Oh dear indeed but because SRB really shouldn't be allowed out to talk about such things ... was it May or June last year that he said something like 'we'll be in an alliance within three months' ... better let it happen, if it does at all, rather than talk about something that's been ongoing for two years now.
I am fully behind it though, VS needs an alliance for feeder traffic and for connections and for FF retention. However there have been rumours about which, one said that SkyTeam invited VS to join but VS held out over terms, whereas there's a strong *A member that didn't want VS to join. We always assume it won't be OW ... but who knows. I don't think any is obvious at this moment, let's just wait and see!
As to FC I don't see that it will change that much, maybe some realignment of tiers to be comparable with the alliance VS joins - I looked at SkyTeam's tiers and VS would fit quite neatly into that. FC will stay, it's the mutual recognition of tier status that may change some things. The bigger concern is of course would other alliance members get access to VS clubhouses and redemptions (already beginning to appear thinner, or is that part of the process ?| ) ... two things though, firstly if you think about it SkyTeam is at LHR T4 and JFK T2/3 for example so VS clubhouses wouldn't even be accessible to people flying on DL, AF, KLM, etc, then secondly, if SQ can limit use of its clubhouses and access to F seats for partner redemption, then why can't VS?
There's a plane at JFK, to fly you back from far away
all those dark and frantic transatlantic miles
