In the last couple of weeks I have looked at how far and wide you can travel on Star Alliance flights and on Oneworld flights, and now I do the same for the Sky Team alliance.

The airline alliances connect many places all around the world. Last year I mapped which countries are reached by each alliance. Since then the global reach has been added to by new alliance members and by new destinations for existing alliance airlines.

Another way of looking at it is shown by Passport Stamp maps showing the countries served by Sky Team (below).

The 3 main airline alliances have been busy recruiting airlines. Here are some recent and upcoming changes.

Star Alliance

• TAM joined 13 May 2010 – restoring much South America coverage lost when Varig failed.
• Aegean Airlines (and Olympic Air) joins 30 June 2010.
• Air India will join, eventually (originally due to join early 2009).

Oneworld

• S7 will join in 2010.
• Kingfisher Airlines will join in 2011.

Sky Team

• Vietnam Airlines joined on 10 June 2010.
• On 22 June 2010 associate member airlines Air Europa and Kenya Airways became full members.
• TAROM joined on 25 June 2010.
• China Eastern Airlines will join in 2011.

The “how to get to” series of posts will be updated in due course.  All the recent changes have been allowed for in the recent posts on the global reach of the airline alliances – Star Alliance, Oneworld and Sky Team (coming soon).

Last week I looked at how far and wide you can travel on Star Alliance flights, and now I do the same for the Oneworld alliance.

The airline alliances connect many places all around the world. Last year I mapped which countries are reached by each alliance. Since then the global reach has been added to by new alliance members and by new destinations for existing alliance airlines.

Another way of looking at it is shown by Passport Stamp maps showing the countries served by Oneworld (below).   

See also the global reach of Sky Team.

The airline alliances connect many places all around the world. Last year I mapped which countries are reached by each alliance. Since then the global reach has been added to by new alliance members and by new destinations for existing alliance airlines.

Another way of looking at it is shown by Passport Stamp maps showing the countries served by Star Alliance (below).

See also the global reach of Oneworld and the global reach of Sky Team.

Reader Nun recently made the following comment

I’ve been following “How to get to” for a while. One thing I don’t understand is the strict treatment of the term “alliance.” Just because an airline belongs to an alliance doesn’t mean that’s all the partners they have or that’s all the routes they have. It’s often possible to get somewhere in a codeshare. For example, Iberia has lots of IB coded flights which are actually flown by Vueling. Vueling isn’t part of oneworld but the codeshares are. There are lots of examples. Just a thought…

Good question Nun, and of wider relevance than just for the “how to get to” series of posts.  It is true I base the information on the airline operating the flights, not allowing for codeshare or partner flights. There are reasons for this, which I’ll explain below.

What is a codeshare?

A codeshare is where an airline markets a flight but it is actually operated by a different airline. Eg Air New Zealand codeshares on Aircalin flights between Auckland and Noumea, and Aircalin codeshares on Air New Zealand flights on the same route.  There are different types of codeshare agreements between airlines but that is not important for this discussion.

What is a partner flight?

Most frequent flyer programs (FFPs) also partner with some non-alliance airlines. Sometimes this is limited to a specific route, and other times all routes are included. Some FFPs even partner with airlines that are members of a competing alliance.  For the purpose of this discussion a partner flight excludes flights by other airlines within the same alliance.

Why the operating airline matters (codeshares)

Almost all alliance fare products are limited to flights on airlines within the alliance. There are some limited exceptions (such as Oneworld distance based Global Explorer around the world fare). The fare rules require both operating airline and marketing airline to be within the relevant airline alliance.

For mileage earning and redemption the situation is more complicated, as follows:

• intra-alliance codeshare (eg American codeshare on Qantas flights between USA and Australia) – full earning, status earning, award redemption okay
• marketing airline is the airline of the FFP, operating airline is not in the alliance (eg Air NZ codeshare on Aircalin in relation to Airpoints) – full earning, may or may not earn status miles, award redemption okay
• marketing airline is not the airline of the FFP but is another airline within the same alliance, operating airlines is not in the alliance (eg Air NZ codeshare on Aircalin in relation to United Mileage Plus) – in Oneworld generally earn miles and status miles and allow award redemption, in Star Alliance and Sky Team generally non mileage earning and no award redemption
• marketing airline is not in the alliance but is a partner of the FFP, operating airline is in the alliance (eg Aircalin codeshare on Air NZ in relation to Airpoints) - earn miles, may or may not earn status miles, generally allow awards

Why not include partner airline flights?

