Alliance Rankings

oneworld is boasting about being the best airline alliance as rated by Skytrax, Global Traveler, and World Travel Awards   Impressive right?  It isn’t because these surveys are horribly subjective and even if you tried, there’s no empirical way to determine the best airline alliance.  Ultimately the best alliance is the one you enjoy flying the most; so the best airline alliance as rated by FrequentFlyerGuy.com is the Star Alliance.  oneworld is good too, the bulk of my back up miles are with oneworld carriers.  Skyteam is just Delta and a few other off brand carriers, they’ll let anyone join if Delta approves and Star Alliance or oneworld passes.  Some of the best alliances are between carriers and not part of a larger branded agreement.  Alaska Airlines has an outstanding list of partners and reasonably priced awards; Alaska is also a great way to pool American and Delta flights if you don’t travel with either enough for elite status.  Etihad has 21 airline partners so they can provide an alliance style product while maintaining control of the process.  So what is an alliance and who’s is the best?  It depends (the #1 answer in grad school when there is no clear answer).

American Airlines MD