Dear Alex,
Late last year I booked with the South African Airways (SAA) website (flysaa.com) to fly from London Heathrow to Walvis Bay via Johannesburg. I used SA Express for the sector between Johannesburg and Walvis Bay.
For this trip I expected to be granted Star Alliance gold benefits, which include [an extra 20kg] baggage allowance for both the international and domestic flights. But I found that SA Express would not honour this higher allowance, so I had to pay excess fees. Nor does [SAA regional partner] Airlink. Why can’t SAA’s website spell out exactly what passengers are entitled to?
Peter Rejchrt, London
Alex replies:
South African Airways is a Star Alliance member but SA Express and Airlink are not. I can understand how confused you must have been because flysaa.com does not explain that these carriers are not Star members. It is a common misconception that subsidiaries of a full Star member are automatically members of the same alliance. In some cases they are but in others they are not.
In general, you will receive Star benefits only when flights are operated by the member airline itself. A list of members is displayed on the alliance websites (staralliance.com, oneworld.com, skyteam.com).
It has taken some months for Star to investigate the matter on your behalf. What has happened, no doubt because of prompting from Star, is that flysaa.com has been redesigned and an advisory appears on the booking page. I made a “ghost” booking for London-Johannesburg-Walvis Bay and a banner towards the top now states: “SAX [sic] and Airlink passengers do not qualify for Star Alliance baggage allowance.” Although not perfect, this advisory is a step in the right direction.
Readers wishing to use their Star Alliance gold tier status for benefits such as lounge access when travelling economy class or to receive a higher baggage limit must distinguish between alliance carriers who are members and their subsidiaries who may be non-members. Clearly, a subsidiary carrier can become a member too (provided it meets the necessary criteria) but the main airline may be unwilling to pay the fees.
So why do the big carriers operate subsidiaries? It is all to do with cost-cutting. The smaller carriers can operate less profitable or shorter routes more efficiently. A classic case is within Asia, where Singapore Airlines (SIA) is handing over more and more of its regional services to wholly owned subsidiary Silk Air, which is not part of Star.
When I first flew with Silk Air in the early 1990s, it served a handful of mainly leisure destinations in two or three countries. Today it has expanded to serve more than 30 destinations in 11 countries, many of which routes were previously operated by SIA. They include business cities in major markets such as India, Malaysia and mainland China.
It means a passenger boarding SIA in London to fly to Kuala Lumpur via Singapore will almost certainly find themselves taking Silk Air on the final hop. Likewise, a Sydneysider taking SIA to Bangalore could be taking Silk Air for the leg across the Bay of Bengal. So buyer beware. (See “Watch your weight”, businesstraveller.com/archive/2010/may-2010.)
