DL seems to be on a roll with adding Asian carriers. Let's see, recent addition (or in process):

Vietnam
MU
CI
Garuda

In all, this is good news as it gives more options at "low"...

Not a chance - LCC has gone too upmarket for Air France ... er, Sky Team :p

The operative word being low

Well, I hear Cubana is looking to join an alliance......

I lived in Yogyakarta for 15 years with my family. We've flown Garuda many, many times, both domestically and internationally. It wasn't bad at all, and I understand they've improved significantly over the last couple of years. They were very useful for redemption from Indonesia since they often had award availability and you could connect to NW and their other partners at many points outside of Indonesia (SIN, BKK, KUL, HKG, NRT, etc.). The other cool thing was that I could redeem miles from LAX to CGK or DPS on another airline, and then add on the flight to JOG for no extra miles (I never paid more than 60,000 miles, and I redeemed 15-20 award tickets of this type). Usually this resulted in Garuda waiving the usual domestic overweight charges since the flight was considered to be a continuation of the international itinerary and our bags were tagged all the way from LAX to JOG.

This will be a good thing for people traveling on ST carriers to Indonesia. Yes, safety is an issue when traveling to Indonesia, but flying is still a whole lot safer than other modes of travel (particularly in Indonesia). The problem isn't really so much with Garuda (which, together with the new Mandala is the best of the bunch in Indonesia), but with the entire transportation infrastructure in that country.

MH
 

Second that. I have used MH several times in the past decade, mostly between SIN and KUL and found it very solid. Hope they will join SkyTeam.

That would make every US legacy carrier fourth rate. Garuda is rated 4 stars by Skytrax, more than any US airline. And from my experience, the relative ranking is deserved, the fat girl prom dates in the alliances definitely include the US carriers.

But then some people probably prefer having flight crew who personally knew Orville and Wilbur Wright serving you complimentary water while trying to sell you branded credit cards.

The US legacies are indeed the fat girl prom dates....but who also put out and are from super rich families. The US carriers DO provide a nice stream of passengers TPAC-TATL, which is where the money is for the most part.

Is Skyteam what you call it when your fat girls leave the prom together with their dates and all fly together?

No that's Spirit :p

12345

I agree with PakThomas, GA is actually a good move because it gives ST more south east asian hubs now that was sorely lacking in ST before.

^

I knew about that but I didn't want to quote it because I don't know if safety is factored into Skytrax, but as far as I know EU isn't banning GA anymore since last year.

It is funny though that Japan and Korea would let GA fly into their airports but not the EU?

I may be asking for too much, but it would be REALLY REALLY NICE for DL to add ability for searches online on more partners than AF and KL right now. Esp with these overseas ST partners, it is created extra burden on the call lines and more stress because they are not all properly trained.

To be honest, it's getting frustrating having to educate PM agents who is a ST carrier and who is not...

I don't think the EU ban had much to do with Garuda specifically. The EU banned all Indonesian carriers due to the inability or unwillingness of the Indonesian government to ensure their safety. Garuda was removed from the list when the EU allowed them to independently prove they met acceptable safety standards. I believe the majority of Indonesian carriers are still banned.

I've never flown GA and have no immediate plans to fly GA, so I don't have a dog in this hunt. But for those questioning GA's safety, remember that it was not so long ago that KE had significant safety issues. With some intervention/pressure/training from AF and DL (primarily DL), KE got it together. Airlines can change, so what WAS an issue may no longer currently be an issue.

OT, for those that haven't read it, there is a chapter in "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell devoted to the KE safety issues and subsequent turnaround.