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 …

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 …

Continental (CO) now has a published status match via a challenge. According to the policy, they will match your Elite status in any other airline (most probably not in Star Alliance) to an equivalent status on CO for 90 days. In order to maintain the status after the status match window, you need to satisfy the following challenge:

Silver

Fly 10,000 Elite Qualifying Miles or 15 Elite Qualifying Segments to retain Silver Elite status

Gold

Fly 17,500 Elite Qualifying Miles or 22 Elite Qualifying Segments to retain Gold Elite status

Platinum

Fly 35,000 Elite Qualifying Miles …

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 …

Booking complex award itineraries, made up of multiple cities and multiple connecting flights can be very painful. I just booked such a trip myself. When I started out I had no idea how cumbersome and time consuming it would be. I really thought I had it easy. After all, I had enough miles on all three Airline Alliances to redeem for the award trip. So I thought I would have multiple options to choose from. Instead it turned out to be a major time drain and resulted in a complex …

So, whether I am looking for cheap flights to Alicante (ALC) for an exotic vacation to Spain or to Charlotte, NC (CLT) for a day trip for work, my first preference is to fly on United and if they do not fly there (like to Alicante), pick another Star Alliance carrier (Spanair flies to ALC) or if no Star Alliance carrier goes there, pick another United partner. … Have one Primary airline, which is a part of a Global Airline If I had to pay a nominal fee or tax to consolidate accounts, I would do it (or pray for a merger.

I have discussed the idea of having one primary airline you credit all your miles on in several previous articles. I have also discussed the importance of Airline Alliances and why the airline you choose should be a part of one of the three Global Alliances. As you go about picking your primary Airline and hence, primary alliance, one very important factor that needs to to be taken into consideration is that of hubs. Hubs form, there is no better way to put it, the hub of an Airline and …

In my last article, I did a review of Emirates airlines, their aircraft, their meals, their Flight Attendants and Dubai airport. In this article, I review Skywards, their Frequent Flier Program.
Emirates has built a Frequent Flier program outside of any major airline alliance. Very similar to Alaska Airlines, which I discussed in an earlier article, Emirates has built a global network of airline and other partners. The big difference here is the Emirates itself is a global airline with over 600 destinations in all six continents. Ok, there is only …

Alaska Airlines and its sister airline Horizon Air have been a standout in a world dominated by Airline Alliances. Alaska Airlines has ‘gone it alone’ (or with its one sibling) and built up a formidable network of airline partners. This network of domestic and international partners has given Alaska the international connections and access to international routes that typical domestic carriers lack. Other airlines with a primarily domestic network or a small international footprint, have to join an Alliance to get this kind of presence. US Airways is a prime …