Tier Points - VS & Partner shown separately

[Pete]

This may have been discussed and escaped my attention, but I note when I log into my Flying Club account over at VAA now, it shows my tier point balance in two lines 'Total Tier Points earned within Current Membership Year' & 'Total VS Tier Points earned within Current Membership Year' - now mine just happen to be the same at the moment, but I assume if I'd racked up some on bmi, etc, it would show those separately and therefore is leading me to believe they may be planning to change the way they reward/handle/recognise those who have earnt their points mostly on VS metal.

[RichardMannion]

Ahem, that relates to the secret club....

[preiffer]

It's been there for a while Pete - not sure how long, maybe a month or two?

Since September ... [:w]

[mcmbenjamin]

Well VS does not want to allied. OR is this leading to a Virgin Alliance. Soon Virgin-branded airlines will fly LHR-HKG-SYD-LAX-LHR or LHR-HKG-SYD-LAX-JFK-LHR; around the world. Wonder if any codeshares, Virgin-branded miles tier, etc are in the works.

Considering that there has been significant speculation surrounding Virgin Atlantic's continued status as a non-allied airline at Heathrow, I wouldn't be surprised that this is some sort of preparation for something anticipated by the airline.

When BMI was sold to Lufthansa (who will now own 80% of the airline, with SAS owning the other 20%, who by the way also are rumoured to want to sell their stake), there was a statement from the CEO of VS, indicating that it would make a lot of sense if VS partnered with LH. Since VS had their eye on BMI for a while (since BMI has the second-largest share of slots at LHR), being able to partner with LH and possibly gaining some more slots at more convenient times would help VS along in expansion.

Would this mean the end of VS as a non-allied carrier? SQ, LH, and BMI, as well as VS's South African partner SAA are part of Star Alliance, so for VS to join that club would open a LOT of possibilities for LHR to become another StarAlliance super hub.

S.

[Scrooge]

Or could we even see VS, SQ and the LH family branch off and form their own alliance ?