Originally Posted by
MKE 1K
Needless to say in this day and age, it would be very hard for Republic to try and go it alone without some sort of a tie up that gave YX fliers international routes -either to earn or redeem miles. Granted, that has not been talked about but it has some serious implications.
The discounters...Southwest, AirTran, JetBlue, Spirit...have very limited or no large international partners. However this is something which Midwest had as an advantage over them.
Separate from the large partnerships with NW/DL and AA, Midwest has over the years had FF ties with airlines like SAS, Virgin Atlantic, Swissair, Air Jamaica and a few others. This sort of thing could happen without entering a big-airline program or entering one of the alliances. But having a few assorted foreign carrier tie-ins is nowhere near as good as reciprocity with a large US domesitc+international carrier.