Star Alliance tamps down Virgin Australia speculation

Mark Schwab and John Borghetti comments re-enforces my belief that VA is not going to join any air alliances because it will become some what a nightmare for VA.

It is easier and cheaper for VA to be air alliance neutral and offer Velocity members on a reciprocal basis with its respective airline partner.

I pity Virgin flyers. Cue negative comments and dislikes.

Fact is those who have chosen Virgin, and those who did so to spite Qantas, do not really have a global alliance to facilitate arbitrage. You're stuck in a complex web of bespoke airline arrangements designed to maximise revenue for these airlines.

Like Trump voters, they'll be kept on tenterhooks, while slowly coming to the reality that all the things they hope would transpire, will never be a reality.

I really don't understand why there is an obsession with some people about VA joining an alliance.  The whole global alliance thing has never delivered what was promised when they were created back in the '90s.  At the time they were supposed to deliver things such

Why would Star Alliance want an LCC as part of their team anyway?

I would expect any alliance would put a stop to family pooling in Velocity,  as it is far too easy to get Gold status under the current arrangement.   Not sure Virgin need an alliance,  it just needs to get a few more decent partnerships onto redemption table 1.  

Don't forget Star Alliance Connecting Partner Model is coming online next year. Perhaps VA would consider being part of CPM without needing to join as a full member. 

And this is why for the global frequent traveller QF still wins, hands down.

Usually when there's speculation, it means it's true.

Every second month (or week, reopening!) I seem to read a story with a headline somewhat like, “Virgin changes lounge access at *** again…”. I’m not saying that their competitor has a particularly lucid, or very easily understood programme with no ‘exceptions’ either, but the reality is that it is vastly easier to come to grips with QF/OW and their peccadillos than it is with Virgin.

Something has to give at Virgin at some point, they've never turned a profit, their shareholders keep pumping money in and it's just going nowhere...the value proposition internationally for them is frankly confusing, I predict at some point Borghetti will go, AJ and QF have clearly outperformed him and maybe then an alliance will be on the cards....cant see them surviving in the current model long term

A shame to hear, as joining Star Alliance would be a big deal for Virgin, but I am not sure if it would be big enough and sufficiently justify the costs (and possible breakdown of JVs with other airlines) in order to bring enough passengers across from Qantas, which is really the 'main game' for Virgin. Unless the airline can be sure that joining Star Alliance is going to mean a certain (and very big) number of premium travellers is going to decamp from Qantas and fly Virgin I can't see such a move making economic sense for Virgin.

I am Australian, currently Star Alliance Gold Status with Lufthansa & Asiana and fly mostly premium cabins almost every week. When flying from Australia to North America, I always fly Air Canada, United or Air New Zealand. When flying domestically in Australia, I use whoever is cheapest at the time between Qantas and Virgin. If Virgin were part of Star Alliance, I would almost 100% use them exclusively for those routes and possibly also to Asia/Europe. But without them being in Star Alliance, my loyalty lies elsewhere.

IIRC VA were initially partnered with UA, but back then you couldn't even interline bagagge with VA and the codeshare arrangement seemed to disappear.