EK is not forging any alliances right now because it wants to grow and gain marketshare. If you are in an alliance, you have to give up certain markets or marketsegments which in turn stops you from growing. EK likes UA because it complements its coverage to the US. In Germany they have a feeder agreement with DBA to feed the domestic trafffic. SQ and BA are now competitors of EK, so oofering common FF terms would conflict with their policy. QR is going the same way.