Now that Sky Team may lose Delta, it will be pretty slim pickings for the alliance. We are desperately in need of a South American partner and an Asian one with a more convenient hub than KAL. It would be nice to fly to Australia without going the wrong way to Seoul from the US. Anyone hear rumors of additions or improvements to the alliance?

If you read the threads about the "new" Delta, the informed consensus is that there is *no way* the "new" Delta will be in *A. Delta's not leaving SkyTeam, enlarged or not.

There's a SkyTeam forum, you know. Maybe this post would have been more appropriate there.

I considered posting in the Sky Team forum but then again, we are CO flyers 1st and Sky Team 2nd....I'm not convinced that USAir will not consume Delta's FF program as they did with America West, thus my concern.

It's not that simple. First of all, I don't see why you think you need to be "convinced" that USAir will or will not "consume" Skymiles. US is BUYING DELTA from Delta's creditors, of course it's going to "consume" Skymiles. Second of all, United holds all the cards on whether US stays in Star Alliance. There's no way that UA allows the "new" DL into *A. No way UA cedes the east coast within the Alliance to the new DL, especially as they try to build up IAD.

Even though we're Continental flyers first, I don't see a Continental-specific angle to this thread. Continental angles to the merger, alliance implications included, are already being discussed in the merger thread. All I said in the first place was: if you want to talk about SkyTeam changes, there's a Skyteam forum. If you want to talk about the merger, there's a CO-specific merger thread.

Regardless of what happens with US/DL, and whoever else for that matter, do these alliances really make for that much of a difference on CO?

To me, as long as there's some type of reciprocal perks for specific carriers, regardless of which speicifc alliance they belong to, the concept of SkyTeam and others really baffles me. There's so many restrictions and differences between the SkyTeam members (just take a look at the CO reward chart or the lounge policy(s)) that to me being in one alliance or another really makes no difference.

Indeed, CO's long and thin service definitely minimizes the need for an alliance with hub connections.

No need to do the ICN route, and KE. Think Guam.

Take CO or DL or NW to NRT, then CO to Guam and on to Cairns.

Or if you like 5 take-offs and landings in a day, go to HNL, then CO Micronesia along through Majuro etc etc to Guam, and down to Cairns.

Last I checked, Delta did not fly to Australia. I suspect that our best chance for service down under is via HNL, IAH or LAX.
I have this sneaking suspicion that a merged US/DL might not be allowed to have a bilateral relationship with any other US airline, precluding it from a global alliance. It will be tough enough for either combination to pass the anti-trust folks.

SkyTeam
DL/US/NW/CO/AS

Star
UA/DL/US

OneWorld (highly unlikely regardless)
AA/DL/US

Now...if CO or NW were to switch sides, all bets are off. In my humble opinion for us CO flyers the best case scenario would be for CO to join Star without merging with UA. Would solve many strategic problems for CO including LHR, Asia, a better west coast feed to CO Mike, etc. without the problem of combining two different cultures.

I disagree. The alliances really open up many more options for travel, anywhere. While there are indeed nuances (like the lounge policy as you mention), having more carriers and routes on which to earn and redeem miles is always a plus.

And aside from the revenue the alliance brings in, from an administrative angle, I'm sure it's also easier on the carrier to setup and manage one agreement with an alliance than with a dozen or so independent carriers. I'm not sure how these things are done, but I'm sure there's some sort of standardized cost structure when entering an alliance (e.g., carriers crediting CO miles have to pay CO $X per mile; and carriers redeeming on CO have to pay CO $Y per mile and vice versa) that all alliance members have to agree to.

Skyteam will eat malaysian. And then we'll have aussie service marginally more convenient than ICN..