What does it take to join an alliance?
 

So I wonder what upfront costs there is for an airline to join....I assume there are some fees that you have to pay to get in, re work your frequent flier programs to fit the ST model, re-fit your software to be able to communicate with the ST reservation and airline systems, re-figure your schedule to make the code-sharing possible, add/subtract flights to each others ST hubs, and all the training of the staff....

Not a small or cheap task! Ultimately likely a good thing for all involved but....

I have never really understood why there has to be a fee to get in - I mean that benefits are there for both the alliance and the airline, and how does this fee get split among the various members of the alliance?

1 requirement
 

Skyteam require all members to have a mileage based programme - which is why SU had to revamp their programm from a kilometre to mileage basis.

This was a comment made by the GM manager of of SU's programme in an interview published by the FFP magazine