What do airline alliances mean for you?

CNN Travel

The airlines love to tout their participation in one of the "Big Three" airline alliances as being great for consumers. While there are some benefits, the alliances are far from providing a truly seamless experience for travelers. For less frequent fliers, the benefits are slim to none.

If you fly a fair bit, you've certainly heard about the alliances. The largest, Star Alliance, is led by United in the United States with US Airways also participating. American leads oneworld and Delta anchors SkyTeam. What's the point of an alliance? According to Star Alliance, it's to "offer customers worldwide reach and a smooth travel experience."

That sounds pretty fluffy, but the alliances have been somewhat successful in that regard. At a basic level, alliances at least allow members of one frequent flier program to earn and redeem miles on all other partner airlines. If you're an elite member of that program, then you get benefits at all other alliance airlines as well. Unfortunately, the benefits aren't consistent with what you might expect on your home airline.

Someone with a basic level of elite status (premier) on United, for example, will get priority boarding and security along with access to Economy Plus seats with more legroom when flying United. A basic elite member of any other Star Alliance airline, however, gets none of that when flying United. All that person gets is priority standby and waitlisting for flights that are full.

Benefits for higher status levels, including lounge access and priority boarding, line up more closely across airlines, but it's still not perfect. Only United's elites, for example, get access to Economy Plus without charge. Even if you're elite with close partner Lufthansa, you'll still have to pay extra for that premium seat on United.

As we've discussed here before, the biggest benefit of being an elite member with an airline has always been the upgrade. And that's an area where these alliances fall far short. You can use miles to upgrade on some airlines in Star Alliance and SkyTeam, but that's permitted only with full fare tickets, which can run thousands of dollars. A quick search at the airline's website will often come up with cheaper business class tickets. If you're a oneworld flier, then there are no reciprocal upgrades between airlines.