Hainan Airlines: any goss on which alliance it might join?

[dlam]

Working in China for half of the year, I have quite an interest in what alliance, if any, Hainan Airlines might join. As arguably China's best airline it still doesn't belong to an alliance. Given that both China Southern and Eastern are SkyTeam (even though Qantas has some codeshare and points agreement with the latter) and Air China is Star Alliance do you think that Hainan might join the One World fold? Of course I have a vested interested this will happen as I want to take advantage of the Sydney-Xi'an flight.

Anyone have any tips? Goss? Wild speculation?

 

[Mattg]

I would speculate that it if anything, Hainan may join oneworld as it doesn't yet have a member airline in mainland China.

But only if Cathay Pacific doesn't get its way - they're part of the reason none of the other major Chinese airlines have joined oneworld yet.

 

[dlam]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. It's about time OneWorld has a major, mainland China based carrier.

 

[dlam]

I also wonder what implications there might be for the QF MU partnership if Hainan did join OW. I think being rid of MU would be great for QF.

 

[Mattg]

I also wonder what implications there might be for the QF MU partnership if Hainan did join OW. I think being rid of MU would be great for QF.

Isn't Hainan going to partner with VA? It could end up a bit like Airberlin (partnering with both VA and QF through oneworld).

 

[RooFlyer]

No help, sorry, but a good place to note that Hainan is an Alaska Airlines partner, meaning that we can use those cheap-ish Alaska miles on Hainan

 

[Mattg]

No help, sorry, but a good place to note that Hainan is an Alaska Airlines partner, meaning that we can use those cheap-ish Alaska miles on Hainan

That's true, but not on routes to/from Australia unfortunately.

 

[RooFlyer]

Too true! Instead of flying back direct from Xi'an next month, its via HKG and SIN on Dragon Air and SQ

 

[dlam]

Oh, I didn't know Hainan was partnering with VA. Tried to work out Hainan's FF program but couldn't make too much sense of it.

 

[RooFlyer]

The one I was talking about partnering with Hainan is Alaska Airlines. They aren't in an alliance, but partner with a wide range of airlines across various alliances, which make them a really good airline to redeem miles on; you can purchase Alaskan miles quite economically when there are bonus offers on.

Sorry, that's o/t from your query but I thought I'd put in in this rare discussion of Hainan.

 

[moa999]

To add to the mix is the cross-shareholding (ie. Each own a chunk of each other) between Cathay Pacific and Air China.

Without some significant shuffling of the deck chairs and relationships, I see nothing changing quickly.

 

[williamsf1]

Isn't Hainan going to partner with VA? It could end up a bit like Airberlin (partnering with both VA and QF through oneworld).

Hainan are also a partner of AB

 

[dajop]

One of the issues around Hainan joining oneworld would have to be their part ownership of Hong Kong Airlines, which may mean CX are not all that favourable towards them. But who knows. CX alone can't offer the connectivity within China that a Chinese carrier can.

 

[yohy?!]

It won't be one world as long as CX has a vote, they stopped them joining in 2010

 

[kamchatsky]

It won't be one world as long as CX has a vote, they stopped them joining in 2010

Unless CA yanks CX and make its join *A.

 

[dlam]

It won't be one world as long as CX has a vote, they stopped them joining in 2010

So it needs to be a unanimous vote to admit new members?