Back in October Richard Branson said that in order for Virgin Atlantic to survive they’d have to join an alliance, and that they were in advanced talks for doing so.
Continue reading: Delta and Virgin Atlantic announce joint venture
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The three Virgin brands aren't tied together because foreign ownership rules prohibit such arrangements. They do all have earning and redemption reciprocity, however, in their FF programs.
Hey Lucky, do you think with the possible program changes that people should redeem their Skymiles now or wait to see what happens? Your best guess at least...
@Seth: bringing together of the Virgin airlines in FF program really happened recently: one would have thought given that they shared the same name, this was a feature from the get-go.
That being said, FF earning/redemption is only really one small component nowadays. I don't agree with Ben's "smaller growth of alliances," and looking at statistical numbers of membership growth, that already proves that wrong. Rather, it's now not specifically looking at alliances, but relying on deep partnerships because codesharing and shared frequent flyer benefits are pretty basic now in the aviation industry. And it makes sense given the size of the alliances: back then, airlines that belonged in an alliance had the upper-edge but as more airlines have those benefits, there needs to be other ways to distinguish the airline.
@ Joe -- My best guess? Burn as soon as you can. There are some great options out there on Alitalia, China Southern, and Virgin Australia, so burn while you can at decent rates.
Seth : LH and UA don't have the same shareholders too, but there's no problem buying a ticket mix and matching their metal. Thats not an excuse for next to no integration.
And if we have Virgin Atlantic miles? I'm guessing we should double down on HHonors points?
According to their website (towards bottom), they have a graphic that states: "announcing a new alliance"...seems pretty lame to me.
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/us/en.html
So we've known for years that Delta will screw anyone, and now they've finally found a Virgin. 😉