Ben recently wrote a story with a similar title, paying homage to his “fellow airline geeks” in the first line. It got me to thinking about which alliance airlines I have not yet tried.
It matters because 1.) these are the airlines that tend to be most accessible with your miles and points and thus 2.) these are the airlines I think are most important to review.
Here’s a look at the three alliances: oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance:
Oneworld has 13 member airlines:
American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, and SriLankan Airlines.
SkyTeam has 19 member airlines:
Aeroflot, Aerolineas Argentinas, Aeromexico, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern, Czech Airlines, Delta, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia, TAROM, Vietnam Airlines, and Xiamen Air.
Star Alliance has 27 member airlines:
Adria, Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines, and United.
While I have flown most of these airlines and provided reviews on the blog, here are the alliance airlines I have yet to fly on:
- Star Alliance
- Air India
- Copa
- Shenzhen
- oneworld
- S7
- SkyTeam
- Czech Air
- Kenya Airways
- Korean
- TAROM
- Xiamen
SkyTeam remains my weakest, with five airlines I have yet to try. In Star Alliance I have three and in oneworld only one. Nine total…
Ranking Review Priority
Here’s how I rank them in order of review relevance/importance. Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments section below.
- Korean
- Copa
- Xiamen – because it often offers cheap fares to Asia in economy and business class
- Kenya Airways
- Air India
- Czech Air
- TAROM
- Shenzhen
- S7 – I would actually place this #2 in terms of airlines I actually want to try, but don’t see it as overly-useful to most readers
I hope to whittle down all of these airlines by the end of the year. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts on these nine airlines I have not tried.
image: S7
Xiamen is often credited as the second best Chinese airline behind Hainan, would love to see how you feel. You are missing out on some good in the air Korean food for not flying first or Business on Korean Air.
Looks pretty good overall.
I agree wholeheartedly with Korean Air as the top priority – definitely worthwhile.
“Prioroity” ?? – Shouldn’t it be “priority” ?
Fixed.
“paying homepage to his “fellow airline geeks””
*homage. DYAC
Why do you want to fly S7 that much? I’m not judging, I would love to visit Russia. I’m just surprised that you’d want to try them that badly
Korean has great hard product, but it’s soft product is far from inspiring.
S7 is very worth flying. We flew them last summer.
SZX is good for United awards within China leaving Shenzhen (or it used to be) as < 750 miles is only 8k UA miles in economy. For example SZX to PVG/SHA. The service is subpar and the fleet is all 737s except 1-2 planes, but the business class recliners are huge and there’s a lot of availability.
I’m curious as to which Non Alliance airlines you, Ben and others have flown. As we reach the tipping point of a sort of Oligarchy with airlines I find it more interesting to focus on those carriers that are unique in geography or work to keep the alliances in check.
Please do not fly Air India.