Yup - LH is good competition for EK on the India - US sector, but EK can't be beat for India - Africa, and connecting in DXB is also significantly shorter for getting from India to Latin America (GRU, GIG, and EZE all being served soon).

For US based passengers who fly a lot to Europe and within the US, the alliances do matter and so 1K/SEN is a much better combination for folks like me, and I will not re-qualify for EK Gold for next year after all the Skywards devaluations/shenanigans.

But, no point complaining much about EK because they don't need my business and will do perfectly fine with their current strategy because of their great location and superior hard product, and the fact that the growth patterns in air traffic point to India/China to Africa/Latin America being a bigger driver of growth than the traditional North American routes.

Not that North America/Europe are not important - but EK has more competition here and so it makes sense for them to try and dominate the India/China to Africa/Latin America routes in the coming years, as opposed to trying to lure US-based 1K's to increase the share of travel with EK.