Partners of one frequent flyer program are not normally also partners of all other frequent flyer programs in the same alliance.  A Flyer Talk thread on Star Alliance partner airlines illustrates – for example Virgin Atlantic is a partner of several Star Alliance airlines, but others are not partners with Virgin Atlantic.

Going back to Nun‘s question. I haven’t included partner airlines in the alliance listings in the “how to get to” series of posts because they are useful only to some frequent flyer programs and generally not useful for alliance products or awards.  To include every airline flying to a country would mean some long lists and information that would quickly become out of date. I get around this by listing the main non-alliance airlines as “other”. The reader is left to check which ones may be useful for them for mileage earning or award redemption purposes.

Today Brazilian airline TAM joins Star Alliance, restoring coverage of South America that was lost when Varig collapsed.

The “How to get to” series of posts will be updated in due course.

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the Contact link at the top, or leave a comment.

This post is how to get to China generally. There are separate posts for some places in China (see the index).

China

Source: Samuel Li

Many airlines fly to China.  For flights to Hong Kong refer to the separate How to get to Hong Kong post. The main international airports are Hong Kong (HKG), Beijing (PEK), Shanghai Pudong (PVG) and Guangzhou (CAN). Many Asian airlines also have flights to other regional or primarily domestic airports.

• Star Alliance – Air Canada (HKG/PEK/PVG), Air China, Air New Zealand (HKG/PEK/PVG), ANA (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Asiana (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Austrian (PEK), Continental (HKG/PEK/PVG), EgyptAir (CAN/PEK), Lufthansa (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), SAS (PEK), Singapore (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), South African (HKG), Swiss (HKG/PVG), Thai (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Turkish (HKG/PEK/PVG), United (HKG/PEK/PVG)
• Oneworld – American (PVG), British Airways (HKG/PEK/PVG), Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Finnair (HKG/PEK/PVG), Japan Airlines (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Qantas (HKG/PVG), Royal Jordanian (HKG)
• Sky Team – Aeroflot (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Aeromexico (PVG), Air France (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), China Southern, Delta (HKG/PEK/PVG), Kenya Airways (CAN/HKG), KLM (HKG/PEK/PVG), Korean (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Vietnam (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG)
• Other selected – most Asian airlines, most Middle Eastern airlines

TIP Longhaul fares are generally cheaper to Hong Kong than to Beijing or Shanghai, due to greater competition.

TIP Intra-asia fares are also generally cheaper to Hong Kong than to Beijing or Shanghai due to the presence of more low cost airlines.

TIP For award or discounted alliance fares (eg around the world), there are far more options (and thus generally better availability) on Star Alliance and Sky Team than on Oneworld.

TIP For intra-China travel there are far more options on Sky Team than on Star Alliance.  Oneworld intra-China flights are very limited.

UPDATED August 2010 – Updated for TAM and Aegean joining Star Alliance, Shanghai leaving Star Alliance, Vietnam Airlines and TAROM joining Sky Team. Advice is changed.

I recently posted about a ticket where all 16 flights have been changed. It is best if you find out as soon as possible when significant schedule changes to any of your bookings occur. Significant here means has a consequential impact – which could be missing an onward flight, requiring a change in flights/route, missing a night of already paid for accommodation or requiring an extra night, missing a cruise, etc.

The reason is because by being informed as early as possible you maximise your options. More on this later.

How to keep informed

There are a number of things you can easily do to keep up to date.

1. Make sure whoever you booked with (whether airline or travel agent) has your phone and email contact details.
2. Regularly look up your booking for travel on a single airline on that airline’s website. This is usually called “manage your booking” or similar. Not every airline provides online view of bookings.
3. Some airlines (eg Qantas) also allow bookings with your frequent flyer number entered against them to be viewed when logged into your account.
4. Use the public websites which access airline CRS (computerised reservation system). There are a few sites and you need to use the correct one for the airline you have ticketed with – see my previous post to find out the site to use to look up tickets for all major airlines.
5. Close to travel dates, keep informed of major disruptions such as those during disasters or strikes. News media alert of the potential for an issue and most airlines will have a disruptions or breaking news page or alert prominent on the website.

Twice a year schedule disruption

Major airlines and major airports coordinate schedules in 2 six-month periods – Northern Summer from April to September and Northern Winter from October to March.  Conveniently the start and end of each “season” loosely coincides with the start and end of daylight savings in the countries which have daylight savings time in their summer.  The non-alignment of daylight savings dates and travel between northern and southern hemispheres means there are some scheduling issues for most international airlines around those dates.

