loyal to one airline, you’re likely shopping for flights on price. Why wouldn’t you get credit for all those miles you’re flying on random airlines?
If you are US-based and have a frequent flier account with Delta, United or American, you are eligible to earn miles on their partner flights.
It should be pointed out that starting these accounts is free. So why wouldn’t you earn miles wherever you can?
This approach is brilliant on the airlines’ parts. Delta/United/American gets some money from you since you bought tickets through them, but they pawn you off on one of their partners to actually take the flight.
In other words, it makes little difference to you as the flier. You earn miles while flying on partner flights, assuming you entered your FF information when you made the purchase.
It’s not all rainbows and warm feelings with airline alliances, however. There have been some notable complaints about the system. For instance, some believe it is a sneaky way for the airlines to fix prices and reduce competition.
Regardless of your feelings on the philosophy, airline partnerships are here to stay. And knowing that, it’s best to make sure you understand how to navigate the intricacies of airline alliances.
THE BIG THREE AIRLINE PARTNERSHIPS
There are three major airline partnerships. Each is anchored by one of the three major US airlines.
SkyTeam, anchored by Delta Airlines
- Aeroflot
- Aeorlineas Argentinas
- Aeromexico
- Air Europa
- Air France
- Alitalia
- China Airlines
- China Eastern Airlines
- Czech Airlines
- Garuda Indonesia
- Kenya Airways
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
- Korean Air
- Middle East Airlines
- Saudia
- TAROM
- Vietnam Airlines
- XiamenAir
OneWorld, anchored by American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Finnair
- Iberia Airlines
- Japan Airlines
- LATAM Chile
- LATAM Brasil
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian
- SriLankan Airlines
- S7 Airlines
Star Alliance, anchored by United Airlines
- Air Canada
- Aegean Airlines
- Air China
- All Nippon Airways
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- EgyptAir
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Scandinavian Airlines
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Swiss International Air Lines
- TAP Air Portugal
- Thai Airways International
- Turkish Airlines
As I mentioned before, since it’s free you should have an account with all three. Miles do expire after after 18 months of inactivity on American Airlines.
Miles DO NOT expire on United and Delta, which is an even better reason to open an account with them. Even if you rarely travel with them, there’s no reason not to accumulate miles.
Fun fact: Today, there is only one US airline per alliance. That will all change in 2021! Alaska Airlines will be joining OneWorld alongside American Airlines.
NOTABLE NON-PARTNER AIRLINES
You may have noticed there are several well-known airlines missing from this list. The notable rebels are listed below.
GLOBAL NON-PARTNERING AIRLINES
Emirates, Etihad, Virgin Australia, Virgin Atlantic
REGIONAL NON-PARTNERING AIRLINES
Southwest, JetBlue, Air Asia, Ryanair, EasyJet, WestJet
Many of these standalone airlines do have their own rewards programs, it should be noted. Southwest has a great program that includes the companion pass, for example.
A KEY AIRLINE PARTNERSHIPS MOVE: CODESHARING
A common occurrence between partner airlines is codesharing.
Codesharing is when multiple partner airlines apply a flight code to the same physical flight. They – wait for it – share their code (😏) with the operating airline partner.
This gives airlines more location flexibility. It allows an airline to fly to a location that they don’t normally by associating with one of its global partners.
To continue with my Delta/Korean Air example: you may buy a ticket on Delta.com to Seoul, South Korea.
You’d pay Delta for the ticket and stop by the Delta check-in desk at the airport. But you might get to a connection in LAX and be put on a Korean Air flight.
There will be a Delta code (DLxxx) as well as a Korean Air code (KExxx) for the same actual, physical flight.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR ITINERARY IS CODESHARED
This can create confusion and maybe even short-term panic. You’ve bought a Delta ticket, but why does the gate’s screen say it’s a Korean Air flight?
As in the image above, your confirmation email should indicate any potential codesharing of your flight(s).
You can also make doubly sure by checking the codeshare flights on the screen at the gate’s desk at the airport.
Gate agents usually list the partner airline codes on that list. If you see your ticketed flight number, rest assured that you’re in the right place!
Additionally, by law airlines have to state when a ticket will be operated with a codeshare in effect. So if you make sure to scrutinize the details of your ticket prior to purchase, you’ll see who will actually be operating the flight.
Long story short on codeshare: the company that sells you your ticket may not be the actual company that flies you to your destination. Many flights, especially international ones, are operated by partner airlines.
AIRLINE PARTNERSHIPS CASE STUDY: A FLIGHT FROM MSP TO EUROPE AND BACK
Last summer I took my wife and parents on a two-week trip to Europe. I put the itinerary together from scratch, so flights were a big consideration.
You can read the full Europe post to learn how I approached finding the flights. More relevant to this airline alliance discussion, I purchased an open-jaw ticket on a couple different airlines.
