DrRodneyMcKay

Forgive me for the potentially inane question, but I've always been confused by the fact that there are multiple "Virgin" airlines, apparently all owned and operated by the same person/company (Although Virgin America was acquired by Alaska, I believe?) Each also appear to have their own mileage rewards program.

Could someone explain to me why? That is, why have three separate airlines for different parts of the globe, yet all with the same/practically same name? If you're going for loyalty, is this not just going to confuse people? (it confuses me) Can you book, say, Virgin Atlantic with Virgin America miles? If not, why operate three different mileage programs?

I recently booked a ticket to the UK via Delta, and I've ended up on a Virgin Atlantic flight due to their codeshare agreement, so I'm wondering whether there's any benefit to me looking into becoming loyal to Virgin in some iteration/Alaska.

Again, apologies for what is probably a completely newbie question. That's what I get for flying the same 3 airlines all the time...

Mwenenzi

They all have separate owners. Branson owns some shares.
They pay all $$ fee to use the Virgin branding.

Generally airlines have to be majority locally owned.
But V Aust (Domestic) is majority foreign owned.
V Aust (International) is a another airline with majority Australian ownership, so it can have long haul flights to the USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Atlantic

www.wheretocredit.com/va
www.wheretocredit.com/vs
www.wheretocredit.com/vx

LondonElite

'Virgin' is simply a brand that supposedly adds some 'hip' cachet to whatever the underlying product is. Those airlines have nothing to do with each other; Branson just gets a licensing fee. There is also Virgin Money, Virgin Radio, Virgin Health, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Rail, Virgin Books, etc etc etc