Some observations from the Asia Pacific: Passages, a frequent flyer alliance between 3 major Asian airlines (SQ, CX and MH) is actually disbanding into their separate components: PPS, Marco Polo and MET (as opposed to the US trend of merging programmes with alliances). Even where there have been recent alliances (eg SQ, Air NZ and Ansett Australia) the frequent flyer programmes have not come together. QF and BA have had an alliance for years ever since BA bought a chunk of QF in the early nineties but their programmes remain essentially independent (even though you are able to earn on redeem points on each other;s programme).