AC gets a positive return on such agreements, as do the partner carriers. That's the whole rationale of such marketing agreements or alliances. On its own, with the cut throat discounting, AC could not make money flying to India but in partnership with Jet, or LH, which have more capacity and established customer bases, AC can feed passengers onto their flights, make money on its portion from NAmerica to a European gateway. Why are there Alliances? For just this reason. It becomes a win-win for both carriers as they can strengthen routes that are sustainable and not worry about ones that are marginal.