Timeframe for an Indian carrier to join ST?
 

Hi guys.

Understand that it takes years to join an alliance but wanted to know if any Indian carriers would be joining Skyteam before April next year? If so which ones?

Thinking of doing a tour of India and travel most journeys by plane, obviously would like to collect miles to boost my Flying Blue account.

Read a lot about Jet Airways joining but they seem to be playing the field with the different alliances, which to me makes it unclear which alliance if any they are going to join.

Sorry that I have to be the bearer of bad news.

It is absolutely unlikely that any Indian airline will join Skyteam before April next year. Typically it takes between 6 and 12 months for an airline to really join ST from the point of time that ST officially announces the new member. Also we usually know a couple of months before such an official announcement that a certain airline will join ST in the near future.

Regarding Indian carriers, all we know is that ST is interested in having an Indian carrier in the alliance, and there are some speculations about Jet.
Given this situation, it is quite unlikely that any Indian airline will join Skyteam before, say, October next year.

Nevertheless, welcome to Flyertalk, SeeTheWorld1984!

Many people suspect Jet Airways will eventually join Skyteam, but that surely won't happen by April 2011. Let's hope Skyteam is getting in to serious negotiations that lead to Jet joining sooner than later.

Thanks for the feedback guys and the warm welcome from cityflyer. So if an Indian carrier before April is out the question then If I were to join say Jet Airways frequent flyer program, could I merge those miles with my Flying Blue account if Jet Airways did join Skyteam in the future? What does everyone think in their experience?

You can still credit the miles from your 9W flights to Flying Blue. From their site:

Earning possibilities:

You can earn Miles on all Jet Airways-operated flights with a 9W, AF or KL prefix.

You earn:
First Class: 300% – A, F
Business Class: 150% – C, I, J, P, Z
Economy Class: 100% – M, T, Y
75% - U
50% - L, N, Q
25% - S
http://www.klm.com/travel/nl_en/flyi...e_partners.htm

Re #4: When an airline joins ST, they typically keep their own Frequent Flyer Programme, in which case it will not be possible to merge the account with an FB account. Only smaller airlines sometimes choose to adopt one of the Frequent Flyer Programmes of a large ST member (but this does not mean that this programme is FB!), in which case accounts will be merged. I cannot see any reason why any Indian airline would decide to use FB as their programme. So your strategy of hoping for a merger of accounts is very unlikely to work.

In your case, Supersonic Swinger's suggestion is the only one that makes sense. (But note you won't get level miles, just award miles, and status perks are likely to be restricted.)

Seems like its closer than we all thought....hahah


http://www.abtn.co.uk/news/2614848-a...a-codehare-jet

Even that is a very optimistic timeframe....many ST members have taken two+ years from the announcement to the reality!

An interesting summary of Jet Airways. Any opinions?


http://aerospacediary.blogspot.com/2...eam-as_27.html

Coming upto 4 months since I started this post. Still no mention of any Indian carriers joining Skyteam?!?!

Is this all because the 'great' Air India hasn't got it's act together to join Star Alliance??

I flew Jet from MXP to DEL and then DEL-HYD. I found their level of service to be quite good, I would love to see them in Skyteam.

I agree. They will have wait to see to whether if 9W will eventually to joins SkyTeam. If they are signed the agreements. If they are in negotiations deals from SkyTeam member of boards. Lets hope so for Jet Airways is one step closer to joins the SkyTeam.

Interesting update from Air France regarding an Indian carrier joining Skyteam. I like how it's mentioned that Air France is in talks with several carriers. Hopefully push Jet Airways into joining Skyteam before another one does!

http://www.livemint.com/2011/02/0800....html?atype=tp

New Delhi 26 February 2011: In the centenary year celebration of the Indian aviation sector, Air India is also on the verge of making history. Tonight at the stroke of midnight, Air India would emerge as ONE entity when the two letter codes of the airline would merge. Henceforth all national and international flights (nearly 100) of the company would fly under the AI code, thereby making the IC code history.

"This was much awaited. It is a historic moment. Tonight's migration into AI code strengthens our resolve to emerge as the the country's singular national carrier. I am happy to share that WE ARE ONE," said an elated Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Arvind Jadhav, while appreciating the hard work of Air Indians which contributed to the success of this migration to the state-of-the-art Passenger Service System.

Mr Jadhav said that the migration to a single code AI would bring in a lot of benefits to the passengers and they would be able to enjoy seamless travel all over the world. More so because this migration would also facilitate Air India's entry into Star Alliance - thus giving Air India passengers access to 1160 airports and 181 destinations. He thanked all Air Indians for their contribution to this change while sharing that Air India would shortly launch its Delhi-Melbourne direct flight.

Saying that all AI flights departing after 00.01 hours on 27 February 2011 will be with the new mapped AI flight number, the company spokesperson explained that the migration to the new system began in the early hours today and was completed by the afternoon. During the migration period, Air India had made special arrangements for emergencies with regard to new bookings, changes, frequent flyer redemption, refunds and ticketing.

The spokesperson said that all efforts were made to keep every stake-holder in the loop. The Chairman and Managing Director not only wrote a detailed message on the migration process to all employees, but also ensured that customers, travel agents, Global Distribution System providers, airline partners, alliance partners and airport partners were kept informed. The company also released advertisements in print media to announce the new AI code.

Meanwhile, a dedicated number of personnel have been put on the job to send SMSs and e-mails to passengers to keep them informed about the change. The management has also increased the number of floor managers / executives in all airports to assist / guide the passengers; in addition to putting up standees containing details about change in flight codes for destinations. Lakhs of colourful leaflets are also being distributed at all airports to keep the passengers updated regarding their flight numbers etc.

--------------------------------

Now it looks like AI has sorted out their IT problems and closer to joining Star Alliance, maybe we'll see Jet Airways or another Indian carrier join Skyteam!?!?! :confused:

Kingfisher has announced it is joining Oneworld. Air India is committted to *Aliiance
I understand from informal conversations with friends at Jet HQ in India that they would [I]prefer[I] to join *A but not on the conditions AI is setting -- which is no entry for two years post AI joining. If these are imposed then they would go for Skyteam and have already opened negotiations. But given recent disasters with AI the government is thinking of settling for a one year lag for Jet to join (no pun intended) *A ie next fall... and Jet is inching to a decision on this basis

Apparently their own research with their home customer base indicates a strong preference for *A because of excellent intra-europe possibilities and good domestic US networks with the defection of Continental to *A Plus *A is very weak on the India Uk market giving Jet a nice little earner there. These factors, plus their existing Brussels hub, are strong incentives for them to go with Star Alliance but certainly not at any cost. To signal this, they have signed new co operation agreements with AF/KL and AZ.