SEARCHING FOR FLIGHTS
Understanding how airline partnerships operated worked to my benefit throughout the planning process for this trip. I used Google Flights, one of my favorite ways to track flights.
After poking around and experimenting with different dates and open-jaw destinations, I found the cheapest and most time-efficient option.
Keep in mind I was buying flights for four of us. So don’t freak out when you see $3,800! Google shows you the total cost when you search for a group. Divide that by four for the actual per-person price we paid. Still more than I’d like to pay for a trip to Europe, but we had some location and date constraints.
You’ll notice in the lower left of that screenshot that the selection looks like it’s on American Airlines. How could you miss the in-your-face patriotism of red, white, and blue PLUS an eagle head?
However, if you read under the flight time, you’ll also see Finnair, Iberia, and British Airways listed.
American Airlines is the airline issuing the tickets, but some of the flight segments are flown by the other airlines listed. When I expanded the flight details this is what I saw:
PURCHASING THE FLIGHTS
To make matters even more complicated, buying through American Airlines wasn’t even the cheapest way to ticket. As you advance through the selections and confirmations on Google Flights, you eventually land on a booking page that looks like this:
Two things jumped out at me on this screen.
First, you’ll see variance in the flight codes depending on which airline actually issues the tickets. If we booked through American, all the flight codes would read as AAxxx.
However, if we booked through British Airways, we’d see flight codes for AA, AY (Finnair’s code prefix, don’t ask me why) and BA.
Second, this felt a bit like a confusing bait and switch. I saw the American Airlines logo throughout the whole process. At this final stage, however, Google indicated that calling British Airways actually gets the cheapest rate.
Booking through American Airlines, from where I stood, would add $400 to the trip! Nah, no thank you.
BRITISH AIRWAYS CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL
So I swallowed my Millennial pride and called the 1-800 British Airways number. I connected with a delightful woman on with a matching British accent. I filled her in on the details of the itinerary I wanted: MSP to Amsterdam, then Venice to MSP.
She replied with a new price. One somewhere between the British Airways $3,931 and the American Airlines $4,351. At this point, I’m both confused and getting annoyed.
I walked her through my search process and explained how Google Flights showed $3,931, remaining calm and polite. As a result, she said she would honor the price I saw.
This was great (and unexpected, to be honest) news. I know airline prices can fluctuate by the minute, so I was ready to accept that as a justification for not giving me the price I saw on Google Flights. But, remaining polite and firm yielded the best outcome.
Separate meticulous tip: be polite to airline customer service. They’re human beings and they want to help. And if you chat them up a bit (authentically 😅) you can usually come out with a positive result.
THE FINAL FLIGHT DETAIL
After a few hours worth of research across a couple of days and a 20-minute phone call, I had the final itinerary.
I bought our tickets through British Airways. However, the only time I saw the British Airways name or brand was in the confirmation emails they sent.
So, tickets from British Airways, but flying three American Airlines and one Finnair segment.
WEIRD, right? That is just one example of the goofiness that comes from navigating airline partnership dynamics.
But just imagine: I could have easily paid $400 more if I had booked directly on the American Airlines website. I wouldn’t have known any better and would have pulled the trigger on it.
At the end of the day, I don’t care who actually flies me there!
AIRFARE PARTNERSHIP TICKETING ADVICE
Even if you don’t use Google Flights who shows you the cheapest ticketer on a platter, you can still increase your chances of finding the cheapest flights by understanding airline partnerships.
If I didn’t have Google to save me here, I still would have followed the same process, but manually. Yes, it would’ve taken more time and effort, which goes against everything a lazy travel idealist like me stands for, but the outcome would’ve been similar.
Separately, an alternative approach would be to search for this itinerary on the American Airlines website. I could’ve navigated deep into the process, just short of clicking “buy.”
The search would’ve shown me which airlines were to be involved, such as Finnair and Iberian Airlines. I would have then gone to those websites and searched for the exact same itinerary.
After that search, it would’ve been a simple game of “cheapest flight wins!”
WRAPPING UP: AIRLINE PARTNERSHIPS
Overall, Airline partnerships are somewhat counterintuitive and complicated. But, if you understand why they exist and what benefits you can reap from understanding them, you can save a LOT on flights.
Airfare is almost always the largest line item on a trip’s budget, so why wouldn’t you capitalize on every chance to save that you can?
By using Google Flights and making one phone call, I saved myself $400. After all, technology is a huge help with navigating the complex world of airline partnerships.
But, I’d remind you that sometimes an old-fashioned phone chat can help push you past the finish line.
I’d recommend that all of you keep these airline partnerships in mind as you purchase international flights. They’re ripe for savings opportunities, you just have to know where and how to look for them!
