Airline alliances and the advantage of sticking to one - maximizing your elite privileges

In the last decade or so airlines have been assembled (most of the bigger ones) several alliances,

those "Star Alliance", "One world" and "Sky Team". Over the past year or so have begin using Star alliance mainly because of the airlines that incorporates which work best with my geographical area and travel pattern, for example in the past these to fly lotswith United airlines during my travels inside the United States but over the past eight months may travel patterns shifted to flying mainlyout of Israel which therefore makes me fly with Lufthansa.

One of the main advantages for me as a frequent flyer for those two airlines being part of the Star alliance is that I can use my United Airlines miles with my Lufthansa tickets and still enjoy theelite status i had with United Airlines and redeem the miles I have earned on Lufthansa.

This is just one example of the many perks you have when sticking to one alliance, among other things the main advantages of flying within an alliance is that your elite status with one airline within an alliance would usually also give you benefits in all other airlines within for example "Star".Those benefits include among other things access to faster check-in facilities in depending on your elite level meeting business or first class check-in facilities

even if you travel economy, also you might be able to use airport lounges while flying with an airline within the alliance you have the status with even if it is not the actual airline whose frequent flyer program you have the status - for example as a Lufthansa "Senator" which is the equivalent of

being a gold member within the Star alliance I can still access the United airlines lounges when they travel in Lufthansa tickets, enjoy first-class check-in privileges even when flying economy and (hopefully) get other benefits and generally easier travel experience.

This usually comes to be especially important for passengers who mainly fly economy on long routs. Many times I noticed at the check-in area passengers who fly economy will have silver or gold luggage tag from an airline like Cathay Pacific will because they fly two or three time a year long distances and the economy cabin can enjoy the benefit of business class check-in at the lowest level of the elite tier in their frequent flyer program whenever they fly in other airlines for example and this case the Lufthansa.

Quicker security lines and check-in experience is not the only benefit of having an elite level within one alliance.

Other benefits include among other things the ability to earn more miles for each trip what is usually called "elite bonus", access to special phone lines which usually provide lesser hold times and also reduced fees on award ticket redemption.

Of course the main part of any frequent flyer program is the ability to use the miles you earn for award tickets or upgrades. (i usually go for upgrades even though there is always a debate of whether or not this is a smart use of the miles - more on that in the future).

The reason I mention of the beginning of the post that it is usually beneficial to remain with the one alliance for you travel is because the vast majority of passengers do not fly enough to earn elite status in more than one carrier while still maximizing the potential of being an "elite". Extremely well-traveled passengers on the other hand to fly frequently (once a week or so) are usually members of frequent flyer programs in different alliances while still maintaining an elite status year after year which offers them elite perks coverage wherever they fly no matter the alliance (meaning having a gold status for exemple with 2 or 3 alliances), that these cases are quite rare and reserved to those of us who really have no life and travel the time.

Please bear in mind that while i use Star Alliance and Lufthansa in my examples, this is just one alliance and one airline - and it may not be the one for you and used just to demonstrate the idea.

By the way your requests for posts in a specific topic or question and all other comments are always most welcome.

Also it would be happy to receive requests for detailed reviews on any specific airline I have experience with.

Until later, the

David.

P.S. - more articles are available at http://www.frequentflyertips.com