Kingfisher airlines of India got in the news in many ways over the years:

It was an upstart airline owned by a liquor baron, who tried to be India’s Richard Branson
It bought low-cost carrier Deccan Air to jump the line to get a license to fly internationally
It declared plans to be the first Indian carrier to buy the A380
It declared plans to fly from Bangalore to San Francisco
It became the 1st airline from India to join an Alliance (OneWorld). This is on hold for now.

Lately, they have been in the headlines …

Skytrak announced its annual rankings for 2012. They rank all the airlines in the world by polling 18m airline cutovers around the world. And for the year 2012 (drumroll please) the top 10 airlines are:

Qatar Airways (Qatar) – No Alliance
Asiana Airlines (South Korea) – Star Alliance
Singapore Airlines (Singapore) – Star Alliance
Cathay Pacific (Hing Kong, China) – OneWorld
ANA (Japan) – Star Alliance
Etihad Airways (Bahrain) – No Alliance
Turkish Airlines (Turkey) – Star Alliance
Emirates (Dubai) – No Alliance
Thai Airways (Thailand) – Star Alliance
Malaysia Airlines (Malaysia) – OneWorld (Starting late-2012)

I am particularly impressed by …

By no way does this mean that a merger is sure to happen, but the unions of bankrupt American Airlines have decided to support a potential merger with US Airways. US Airways’ CEO has been hinting on a possible merger for some time now. The unions are backing this because AA is in trouble. As it went into bankruptcy, they announced 13,000 job cuts! A merger with US Airways could be a path to safety for AA.
US Airways itself came to be in its current form thru a merger. The …

Yes, it has happened! As I had predicted in my last post, BMI has announced that in parallel with it’s exit from Star Alliance, it will allow for BMI Diamond Club Destination miles to be transferred to British Airways Executive Club Avios and vice versa. While the two programs have not been merged, they are now equal partners. BA is also reciprocating status between the two programs and allowing privileges like lounge access to each others Elite members. Full OneWorld membership is coming soon too, for sure.
The official date of …

Jetblue (B6) and Japan Airlines (JL) reached a codeshare agreement for 21 US destinations from B6’s stronghold cities of New York and Boston. JAL had direct flights from both cities to Tokyo. The codeshare strengthens the interline agreement that they had established in February.
 
It is interesting to note that none of the 21 destinations are currently served directly by JAL’s Oneworld partner American Airlines (AA). That is not surprising given the strong ties B6 has with AA. Last November, AA announced the ability to each AA miles on select B6 …

I posted an article last week about the new that is giving 100,000 Avios points. I interchangeably referred to Avios as points and miles in my post. I got a clarification email from The Mileage Company, which manages British Airways’ frequent flyer program, letting me know that Avios is not miles, but a common currency for all IAG airlines. I have corrected the post and it now refers to Avios as points. I would like to thank the Mileage company for reechoing out. They also sent me an FAQ …

As we had announced earlier on this blog, BMI has been acquired by IAG, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia. As a pert of this acquisition, BMI will no longer be a part of Star Alliance – that membership ends April 19th. It will soon become a part of OneWorld, allowing for redemptions on OneWorld airlines like British, American, Qantas. See full announcement is attached here.
We are all of course, hoping that BMI will adopt the Avios mileage program and allow us to merge our BMI balances with …

The Airline world is made up of three alliances:

Star Alliance
SkyTeam
OneWorld

Understanding the alliances and the airlines that make them up, and which airlines do not participate in an alliance, is key to maximizing miles and status. What alliances allow you to do is pick one airline per alliance and earn miles on that one airline’s frequent flier program no matter which airline in the alliance you fly. That way you can maximize miles. Airlines not only give redeemable miles but also status miles across alliance partners, so this also maximizes Elite …

Jet Airways is one of the largest airlines in India with hubs at Mumbai (BOM), Delhi (DEL), Chennai (MAA) and Brussels (BRU) airports. Jet Airways operates an extensive domestic and regional network within the Indian subcontinent as well as services to Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and North America. They also have an extensive partner network. You might recollect that unroadwarrior blogged a few days ago about Jet Airways forming a new partnership with US Airways. They already have strong ties with Star Alliance airline carriers like United and …

Jet Airways is one of the best airlines in India. It has a large international presence and has superb service. So far it has resisted joining an alliance. It’s two main competitors in India have both joined an Alliance. Kingfisher joined OneWorld and Air India has been working on completing its joining Star Alliance. The fact that it has been ‘working’ on it for a couple of years is another story for another post.
Jet Airways announced yesterday that it has formed a partnership with US Airways. This is a mileage …