Originally Posted by
jamesteroh
I thought with Codeshare/alliance flight the other airlines only profited if you booked the travel through the other airlines site and credited the miles to that account (i.e. booking a DTW/CDG flight on Airfrance through Delta.com and crediting skymiles would create revenue for Delta but if I booked directly through AF and credited my flying blue account Delta wouldn't get any revenue).
Regardless Delta would be getting more revenue if I booked on Delta metal instead of a partners metal. But I'm not doing it to punish DL in the DTW/LHR business class case. I'm doing it more to reward myself since Virgin has a better product than Delta on that flight. In the past I always booked on DL metal because if it was personal travel I could use a GU and if it was business travel, even though it wasn't coming out of my own pocket, I was getting the MQM's to help keep me at Diamond. If I don't need the MQMs I'm going to book on the airline with the best product as long as the price is similar.
Joint Ventures are not the same as alliances. Delta and AF/KLM, and Delta and Virgin Atlantic, (and soon, Virgin Atlantic and AF/KLM!) have Joint Ventures on transatlantic flights. I don’t know the exact details (not sure it’s public) but they do some degree of joint planning and pooling money over routes they fly from the USA to Europe (and back). That’s why you’ll see some routes where Delta pulls out and Virgin takes over all their slots, or airports where all the groundside operations for one of those airlines are handled by employees of the other.