Hi All,

I'm pretty new to all this airline chatter and wonder if anyone can explain to me what makes a "strong alliance" from the airline's point of view - rather than the traveller's. I had thought it was a combination between combined purchasing power of the alliance and the streamling of timetables etc to co-ordinate more efficiently and allow each airline to feed off the other over a global network. In this fact I had thought that OW was great in the sense that it has a good geographical spread (with a few exceptions), but not crowded so that each airline would have max benefit of other alliance members in its region.
But now with *A aiming for a membership of 50 I don't know if my thinking is right at all. They already have 8 full European members, 3 regional European members and another 2 European members going through the entry process. And even the possibility of VS joining. AI going through the motions and talk of 9W also joining which would tie up the Indian market. In South America with JJ, TA, AR, AV and CM seemingly heading that route....my theory of not having too many members in an alliance because it would dilute the benefit of referal pax seems not to hold true.
OW will have MX and S7 joining and the possibility of HU, MU and WS (although the latter 2 seem to be embroiled in some tug of war between OW and ST) - will 13 or 15 ailrines be a good or a bad thing against an alliance of 50?
I'm confused - any comments to help me on my way much appreciated!