Why would you fly SFO/LAX-ORD(VX)-LHR(VS) when you can fly SFO/LAX-LHR on VS? And I seriously doubt VA's flying to ORD- if anything they'd connect Australian pax at LAX.

Now, maybe SRB is planning to expand the UK destinations out of ORD... but really, you'd think you'd want to do that out of SFO, LAX or JFK to maximize feed and O/D (plus UA is much weaker ex-JFK than it is out of ORD, though CO's strength at EWR comes into play). ORD is not a smart place for VX to put in a focus city to feed/receive feed from VS operations.

(I realize that somewhat contradicts my first statement, but the point is that the "hey, we want to fly into the primary international hub for a market, because that's where the cool people fly to" story's already dead now that VX flies to FLL, not MIA. Maybe VX thinks their target market's in Lake County and not on the Southside, but honestly, I cannot figure out the logic of CUN and SJD before ORD/MDW.)