Global airline alliances are so two decades ago. Nowadays we’re seeing these alliances deemphasized, and in the meantime we’re seeing joint ventures and individual strategic cooperations increasing in importance. After all, with how big the global alliances have gotten, there’s only so much that the airlines have in common across the board.
Continue reading: Cathay Pacific & Lufthansa Announce A New Partnership
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Interesting partnership on a lot of fronts ... Singapore serves essentially the same SW Pacific airports that Cathay does, so it seems somebody isn't playing nice here. Similarly, one can connect just about everywhere that Lufthansa flies out of FRA with BA out of LHR or Finnair out of HEL (where Cathay doesn't fly, but presumably could with an A350 or even A330 if access to continental Europe is the goal). Lots of extra-alliance partnerships these days -- seems to be where the world is heading in terms of working with one-off strategic partners for mutual benefit instead of within an alliance.
This looks like a win for LH less so for CX. I imagine the frequent flyer agreement will be based on the codeshare routes. That is, LH will earn miles on CX flights ex-HKG onwards to Australia and NZ, whereas CX will earn a few miles on LH flights intra-Europe.
CX is leaving OW to join *A, especially with the CA's investment in CX.
Now I just stirred the pot by speculating 🙂
Hmmm... the paranoid part of me was suspicious last week of CX leaving One World given the announcement of AA buying a share of CZ even though CAN is just 80-some miles from HKG. I hope it isn't the case
My (Jon's) comment on the AA/CZ thread -
March 23, 2017 at 2:28 pm
It makes me wonder about the future plans of CX in relation to AA and/or Oneworld.
To additionally speculate, I am also concerned this could eventually impact CX's relationship with Alaska given that AS doesn't currently partner with anybody who is in or partners with a Star Alliance carrier.
If you had the chance to create a perfect airline alliance, what would your group of airlines be?
Seems like *A become less favourable for LH nowadays, anyway can't wait to hear SQ response on this :p
CX is gradually getting to the switch over point - they have partnerships with NZ, AC and now LH+LX+OS, not to mention the 20% cross-equity deal with CA.
And if you look at CX's North American network of YVR YYZ SFO LAX ORD JFK EWR BOS, 6 out of 8 of those are Star Alliance hubs.
SQ's A380 flights to/from London are usually filled by passengers booked on SQ, VA, VS, and AC - so I think they should be just fine. I was surprised that LH isn't code-sharing with TG, given that not only are both Star Alliance members, but traffic from both directions are more likely to fill seats if the flight goes via Bangkok, no? I imagine BKK is also cheaper than HKG in terms of costs for the airlines, hence driving down airfares. My question isn't why LH isn't partnering with SQ, but why not do so with TG?
I don't think this is too much of a surprise, given the long cargo relationship between CX and LH.
In fact, LH helped to start CX's cargo services.
Just to mention, Latam Brasil, (JJ)l also have agreements with LH, LX, OS and TK.
According to a German website ( https://reisetopia.de/2017/03/27/lufthansa-geht-partnerschaft-mit-cathay-pacific-ein/) the frequent flyer agreement could go way further... Cathay Pacific seems to be listed as a partner of Miles & More, which you can book awards for through your local service center. Thus, it seems that you will be able to use Lufthansa miles for Cathay flights in the future!
These bespoke partnership/alliance is meant to lock in frequent flyers of the respective airlines to their home programme and limit the arbitrage possibilities of flying within the alliance. Personally I think it is foolish, as people will find the way or, ultimately move to a more flexible frequent flyer programme within the alliance.
What's odd is that Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines launched a joint venture in late 2015. They got approval for it from the Competition Commission of Singapore in December 2016. Has something come off the rails between LH and SIA?
People that are saying CX is leaving for Star....it's not going to happen. Just like when QF formed a deeper relationship with EK and QF was going to leave oneworld.
Meantime, CX just announced more codeshares with AY, a fellow oneworld member.
If I'm a United flyer and I fly on a Lufthansa codeshare with Cathay (which is operated by Cathay), can I still accrue miles to my United program? Thanks.
I suspect CX is also hedging its future due to Brexit, since BA is their primary OW connection within Europe, they might want a larger continental EU partner to prevent the difficulty of transiting.