I certainly hope you are correct; it would be delightful if Singapore would join one of the alliances. However, SQ has a history of doing things their own way and maintaining their independence. It is hard to argue with this since SQ is, IMHO, the best airline in the world.
I wonder how award travel would work. If I wanted to fly HKG to SFO roundtrip first class, I would much rather do so on SQ. I don't see how it could be the same number of miles since 1st on SQ is so much better than 1st on UA.
When are you coming to Hong Kong?
__________________ Cheers, Hong Kong Flyer
Soon to be London Flyer
up to now award level differentiate heavily between the different StarAlliance-partners (and they may so for a future SQ partner as well).
my (and Gisela) Hong Kong stay 1999:
arriving friday nov-12-99 14:20 (TG 402 SIN-BKK and TG 628 from BKK)
leaving sunday nov-14-99 20:20 (UA 805 to BKK)
hotel: so far Ritz Carlton reservation (but depending on "last-minute" promotions I still may change that.
Rudi was responding under both NW and Passages to my post, so I should also repeat mine here in order to make sense.
With Cathay in OneWorld, Thai in Star, Malaysian Airlines [MH] has been left in the cold. Today Northwest Airlines and Malaysia Airlines announced an alliance that includes joint marketing and sales programs, coordinated scheduling and code-sharing. This month NW becomes the only US airline to serve Malaysia, and MH currently operates flights between LAX and Kuala Lumpur and between Newark and Kuala Lumpur. MH & NW are discussing reciprocal FF links and lounge access.
Looks like the third alliance is now really taking global shape, quite possibly further
downmarket than Oneworld and Star, ranked in that order, according to quality.
The puzzle is quite where SQ fits. By all international pax rankings it is head and
shoulders above the other Star carriers, and stands to compromise that reputation by merging its identity on many Star codeshare flights, especially those operated by TG & UA.
In retrospect inviting TG to be a member of Star was probably a mistake, as it has been severely hobbled by Thai military inteference, especially over acquisition of aircraft. The partial sale of TG has been discussed for years, but postponed again and again. When Star was formed, Asian economies were flourishing, and Singapore Airlines had no real interest in serious alliances. As the dominant party in its new tripartite relationship with Ansett and Air New Zealand, SQ must be drawn to Star -- but at what price?
Well, it's hard to say whether SQ will join Star or not. For example, JAL has code-share with all oneworld members, right? But JL didn't join oneworld either. As far as I know, JL is still estimating they'll benefit more in a alliance or just code-share. Personally, I think SQ's just doing the same thing as JL. Furthermore, as from what rumor said, Continental, Northwest, Air France, Alitalia and KLM have had discussions about creating a global marketing alliance. Well, it's interesting to see how the airlines industrial go. Maybe only time could tell. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif