Originally Posted by
dark_phoenix
But we're behaving as if SK didn't already have some form of this. No, they weren't allowed into the TATL agreement in *A, but as part of a network, they had decent pricing, the network was relatively attractive, and there good frequency.
No one here really articulates how getting into the Sky Team JV increases the value to SK passengers. What we are mostly hearing is that SK will potentially be able to charge more to a market that is already price sensitive. So actually the hard and soft product do matter, because how will you motivate people paying more for the same service with only the alliance being different?
*A membership doesn't help carriers like LO/TP/SK at all. Feeders to their hub by the *A partners has to be paid for at contracted rates. The longhaul leg has to be on SAS metal, they can't sell *A alternatives. So SAS can really only sell tickets to their US gateways. There the frequency matters. A business trip to/from a destination that only has SAS flights on a certain week day or longhaul flights that don't align with a feeder flight cannot be sold or requires significant discounts of 20-30%.