Originally Posted by
1353513636
Why isn't SkyTeam having this problem? I'm not aware of any fare on any SkyTeam airline that gives STE+ no extra bags, Joon, AF's spinoff, is basically full service AF as far as STE+ benefits are concerned, and they don't have anything like the magnitude of exceptions that *A has.
While I agree with much of your complaint, this assertion that SkyTeam doesn't have a similar issue is just wrong. You mention Joon, but you have left out Transavia, which is KLM subsidiary which is not part of SkyTeam. You mention Air Seoul, but don't mention that Asiana's SkyTeam competitor Korean Air also has a low cost carrier that is not SkyTeam called Jin Air. You fail to mention China United Airlines, a subsidiary of China Eastern that is not in SkyTeam. And to say that a prime reason that they are created is to avoid *A is just patently false. First off, Edelweiss flights that are booked as LX flights are treated as LX flights for all intents and purposes. And Uni air, which you mentioned, was acquired by EVA before Star Alliance even existed. And while I am not as familiar with the business decisions in Asia, although I would suspect the reasoning to be similar, for the European groups like Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and IAG, the primary reason for the subsidiaries is different contracts for cheaper labour.
I wish what you were saying would be true. If only *A were devaluing the membership, then there would at least be alternatives. However, this is merely a trend amongst all of the alliances and the airline industry in general.