What an Airline Alliance Actually Is
When an award search shows a flight on an airline whose miles you do not hold, the booking can still work if that airline and your program share an alliance. An alliance lets one frequent-flyer program earn and redeem on flights the other members operate. It is also what lets one ticket include flights on partner airlines, and what opens a partner lounge when your own carrier has none at that airport.
For the programs this site tracks, the networks that decide partner space are Star Alliance, oneworld, and SkyTeam. A program outside those networks spends its miles on its own flights, or on whatever separate partners it lists on its own.
Who Is in Each Alliance
Star Alliance is the network behind United, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Singapore Airlines, ANA, and Avianca. Miles in one of those programs are a Star Alliance search.
oneworld is the network behind American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, and Alaska. Atmos Rewards is the Alaska program in our file.
SkyTeam is the network behind Delta, Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic. A Delta award and a Flying Blue award can be the same SkyTeam seat, priced in different currencies.
Why Alliances Matter for Award Travel
You book the operating airline with miles from a different program in the same alliance. A Lufthansa flight is Star Alliance metal, so United MileagePlus, Air Canada Aeroplan, and Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles can each be the currency. They do not publish the same kind of price, and a lower number in one program is not something this page will guess.
United MileagePlus publishes no award chart. Pricing is dynamic, and the figures in our file are unverifiable starting levels, not a chart. The stored transatlantic business starting level is 60,000 miles one-way.
On that same transatlantic row, Star Alliance carriers price from Aeroplan's fixed All other partners column, not from the dynamic Select Partners column. Business class on that fixed column is 60,000 miles one-way.
Turkish publishes a Star Alliance partner matrix that is region-to-region, separate from its Turkiye-anchored own-metal table. For North America to Europe 2 on that partner matrix (the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), business class is 90,000 miles one-way.
ANA Mileage Club prices its own awards round-trip only, which is why that row has no one-way field. Transatlantic business in that table is 88,000 miles round-trip. Whether a carrier-imposed surcharge is passed through is a separate question from the mile price. The fuel-surcharge guide covers which program you book through, and the Aeroplan guide covers the Star Alliance booking path.
Programs We Track by Alliance
Star Alliance programs in our file are United MileagePlus, Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, Lufthansa Miles & More, ANA Mileage Club, Singapore KrisFlyer, and Avianca LifeMiles. Lufthansa own metal is no longer chart-priced. When a journey is only Air Dolomiti, Austrian, Discover, Lufthansa, Lufthansa City, or SWISS, mileage is calculated dynamically at booking. The published chart applies to Star Alliance partner metal, and those chart amounts are round-trip. Avianca LifeMiles no longer publishes an award chart. The figures we still store are last-known starting levels, not a fixed price. Singapore still publishes real charts, with Saver and Advantage tiers that our schema does not distinguish.
oneworld programs in our file are American Airlines AAdvantage, British Airways Avios, Iberia Plus, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, and Atmos Rewards. American Airlines AAdvantage prices dynamically and has no published chart. British Airways publishes no numeric Avios chart. Pricing is fixed rather than dynamic, with peak and off-peak bands, but it is published only through the booking tool. The figures in our file are an unverified snapshot, not an operator-confirmed chart. Iberia Plus uses fixed peak and off-peak bands, surfaced through the booking flow rather than a published table. Those figures are an unverified snapshot and should not be treated as operator-confirmed. Cathay publishes no award-ticket chart. It is not marked dynamic: unpublished is not the same as dynamic. Atmos Rewards still publishes per-partner award charts, so the program remains chart-based rather than dynamic.
SkyTeam programs in our file are Delta SkyMiles, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Delta SkyMiles publishes no award chart. Pricing is dynamic, and the stored figures are unverifiable starting levels, not a chart. Flying Blue is fully dynamic, and the stored figures are starting levels. Virgin Atlantic publishes no numeric reward chart, and pricing above Saver is variable.
JetBlue TrueBlue is revenue-based. Points required track the cash fare, and there is no published chart to verify against. Southwest Rapid Rewards is revenue-based in the same way, with no published chart. Emirates Skywards publishes no award-ticket chart. Itinerary-dependent pricing is not demand-dependent, and Emirates does not state that award pricing floats, so the row is not marked dynamic. JetBlue, Southwest, and Emirates are not members of Star Alliance, oneworld, or SkyTeam, so those miles do not open the partner seats above.
Using Alliances to Find Seats
Search the operating airline for a seat, then price that same flight in each alliance program you can transfer into. A dynamic program will not show a chart price in advance. A program with a fixed partner column will. Read the price in the program you intend to book before you move any points.
The compare award availability page and the search tool put those programs next to each other for one route. The alliance tells you which currencies can see the seat. The file tells you whether the number you remember is a chart.
The Bottom Line
Know which alliance a flight belongs to, then read the price in the programs that can book it. A fixed partner figure, such as the Aeroplan business price above, is a number you can plan around. A dynamic starting level is not. Check the route on the explore map before you transfer.