Alliance Buzz
 

From the Sunday Times, London:

"British Midland...is drwaing up plans for a European and transatlantic alliance. British Midland is considering United Airlines, Delta and Continental as possible targets. An agreement with any of these would dicatate which European partner was recruited."

"The favoured option is thought to be United and Lufthansa. Such a deal would see a reorganisation of United and Lufthansa's Star Alliance".

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"Last week British Midland said it had applied for licences to servce 10 American destinations from Heathrow".

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"A week after BA postponed its transatlantic alliance with American Airlines, BA is now understood to be looking for another European partner to join its OneWorld Alliance. Top of the list is SwissAir, which recently fell out with its existing partner, Delta, after the American Airline started talking to Air France"

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SwissAir as part of OneWorld sounds pretty good to me! What do you think Rudi?
MF

I don't know how Rudi feels... but it seems like a good fit with SwissAir and the One World program. SwissAir's probably one of the stronger carriers in Europe (even after the flight 1-11 tragedy.)

COuld there be a possiblity that somewhere
down the road B-A and U-A/Lufthansa/Star ALliance talk about combining their programs into one giant One-Star-World-Alliance? Then
that would be a lot of airlines covering everywhere in the globe!

American may regret letting B-A fly away.

And Sir Richard would have to go back selling records at his Virgin Megastores (with some of the rudiest saleshelp I've ever experienced!) CATMAN

First, I meant to say Rudest (Rudi's one of the nicest people I know!) about Sir Richard's record store staff. Yaz decided to do some kitty editing!

Merry Flyer: how is British Midland's service? I'm wondering how well they would do here in the states since I know dozens of Yanks who swear by British if they're going
to England (I tell them if they're going overseas to use B-A if they can't use Lufthansa.)

I really don't think it would be fare to comment on British Midland's (BD) service when they havn't got any long-haul routes yet!

I know it is not like me to be 'fair' but I have had a glass of cider or two too many so there you are.

My experience of BD on domestic and Euro routes is OK. The fleet could do with modernising, but they try very hard, their Diamond class is good value.

I think the fairest thing I could say is that I wish them well.
MF

If British Midland decides to expand, they
should do it slowly, maybe try one or two U-S airports (EWR, one of the D-C airports, etc.)
From your experiences, M-F They might be worth trying out.

Then again most things British are done very
well. (Even the Hard Rock Cafe.)

M-F: I respect your opinions, with or without this famous cider (is it as good as Pepsi?
Or Sam Adams beer?) CATMAN

Cider is a very fine drink indeed, Catman - but nothing else will give you a headache like cider the following day, so make sure you don't overdo it.

If you're ever in the Rep. Ireland, try Bulmers - it's my favourite. And avoid Scrumpy Jack (MF may disagree) - it tastes a little coppery, and produces the worst hangovers!

I flew British Midland once between GLA-LHR and back and they seemed quite good. The service was quick and friendly and the seats comfortable. And all the flight attendants wore hats which seemed to me (as a N. American) as such a throwback to older days of flying and so uncommon these days - but I guess for England women wearing hats is not uncommon - I'll let MF comment

So I also wish British Midland well - I like BA - but any competition that get fares down and does so without completely sacrificing style and service (unlike most US discount airlines) is great with me.

One more thing about BM,

The flight I took (GLA-LHR) was code-shared with just about everybody. The flight was listed (with different flight numbers) as a BM, AC, UA, SK, AA, and a few more (about 8 in total) - I was really surprised how many code-share partners BM has.

Swissair (and the whole Qualiflyer Group) had and still have a close link with Delta. SR was not very pleased about Air France's links with Delta.

I have no concrete knowledge of Delta and/or Swissair breaking their close relationsship (they are still even shareholders across).

The Swissair-Group is an attractiv bride for all big Alliances (one underestimated force of Swissair is their 49% stake in belgian Sabena - and Sabena's strength in the african market and the african market is underrepresented in the existing alliances).