The World, In Three Alliances

Unlocking the secret to snagging the sweetest award tickets to the best destinations – or smoothly navigating the twists and turns of a canceled international connection – demands a deep dive into the intricate world of airline alliances. Picture it as a globe-trotting chessboard where the major players are strategically grouped into three sprawling alliances.

Now, why should you care? Well, these alliances dictate where you can rack up those miles, cash them in for those coveted free flights, and even explore alternative options when your flight plans take an unexpected detour.

So, let's break it down. Airline alliances operate like a high-flying web, enabling one carrier to seamlessly sell you a ticket from point A to point B with a stop or two along the way. Imagine the tiny hamlets nestled in the frosty heart of Canada where Air Canada reigns supreme as your one and only option. But here's the twist – Air Canada only spreads its wings to a few U.S. cities. Enter the magic of alliances. Cue United, the trusty sidekick, swooping in to cover the smaller American towns and cities. Thanks to the alliance, someone can book a single reservation, under a single price, that covers flights on both airlines.

(and if a snowstorm strands said passenger while connecting in Chicago, then any airline can find options across any other alliance airline.)

Similarly, airline alliances honor each other's miles for award flights. So back to the last example, your United miles can get you flights on dozens of international airlines that cover the globe—ones with far fewer customers sitting on large stockpiles of miles as your competition.

The 3 Global Alliances, from Best to Worst

Oneworld

The alliance of American Airlines. Oneworld has great coverage in some parts of the world, and some weak gaps in others. Availability can be frustratingly limited thanks to American's relatively stingy policy of award seats for direct flights, and finding seats on other airlines is a very mixed bag. Also, British Airways and their ridiculous "fuel surcharges" don't help when those comes up in search results with flights you'd never want to take. That being said, it does offer pretty strong coverage in certain parts of the world with key partners leading specific markets. 

Notable Members

• American Airlines

• British Airways—but you'd never want to take an award flight with British Airways. With taxes and fees that go into the hundreds of dollars.  

• Qantas

• Qatar. Huge addition to the international network, given Qatar's extensive network in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. 

• JAL (Japan), Cathay Pacific, and Malaysian Airlines

• LATAM (LAN and TAM airlines, covering South America very well)

• Iberia (Spain) and FinnAir (Finland + a decent international network via Helsinki)

• S7 (Russia, not that we can go there anytime soon…)

How to Find Availability

Starts to get tricky here. American Airlines will show availability for a few partners (British Airways, Finnair, Qantas, and Royal Jordanian). Since you'd never want to actually get an award ticket for British Airways, this doesn't leave many big options on American's own website. Instead, ironically you'd need to use British Airways' website to find award space, then call into American to actually book it. (At least they'll waive the phone booking fee in this case, if the award can't be booked on their own website.)

Some downsides to British Airways' website. 

1. It can't show connecting flights. Instead, you'd need to figure out where the flights connect (use Google flights) then search availability by each segment manually, like an idiot. 

2. It's not an easy site to use overall. You need to have a frequent flier mile account on BA to even search. And award flight searches are in its own section of the site. No just checking a box for award flights instead of regular ones in the main search page. 

Skyteam

Third, there’s Delta and their Skyteam alliance. This is the smallest of the 3 alliances. Historically, award flights on Delta will cost far more than other airlines, but Delta has made improvements on this in recent years, while other airlines have made theirs worse. I guess they call this “convergence”. If nothing else, Skyteam gives you a third option when Star Alliance and Oneworld come up empty. 

Notable Members

• Delta

• Air France/KLM, ITA (but with the demise of Alitalia, Italy’s national carrier doesn’t do much as an alliance member)

• China Southern, China Eastern, Xiamen Air—Skyteam actually has really good coverage of China, a weakness spot for OneWorld

• Aeroflot (Russia, not that we can go there anytime soon…)

• China Airlines (Taiwan), Korean Air, 

• Garuda (Indonesia), Vietnam Airlines

• Aeromexico 

How to Find Availability

Delta's website some some partner availability. Otherwise, Air France's site has much better coverage.