Originally Posted by ANDREWCX
I doubt that Virgin Blue will share Virgin Atlantic's FF program. More likely, the Virgin Atlantic reference related to a code share relationship like the one already in place between Virgin Blue and United.
Other reasons I think it is unlikely:
*Virgin Atlantic's program is geared for long distance sectors, Virgin Blues would need to be related to short segments.
*Ownership - the companies do not have the same ownership. Virgin Atlantic is half owned by Singapore Air, while Virgin Blue is half owned by Virgin Atlantic - this would require Virgin Blue to buy miles from Virgin Atlantic and then Virgin Atlantic to buy seats from Virgin Blue - lots of overhead and potential liability.
*Virgin Atlantic's program is geared to be competitive with UK and US programs while Virgin Blue's Program needs only to be competitive with Qantas and Air New Zealand.
*Virgin Blue likes to portray itself as an innovator and frankly there is nothing innovative about Virgin Atlantic's FF prog.
That all said it would be nice if there had been a unified FF program for some time for Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Express, Virgin Blue, Pacific Blue, Virgin Nigeria etc and it would be nice if they created a merged program going forward (or better yet drop the plethora of brands and just have a unified Virgin Airlines brand covering them all) but I won't hold my breath (ownership is probably the biggest issue).
Hope this is not the case
I am holding out hope simply because everything I read says that Mr.Branson wants to fly more planes in and out of LHR,Hong Kong and Sydney and other major destinations.
Putting every thing under one umbrella makes perfect sense and creates less brand confusion.It also gives the opportunity for Virgin to compete as one global brand.
Rather then the current split the divisions and regional brands up.
By not merging they give giant Alliances like Star and One World a better platform to keep market share.IMO this would let Virgin go after more of the fully engaged One World/Star Crowd (self Included)
I would throw my elite status out the window not to deal with Qantas at all and their anti customer policies.
And that is saying it politely.