There are three major airline alliances – Star Alliance, oneworld, and SkyTeam. Each alliance has several member airlines from different regions around the world. These airlines work together to ensure passengers have a smooth travel experience from one side of the world to another – even when flying on multiple airlines. If you hold elite status with one airline in an alliance, some of your benefits carry over when flying all airlines in that alliance.
Non-Elite Alliance-Wide Benefits
There are several alliance-wide benefits that everyone can take advantage of, without having to hold elite status. These benefits are automatically included when purchasing your ticket and apply to all passengers:
- through check-in on all flights
- boarding pass printing for all flights upon initial check-in
- bags tagged to your final destination
- help desk to provide assistance during irregular operations
Note that in some cases some of the above may not be provided – for example, if you have a long layover between different airlines, it is possible that not all of your boarding passes would be issued at your initial check-in airport.
Elite Alliance-Wide Benefits
If you hold elite status with one airline in an alliance, some of your benefits apply on all airlines in that alliance. For example, if you have Star Alliance Gold status with any Star Alliance airline, you are automatically granted all of the following benefits when flying any Star Alliance airline:
- Priority Check-in
- Extra Baggage Allowance (Basic and Light tickets could be excluded)
- Priority Baggage Handling
- Fast Track Security
- Lounge Access (not available on all itineraries)
- Priority Boarding
- Priority Waitlisting and Standby
Note that the airline that you have elite status with could also grant you additional benefits, but those would only apply when flying “your” airline. For example, United Airlines elite members are entitled to complimentary upgrades on some flights and this benefit would be valid for United elites on United flights only – not on any other Star Alliance flight.
Crediting Miles to a Different Frequent Flyer Program
In some cases it makes more sense to credit miles to a partner frequent flyer program rather than to the frequent flyer program of the airline you are flying. This could make sense depending on what ticket you purchase, how miles are awarded, and perhaps if you are chasing elite status with a partner airline.
For example, let’s say you fly with Lufthansa a lot but not enough to reach Gold Status with the airline (which requires 100k status miles). Other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs offer Gold Status starting at 50,000 miles – so you could fly Lufthansa and credit your miles to another Star Alliance program and earn elite status quicker there, and then use the alliance-wide benefits whenever you fly a member airline.
Another reason why you might consider crediting your flights to a partner program is if that program is still awarding miles based on distance flown instead of ticket price. You may receive significantly more miles if you credit to a different program rather than to the program of the airline you are flying. For example, if you are flying United Airlines and you credit your flights to United, you will get redeemable miles based on how much your ticket cost. However, if you credit the same United flight to a partner airline, you may receive miles based on distance flown – which could be significantly more miles.
Reciprocal Benefits on Non-Alliance Airlines
There are several airlines out there that do not belong to a major airline alliance. However, these airlines still most likely have partners that they cooperate with. In cases like these, benefits to flyers are arranged by those airlines directly and a smaller amount of benefits could apply.
For example, United Airlines is in the Star Alliance but their partner Virgin Australia does not belong to any alliance. When a Virgin Australia elite member is booked on a United flight, they may receive some benefits like lounge access and priority boarding. In these cases, all of the alliance-wide benefits may not apply because Virgin Australia is not in Star Alliance but rather has a separate agreement with United on how their partnership works.
All in All
Smart flyers know how to take advantage of an airline alliance to their favour – they may frequently fly one airline, but credit flights to a different program and earn elite status elsewhere. The beauty of airline partnerships is that you could, for example, have a ticket booked using United miles for a flight operated by Lufthansa and access an Air Canada lounge based on your Gold Status with Singapore Airlines.
Remember to do your research about how you can use multiple airlines that are partners to better enhance your travel experience – no matter where in the world you are or how far you fly.