Quali-flyer

Thanks for the info, gentlemen. I was pretty close with my initial assertion. Good to see you back in the mix, Bhoy.

ok, I’ve gone through a folder of FF statements, and came across a letter dated 10 November 97. I might have mixed a few things up myself, and it was Cathay, not Singapore as the Asian partner (although that must have come later, can’t confirm details)

Qualiflyer
AUSTRIAN AIRLINES sabena swissair

10 November 1997

Atlantic Excellence: our collaboration, your convenience

Dear …,

What date and departure time suit you best? Atlantic Excellence, the mould-breaking collaboration between Swissair, Austrian Airlines, Sabena and Delta Air Lines, gives you a vast choice of connections to more than 300 different destinations all over the world. So you can choose the flight that ideally fits your individual travel plans.

The collaboration between these four quality air carriers offers you a number of other benefits, too – benefits we know you’ll appreciate as one of our more frequent guests. Such as carefully coordinated connections that give you the smoothest of transfers from one flight to the next; through-check-in from your airport of original departure right through to your final Atlantic Excellence destination; and closely harmonised fares for maximum transparency. If that were not enough, you’ll also collect Club Miles on any Atlantic Excellence service; and you can use any of the four partners’ airport lounges (for teh class you are travelling in) when you take an Atlantic Excellence flight.

Needless to say, you can redeem your Qualiflyer miles for Atlantic Excellence travel, too: just 60’000 miles will earn you a Free Ticket between Europe and North America, Mexico, the Bahamas, Bermuda or the Caribbean.

We hope you will make full use of our innovative Atlantic Excellence product; and we look forward to welcoming you on board again soon.

Sincerley,

Mario Rehluka Paul Reitlinger Philippe Bruggisser
President President and CEO President and CEO
Austrian Airlines Sabena SAirGroup

P.S Atlantic Excellence, a collaboration between Swissair, Austrian Airlines, Sabena and Delta Air Lines, offers you an attractive timetable and various other benefits.

My, what nirvana they promised… and you’d think they could have laid that out a bit better, and did they really have to bold every semi colon?

Can’t find anything else in the Folder, but I’m sure I’ve still got the old handbook somewhere, which should list all the partners.

gd, think you’ve mixed a couple of things up there…

About 15 years ago, when Swissair first started alliances, I think they promoted something they called Global Excellence, which comprised Swissair, Austrian Airlines, Delta and Singapore Airlines. There was talk back then of KLM being the next to join, but then they went off with Northwest, and the two remaining european airlines fell out, as their targets were at opposite ends of the scale (back then, OS only had two long haul routes, Tokyo (via Moscow) and New York (operated by their long haul fleet of two A310s), while Swissair had a reasonably sized long haul network served by 5 A310s on the medium to long haul network, 2 747-300’s and 3 747-300M’s, and around 12 DC-10-30’s).

Austrian went off by itself, starting flights behind the newly opened Iron Curtain, ultimately buying Lauda, thereby inheriting it’s longhaul network, while Swissair went off and bought Sabena, which, ultimately, may have been what finished it off at the end of the day, by tieing up their cash reserves.

What bmi-star lists there is what Swissair had assembled at the time it collapsed.

I’ll see if I can find any more details in the attic.

I found this 🙂

The Qualiflyer Group airlines

Swissair, Sabena, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish Airlines, Air Liberté,
Crossair, Air Littoral, Air Europe, LOT, Polish Airlines, PGA-Portugália Airlines,
Volare Airlines, Balair, LTU

Seems the likes of CX, AA, US, MH, SA, and JAL were “partner” airlines, but not members