Virgin joining Skyteam?

I just got an E-mail from Delta for my Skymiles Statement. It said that you can no longer redeem miles for travel on Virgin but you will be able to earn elite qualifing points now. Could this mean that Virgin my join an Alliance possible skyteam?

[mcmbenjamin]

You can't earn points in your DL acct with VS but can earn points in your VS acct with DL.

VS is not joining any alliance, IMHO

No will never happen. VS since the alliance craze hit the aviation world, like EK, have always said that they will take a 'wait and see' approach to joining an alliance. IE: They wont join one until they have fully evaulated them and made sure its not just a passing fad.

IF they do join an alliance it will be Star- VS are of course 49% owned by SQ who are a major player in Star, so I doubt SQ will let their baby go and join a rival alliance. Couple this with the fact that we have agreements with BMI, Air NZ, SQ, US AIrways (american west), ANA, South African, SAS, Austrain- and you can see that the star alliance is the more likely option

As willd said, VS have many ties to Star Alliance, however they also have big ties with SkyTeam, such as the CO codeshare network out of EWR. I don't see them giving that up to join Star either- in my opinon, we won't see VS join an alliance- at least not anytime in the near future.

[preiffer]

I'd suggest the CO tie is more of a "marraige of convenience" than the ties they have with SQ/*A. If anything were to get dumped, it would be the CO codeshare (if push came to shove...)

Yeh i agree preiffer- the CO deal is a marraige.

CO wanted to get into LHR badly and they only way they could was to codeshare with another carrier- with Bermuda 2 talks all done now this is much less important although CO do still need slots at LHR.

VS at the same time were moving more services to LHR and leaving LGW- for example the shift of LGW to B+S routes with BOS, EWR going to LHR. VS wanted to make sure they had a presence at LGW that wasnt ony b+s so they codeshared with CO.

VS have now firmly established LHR as the business airport and the travellers on VS know this and to an extent dont demand services from LGW anymore.

So as you can see the reasons for the codeshare have pretty much gone now- so if push came to shove it would be bye bye to CO

I wonder about this though, BA and AA are really close and are inching towards a merger, VS might want to keep CO as an American partner if this happens. The CO codeshare is good for me and other CO onepass members though, because we can get VS miles!

[preiffer]

I'm sure it's handy Nick, but I'm struggling to see what VS get out of the deal any more...

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by preiffer
I'm sure it's handy Nick, but I'm struggling to see what VS get out of the deal any more...

Well it give's them access to Co biz pax moving through EWR that want to fly to LHR rather than LGW,other than that no a whole heck of a lot.

If VS are that set on having an american partner to take on AA/BA then I would see it being the new US airways- after all US/HP are in the star alliance which will suit SQ and VS got a much better deal with HP than CO on the west coast although of course prior to the us/hp merger they had no real representation on the east coast.

We also have to take into account Virgin America- if it ever takes to the skies- VS wont really need an 'american partner' at all- which provides VS with more reason to dump CO if they join the star alliance. CO offer VS little now...

But we must rememebr all this is subkect to VS joining Star--i cant see VS announcing that they will for years.

Originally posted by VS-EWR
I wonder about this though, BA and AA are really close and are inching towards a merger, VS might want to keep CO as an American partner if this happens. The CO codeshare is good for me and other CO onepass members though, because we can get VS miles!

Well you guys can fly around the states and get Virgin miles. That would be one advantage. It also introduces US pax to the coolness that is Virgin Atlantic. [oo]

I used to mostly fly Northwest until they put me on a continental flight for a reward. Once I saw how nice the CO domestic first class was, I never left. Also the New York pax are big business.

lol... don't go!! I like my Virgin Upper Class awards! [y]

[mcmbenjamin]

Also remember that DJ is UAs Australian domestic partner, making the Virgin brand a shining Star

Had forgotten about the DJ/UA deal- wasnt it strange how DJ joined up with UA before they joined up with VS- well it always struck me as odd