Jet Airways Cuts Ties With Four Star Alliance Airlines

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: December 10, 2021
Published: July 15, 2017

12 comments

Earlier in the week I wrote about how Jet Airways made the decision to cut ties with American as of December 31, 2017. As of that date it will no longer be possible to earn or redeem AAdvantage miles for travel on Jet Airways, which is a real shame.

The motive here seems pretty clear. Delta and Jet Airways introduced an expanded partnership last March, giving travelers more access to the Indian market. Delta’s partnership with Jet Airways is much closer than American’s partnership with Jet Airways is, and there are even rumors of Delta buying a 24% stake in Jet Airways.

Delta-Jet-Airways

So it’s no surprise that Jet Airways cut ties with American, or perhaps more accurately, that Delta ~~forced~~ asked Jet Airways to cut ties with American.

Well, it looks like there are more partnership cuts coming for Jet Airways, and they’re pretty telling. Jet Airways has informed Jet Privilege members that they’re also cutting ties with Austrian, Lufthansa, Swiss, and Turkish. Specifically, here are the dates as of which partnerships are ending:

Austrian — September 30, 2017
Swiss — September 30, 2017
Turkish — October 31, 2017
Lufthansa — December 31, 2017

You can find a full list of Jet Airways’ airline partners here. It’s interesting to see Jet Airways cutting ties with the Lufthansa Group airlines, and also with Turkish. This ultimately isn’t that different than Jet Airways cutting ties with American. Keep in mind that Jet Airways also has expanded cooperation with KLM in Amsterdam, so presumably they’re choosing to pursue that in lieu of continuing their relationship with Lufthansa.

While I don’t think this is imminent, one has to wonder if the end game here is that Jet Airways will eventually SkyTeam. Air India joined Star Alliance a few years ago, and with Jet Airways expanding their cooperation with a couple of SkyTeam carriers, it seems like that’s a possibility, and it could be a win-win.

That being said, there’s also a decent chance it doesn’t happen. Delta has joint ventures with both Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia, yet neither airline belongs to SkyTeam.

Regardless, Jet Airways is in a unique position at the moment — Etihad has a 24% stake in them, and Delta has a successful partnership with them and is potentially also considering an ownership stake. I suspect this will only get more interesting over the coming months.

Jet Airways 737 business class

What do you make of Jet Airways cutting ties with four Star Alliance airlines?

(Tip of the hat to Neeraj)

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Aman Guest

July 16, 2017, 2:12 am

Global alliances are so archaic. These days airiness pursue bilateral relationships. It doesn't make sense why delta is playing "camp." Cathay Pacific partners with Lufthansa on several routes as opposed to Qantas- arch enemy but alliance co-member. Cutting ties with the Lufthansa group will simply remove some high yielding feed from its domestic aircrafts that can easily be accommodated by its competitors namely Air India or Vistara- the latter offers a higher service proposition anyways. KLM, AF and Jets own services to Europe cannot match the capacity offered by the Lufthansa group.

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Srishi Guest

July 16, 2017, 12:23 am

Jet has a very strong pedigree in Indian market with its promoter Naresh Goal having varied travel industry and multiple GSA background, and deep roots in government administration. He is quick to delegate and decide on matters, ably assisted by his wife who has relocated to UK for very good reasons, as the Indian arm of law is getting longer by the day, and may unravel some undesirable history or pedigree. It is no wonder that Jet seems to be quick and proactive moving nimbly from one partnership to another adapting to the ever changing scenario, especially now that there is a move to transfer part or full ownership of Air India to private hands, given the media reports.

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AG Guest

July 15, 2017, 11:47 pm

IMHO, Jet Privilege is one of the least rewarding FF programs, especially post the recent devaluation. Mileage expiry also continues to be a huge problem. Eg. Cathay intra-asia F reward (30,000 avios ) is 72,000 JP Miles!

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Sami Guest

July 15, 2017, 5:31 pm

This is interesting. A few months (or weeks ago when Lufthansa was taking ove some Air Berlin planes) there was lots of info in the german media that Lufthansa was very much cosying up to Jet Airways and was looking to invest in the airline or sth. That was the time when LH and Etihad announced the few codeshares they have. I guess Delta must have been more aggressive than LH. Ofcourse LH would have preferred a JV or sth with Jet than fellow Star member Air India that has been permanently in the red.

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Shead Guest

July 15, 2017, 12:52 pm

Skyteam already controlled great China market (China Airline, China Eastern, China Southern, Xiamen Air). Along with Korean Air, Vitaname and Garuda), it seems Skyteam is going to be the biggest player in fareast market. Well good for skyteam, now they are pretty much the largest player in all markets except LATAM and Oceania (but that's okay because these markets are smaller)

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