Did you know there are three airline alliances that make up most of the world’s airlines? Today we’re covering those airline alliances and why they’re important to know!

WHAT ARE THE THREE MAIN AIRLINE ALLIANCES?

The main alliances you should know about are Star Alliance, OneWorld, and SkyTeam. Imagine each alliance as its own umbrella. Underneath each of these umbrellas are several airlines that you can book flights with and earn points for. Get the picture?

Here are the airlines associated with each alliance:

Now, not every airline is included in an alliance. The most notable independent airlines include Aer Lingus, Emirates, Etihad Airways, JetBlue, and Southwest Airlines.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT AIRLINE ALLIANCES

Airline alliances typically don’t employ loyalty programs that encompass all their airlines. However you can typically put in your loyalty number with one airline when traveling on a different airline to earn miles for the program you prefer. Keep in mind, points are earned at different rates with different programs. And typically you need to be flying a paid revenue fare to earn points.

Additionally, earning status with one airline will often allow you to have some form of status with the entire airline alliance.

Here’s an example: You might earn United Premier status and as a result, you receive Star Alliance Gold status. This gives you benefits when traveling on Star Alliance partners other than United. Perks may include accessing Star Alliance lounges when applicable during travels, priority boarding, priority baggage, and preferred seats to name a few.

BOOKING FLIGHTS WITH AIRLINE ALLIANCES

This is where flexible currency cards come in handy. Not only do these cards transfer to a multitude of partners, but they give you the ability to use your points for any airline alliance – as long as you know which transfer partners can book which airlines! You can see my top recommended flexible point cards here!

For example, you could find flights to Europe that you want to book on SkyTeam’s website and then transfer points from a flexible currency card to Air France to book those flights. I actually did this just this weekend for our upcoming summer trip!

Take a look at the following two options to book the same Delta flight from JFK to Amsterdam.

The flight listed above will cost 37K Delta Skymiles when booked directly on Delta’s website. You’ll pay about $6 in taxes and fees.

Now lets take a look at booking the same flight with Air France – a partner of Delta via the SkyTeam alliance.

The EXACT same flight is only 23K AirFrance miles when booked via the Air France portal. Now you will pay about $33 in taxes and fees. Keep in mind that taxes and fees vary from airline to airline.

TIPS FOR BOOKING

To find award availability for these sweet spots, I’d first start by searching on the US based carrier’s website. Then you can search on the foreign carrier airline websites.

However, to simplify it even more, you can use an award search tool such as Seats.aero or AwardTool. These search aggregators do the heavy lifting for you. Then you can head to the sites individually to verify availability.

In the screenshot below from Seats.Aero, you’ll notice that both United and Aeroplan show flights from EWR to AMS with a slight difference in points price. Often times the points price is quite different between various airline carriers – as well as the taxes/fees.

WHY DO I EVEN NEED TO BOOK WITH AN AIRLINE ALLIANCE?

So if the price in the example above is so similar, why does the airline alliance even matter?

Good question. Well, you may have more United miles than Air Canada Aeroplan points. Or maybe you want to use your United miles and save the transferrable points that you would need to transfer to Air Canada.

Perhaps Air Canada has a transfer bonus with Chase and you want to take advantage of the transfer bonus.

As you see, there are multiple factors you can consider when choosing which airline to book your flight through!

AIRLINE ALLIANCE SWEET SPOTS

Within the three main alliances, there are a few sweet spots for booking award travel. Typically you have one majorUS based airline in each alliance. That’s a great place to start your award search. But keep in mind that most US based airlines will charge more in points (but less in taxes and fees!) than foreign carriers.

Star Alliance

United Airlines is the US based carrier for Star Alliance. Popular sweet spots include booking flights through Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles.

OneWorld

American Airlines is the US based carrier for OneWorld. Alaska Airlines also just joined OneWorld and has some fantastic award pricing still. Check British Airways Avios as well as Finnair and Iberia for decent award pricing on American Airlines metal.

SkyTeam

Delta Airlines is the US based carrier for SkyTeam. Popular sweet spots include booking flights via Air France/KLM Flying Blue as well as Virgin Atlantic.

CONCLUSION

Airline Alliances are a GAME CHANGER when it comes to searching for flights. I highly recommend earning flexible points that can be transfered to multiple airlines. This will give you the biggest likelihood to be able to book different airlines among various alliances! Be sure to check out my favorites HERE! By knowing which airlines work together, you can turbocharge your availability to book flights on points!

xoxo Amber

Have questions? Chat with me here.

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