Bilateral airline agreements

Alan Joyce calls his deal “the most comprehensive premium travel experience on the planet,” while John Borghetti is barely less effulgent about Virgin’s “truly global flight coverage”.

But after the glitzy launch full of attractive flight attendants and big smiles all round, airlines seem to lose track of what matters to their best passengers. Seat selection. Upgrades. Priority queues and boarding. Baggage allowances. Frequent flyer points. Status credits. Lounge access.
Some of the problems are about staff education.

Just ask anyone who’s tried to persuade Misty in Memphis or Artie in Atlanta that their Virgin Australia Platinum card should get them into the Delta Sky Club. Misty was probably looking for Austrian Airlines’ OS code rather than for VA, and Arty has a laminated piece of paper that refers to Virgin Blue and airline code DJ.

But other problems are frustratingly systemic.

A quick Qantas quiz: how many points will you earn flying around Europe on a Qantas Frequent Flyer partner? Buying a ticket on oneworld members British Airways, Finnair or airberlin could net you just 0.25 points per mile. On out-of-alliance carriers Alitalia and Aer Lingus you’ll earn 0.5 points or 0.7 points per mile as a starting rate.

Or consider the case of a Virgin Australia Platinum flying Tiger on a Scoot interline code wanting to use the Singapore Airlines lounge at Changi. (The KrisFlyer Gold lounge, just for frequent flyers, with no showers or loos.)

And if you buy an all-oneworld partner ticket — buying a ticket from Cathay with a Japan Airlines flight number on American Airlines metal — which airline’s set of fare buckets do you look at to find out how many Qantas Frequent Flyer points you get?

Even closer to home the lounge problem is a bear just between Qantas and Jetstar: consider the new Qantas Club on the Gold Coast. That’s the one that used to be the Jetstar Lounge, which used to be the Qantas Club. Qantas advertises that its frequent flyers can use the lounge when flying Jetstar, but it’s shut for nearly three hours during peak Jetstar departures, and closes for the day at 1740. How’s that for coverage? A recent Tuesday at Gold Coast airport saw 30 Jetstar services — and just three Qantas departures.

We should be grateful that Australian airlines aren’t Star Alliance carriers, though. Their frequent flyers earn points based on the operating airline with markedly less standardisation of earning codes.

Flying business on Air New Zealand and hoping to stash your points somewhere that isn’t the continually devalued and increasingly fruitless Airpoints program? Your points multiplier is 200 per cent on Lufthansa, 150 per cent on Aegean or Turkish, 125 per cent on US Airways or Singapore, or 125 per cent base and 100 per cent qualifying on United.

“Note that the booking class that appears on your ticket may differ from the booking class that the operating airline uses to determine flight miles earned,” United notes helpfully.

And, of course, then there are the exceptions.

Travelling through Los Angeles’ LAX you’re only allowed to bring kids into the new Virgin America Loft lounge if you’ve booked with Virgin Australia or hold Velocity Gold or Platinum status. Children travelling with Virgin America’s own first class passengers or non-Australian frequent flyers get to tough it out in the main terminal.

Part of the problem is there’s never a lounge access hotline for passengers or lounge dragons to call when unusual travellers ruck up at the door with an unfamiliar shiny metallic card.

It’s easy to sympathise with Andy in Anchorage at the Alaska Airlines Board Room when someone on an American Airlines codeshare brandishes a Qantas Gold card.

Every staffer in the lounge may not be aware of the intricate details of every off-alliance reciprocal arrangement (though don’t let their airline off the hook for that — it’s not good enough).

The passenger has only the Australian number on the back of the QFF card to ring. Even if the call centre is open and knows what on earth our passenger is on about, it’s unlikely that their say-so will make the doors swing wide open.

If airlines are going to spruik the benefits of their extensive partnership networks and print glossy globe-spanning maps in the back of their inflight magazines, they need to do the legwork to make sure that their passengers know what to expect when flying from coloured dot to coloured dot.