Anyway, when most of the schedules for the next season are worked out, well in advance of course, it is common for airline systems, websites, etc to take several days to adjust all the impacted flights and bookings.

This means you need to be careful not to assume a schedule change has created a problem.  For example it may be the first flight has been retimed in your booking but the second has not yet but will do so to restore the connection.

The ticket I referred to above, with 16 flights changing, is a good example of ongoing changes. It is also an example of a ticket for travel in a subsequent season being bought before the new season’s schedule was updated.

What to do about schedule changes?

How to deal with schedule changes is a big topic in itself, so I’ll follow up in a later post.

Gary Leff on View from the Wing today wrote about transfers at San Francisco (SFO) or Los Angeles (LAX), and in particular about which is better for travellers flying to/from Australia and NZ.  This is a subject I am very familiar with, more than I’d like to be, since I travel between Australasia and USA and Europe several times a year – and SFO and LAX happen to be the most convenient gateways or transit points to use.  So I have lots of experience, but too much to put into a comment on Gary’s post. I hope he doesn’t mind this piggyback post.

Both Star Alliance and Oneworld have options for both SFO and LAX to both Australia and New Zealand – except there is no direct Oneworld flight between SFO and New Zealand. Skyteam only has the Delta flight from LAX to Sydney.

Why use SFO?

For me, the main reason for flying through San Francisco is the far easier immigration process for non Americans. While I have sometimes been stuck behind a few hundred others at SFO immigration, I have never waited more than an hour. At LAX, the immigration lottery sometimes sees well over a thousand people in the queue ahead of me and a wait at immigration alone of more than an hour with further lengthy wait at customs (those thousand people have managed to get their checked bags in the time you’ve been waiting).

If the connection is long then it is quick and very easy to hop on the BART and spend some time exploring the city, meeting friends or shopping.

Transfers are also fairly simple at SFO due to the design of the terminals and smaller size.  Even though some require going back through security this is generally quick in my experience. International connections within an alliance are straight forward (or rather as simple as any in USA – other countries which don’t require immigration for international transit are simpler still).  International to domestic connections or vice versa are also fairly easy.

Why use LAX?

As Gary writes, the main reason for transferring through LAX is the far greater flight options.  SFO has relatively few flights to/from Australia and New Zealand whereas LAX has plenty.  American and United both have lots of routes from Los Angeles.  Alliance partners also have more international flights at LAX than at SFO.  Not only are there more routes, but also more flights which means greater availability and more chance I can get a flight closely matching my preferred schedule. 

Note for both LAX & SFO there are the constraints that most USA to Australia/NZ flights leave late evening, most flights NZ to USA leave in the evening and most flights Australia to USA leave in the afternoon.  Taking Auckland to LAX as an example – there is a choice of an afternoon flight on Qantas, an early evening flight on Air New Zealand or a mid evening flight on Air New Zealand. If none of those times suit you can fly via Australia leaving NZ in the morning and arrive in LAX early morning instead of later in the day, or via Vancouver leaving NZ late evening.

The airline lounges at LAX are much nicer, at least for the airlines I fly. When I fly Air New Zealand or Air Canada there is the great Air New Zealand lounge in T2 – probably the best lounge of all at LAX and one of the best anywhere in USA.  American and Qantas have a great lounge in T4.  Star Alliance and Oneworld lounges in TBIT are average – not terrible, but not great either.  Compare this to SFO where both Oneworld and Star Alliance have very mediocre lounges.  Although the Singapore Airlines lounge at SFO is nice it is only open for limited hours (often not coinciding with flights Down Under).

Weather at LAX rarely delays or cancels flights, whereas I’ve had a whole day waiting in vain to fly to SFO when rain or fog closed the airport.

My choice

While the LAX immigration and transfer processes are downright unpleasant I almost always fly via LAX. The other advantages are just too good to outweigh the negatives. If SFO had nicer lounges and more flight options then I would probably switch.

In the meantime I’m also looking out for news on new routes between Down Under and airports east of California – Chicago or Dallas for Oneworld, Chicago or Houston for Star Alliance. They’ve been talked about for years but so far have not eventuated.

Oneworld

Russian based airlines S7 Airlines is expected to join Oneworld in 2010.  Indian airline Kingfisher is to join in 2011.

Sky Team

In June 2010 Vietnam Airlines and TAROM are expected to join Sky Team.

Star Alliance

Air India has been slated to join Star Alliance for years. No reliable word on their entry date yet.

TAM in South America is due to join Star Alliance mid 2010.  Aegean Airlines was also expected to join mid 2010, but recent announcements of possible merger with Olympic Airlines cast doubt on this.