DJ to ever make Star Alliance?

[dajop]

I From what I can tell at the moment though the only Skyteam carrier that flies to Aus is Korean and only to Cairns, Bris and Syd.

Actually, Korean just commenced 3xweekly services to MEL in the last few months. Don't think they service CNS though, however Continental does (from Guam). Also China Southern are now a member of Skyteam, they service MEL/SYD.

 

[scibo10]

I think Delta may be talking about what it intends to do if this open skies agreement between Aus and the US comes to pass. Would be a good thing though, any competition on that route would be a good thing.

If MH were to actually join Skyteam (and it seems like they intend to at some point, they're just being vague about when) then it would certainly start to make more sense for DJ to be involved with Skyteam. Having a local partner might even encourage some existing members to start flying routes down here. From what I can tell at the moment though the only Skyteam carrier that flies to Aus is Korean and only to Cairns, Bris and Syd.

Having said that, I still think it makes more sense for DJ to get into bed with *A. But it's all just speculation really. We live in hope.

Rumours are also surfacing that Delta is in merger talks with both Northwest and United.

Northwest weighs all options amid merger talk-CEO | Markets | Markets News | Reuters

The latter is especially interesting if DL and UA are to merge and take the DL name, as well as the Skyteam membership.

 

[stryker]

The latter is especially interesting if DL and UA are to merge and take the DL name, as well as the Skyteam membership.

What makes you think a merged airline would be called "Delta"?

Surely it makes more sense to call it "United" (after all they will be truly united). And feedback these days is that DL and its FF program are pretty ordinary (even worse than UA).

I for one will abandon UA or whatever it's called if it changes its name and joins Skyteam. Under that scenario, I would be looking to get a status match with AA.

 

[NM]

What makes you think a merged airline would be called "Delta"?

Surely it makes more sense to call it "United" (after all they will be truly united). And feedback these days is that DL and its FF program are pretty ordinary (even worse than UA).

I suppose they could call it "Delited" or some such combination of the two?

 

[littl_flier]

Going back to requirements, I don't think it has to be in the interests of SQ or NZ, just as long as they don't see it as being to their detriment. It would certainly be in the interests of UA and any other *A partners that only service a few Australian cities.

Remember that UA and VA will then be in direct competition if VA takes SYD flights. And one could presume (and hope) that the Business Class on VA will be typically Virgin and quite "upper class". This won't bode well for the current UA product. And then the'res the domestic services in NZ now with Pacific Blue.

But one can only hope (and I'm hoping) they'll lean to *A. They've already got some codeshares set up and it would be nice to do a *A RTW and not have to skip most of Australia. I also think that moving to Silver and Gold levels in Velocity will fit in nicely with *Gold and *Silver but maybe I'm looking too deep.

 

[beardoc]

But one can only hope (and I'm hoping) they'll lean to *A. They've already got some codeshares set up and it would be nice to do a *A RTW and not have to skip most of Australia. I also think that moving to Silver and Gold levels in Velocity will fit in nicely with *Gold and *Silver but maybe I'm looking too deep.

I'm thinking that's the case - it would enhance the value of the DJ tier offering, as you could earn tiers in Velocity and then access *A lounges around the world. It would force me to consider DJ for domestic flights, absolutely.

 

[Keith009]

I'd forgotten about this thread. I did pose the question to Phil Gunter of DJ back at the AFF dinner in August about the prospect of *A membership. The response was something along the lines of they'd be blocked from membership by SQ and NZ; DJ competes with NZ on TT and domestic operations in NZ, and DJ has played a part in blocking SQ on SYD-USA as well as sees DJ as a potential competitor should SQ ever get rights for that route - or at least that's what I remember being said.

 

[ANstar]

they'd be blocked from membership by SQ and NZ; .

I haven't heard the SQ one before, but I have heard from 2 different places about NZ blocking their entry.

I guess this is why we have seen DJ take on Air NZ more agressively recently with domestic operations and more trans tasman routes.

Perhaps in time those flights could be used as bargaining chips. Ie we'll drop domestic NZ etc and codeshare or something like that.... but I doubt it!

I reckon DJ need to have some sort of international partnership whereby status etc is accrued on their internaitonal partners. would skyteam be a good match? They could hook into Delta/Northwest in the states and meet AF/KLM in most of the Asian hubs.

Also - looks like Premium Economy will have free food/booze/live TV from 1 DEC