The airspace over Asia is practically full of low-cost airlines, so it was obvious to the first global alliance of low-cost airlines to be launched on this side of the Pacific.
With a total combined fleet of 176 aircraft serving 160 destinations in Southeast Asia, North Asia, Australia, India and the Middle East, the newly created Value Alliance brings together Cebu Pacific of the Philippines, Jeju Air of Korea, Nok Air of Thailand, Scoot of Singapore, NokScoot (Singapore and Thailand), TigerAir (Singapore and Australia) and Japan’s Vanilla Air in a partnership that promises to simplify the Asian flying experience for travelers.
“Under the Value Alliance, customers have the ability to book multi-destination itineraries on a variety of flights offered by any of the alliance partners,” explains Hazel Gonzales, manager of corporate communications for Cebu Pacific. “At the same time, customers will be able to select from the full range of service options for their reservation.”
Value Alliance Traveler Benefits
The alliance is the first association of its kind between low-cost operators. Before the Value Alliance, interline agreements between two low-cost carriers were the best you could hope for, such as the existing partnership between Cebu Pacific and TigerAir, and the joint venture between Scoot and NokAir that produced NokScoot.
By allowing eight airlines to share interchangeable reservations and ancillary services, the Value Alliance removes all previous partnerships out of the water. When the Value Alliance website launches its booking services, travelers will enjoy the following benefits from participating low-cost airlines:
A reservation, a broader itinerary . Book an itinerary on the Cebu Pacific site, and it will only cover destinations served by the combined network of Cebu Pacific and TigerAir. Book with Jeju Air and you are just outside of their mostly Korea-based network.
With Value Alliance, you have much more to work with: Travelers can book seamless itineraries through the combined 160+ destinations of alliance members through a one -stop-shop service . “Guests will be able to view, select and book online the best available airfares on any of the Value Alliance airlines in a single transaction,” Cebu Pacific’s Hazel Gonzales tells us. “This gives the customers of each airline more destinations, more route options and more comfort.”
Complete service options on all the airlines at your fingertips. Existing interline partnerships, such as those between Cebu Pacific and TigerAir, allowed for booking flights between networks, but did not allow for booking add-ons such as meals or reserved seats.
All that has changed now. The Value Alliance booking interface allows travelers to purchase flight add-ons from all partners – you can select seats, order meals and buy baggage allowances on all partner airlines when building your itinerary.
New free reservation in case of delays. When a leg of your Value Alliance itinerary is delayed, you don’t have to worry about the additional costs of rebooking subsequent legs. “In the event of incorrect connections caused by an interruption or delay caused by the carrier’s first flight, the second carrier will rebook a passenger on their next available flight at no charge,” explains Gonzales.
What it won’t cover
It is still in its early days, so the full capacity of the Value Alliance is still in the works. Even when fully online, the alliance will not provide the benefits provided by other more established airline alliances, such as common rooms and miles of transferable lines – expensive benefits that have no place in a low budget airline alliance.
“The key is educating customers that this is not like the traditional alliance like the Star Alliance, this is about sales and distribution,” says Campbell Wilson, CEO of Scoot. Therefore, “each Value Alliance member airline operates independently and will retain its own distinctive operating culture, service style and benefits, including its loyalty program,” explains Cebu Pacific’s Gonzales.
This means that your Cebu Pacific GetGo and TigerAir Stripes points cannot be used with other Alliance airlines. The good news is that this also means that we won’t see the end of each airline’s special discounts anytime soon.
The Alliance also excludes some of the major regional budget airlines, such as Australia’s Jetstar, India’s IndiGo and Malaysia’s AirAsia. The latter, in particular, is equivalent in size and scope to the combined Value Alliance network and fleet, so they are not likely to join anytime soon. However, the door is open for future partners: “This is not a closed alliance,” explains Wilson. “We are open to new members joining the alliance. Who and where obviously we still cannot say.
Value Alliance Nuts and Bolts
None of this would have been possible without Air Black Box (ABB), the developer of the Air Connection Engine (ACE) that enables Value Alliance partners to collaborate on a combined route network that incorporates their entire inventory.
The key advancement of the system, explains ABB co-founder Timothy O’Neil Dunne, is the ability to ‘provide a distribution service so that the airline’s PSS [passenger service system] doesn’t have to change, that’s not a change in the cost of infrastructure [for the airlines]. “
“Technology allows us to interact with other airlines within the Value Alliance, including those that use different PSSs, to provide a solution to a guest’s travel query, even on routes that Vanilla Air may not serve to connect Japan with the rest of the world. Asia Pacific, «Comments Vanilla Air Chairman Katsuya Goto.
To learn more about the association and its technology (and eventually create an Asia low-cost airline itinerary of your choice), visit the official Valor Alianza website. There is no reservation functionality for now, but that will change very, very soon.
