Today was a big day for new additions to global alliances. To be fair, these are just the announcements of additions but in the near future oneworld and SkyTeam fliers will have more options for mileage earning and redemption.

First up, SkyTeam. Air Europa, Copa Airlines, and Kenya Airways all signed up as associate members. Air Europa is based in Spain and flies to sun spots around the world so that frozen Europeans can warm up. Copa, formerly partially owned by SkyTeam member Continental, connects North and South America through its hub in Panama. Kenya Airways is probably the most exciting addition because it opens up an entire new continenta. From its Nairobi home in East Africa, the airline flies to Europe, Asia, West Africa, and Southern Africa.

Now, I’m not exaclty sure it was it means to be an associate member, but it probably means they have to get coffee and pick up dry cleaning for the primary members. I imagine the rules for joining as an associate are less strict so it’s easier to join. In the end though, they will have earn/burn ability for frequent flier miles, codesharing, and lounge sharing so the customer will benefit.

SkyTeam’s US members are Northwest, Continental, and Delta, at least until some merger happens and changes everything around.

Next up is oneworld. They said yesterday that as of April 1, Malev, Royal Jordanian, Japan Airlines (JAL), and all its affiliates will join the group. Also that day, Aer Lingus will leave the alliance and go it alone saying that everything is just fine, they’re at the controls, flying the plane, free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment.

Malev is based in Budapest (Hungary), Royal Jordanian in Amman (Jordan, duh), and JAL in Tokyo. They all fly to destinations on several continents. American is the US airline in this alliance.

Hong Kong’s Dragonair, along with LAN Ecuador and LAN Argentina will join sometime later this year as well marking a pretty strong expansion by the alliance.

I believe we can now officially declare Delta’s schedule planning announcements to be clear shots at US Airways and not merely coincidence.

On the heels of Delta’s New York/JFK – Phoenix and Salt Lake City – Charlotte announcements which I documented here, we get today’s announcement of new Salt Lake City – Pittsburgh flights. Yup, that’s the same Pittsburgh that US Airways considers a hublet these days.

The airline says it will begin one daily flight on a CRJ-900 regional jet on March 1. That’s right – almost 1,700 miles of good regional jet fun.

As I mentioned before, this appears to be just pure spite for US Airways. Bob Cortelyou, the head of Network Planning for Delta, was quoted in the release as saying “Delta continues to compete on every coast . . . .” This isn’t aimed at the local market – this is supposed to steal traffic between Pittsburgh and the West Coast from US Airways. It is also irresponsible asset utilization at its finest and yet another reason why US Airways could do a better job managing this airline.

And on that front, US Airways put a release out today saying that they hope to begin due diligence soon. I’m not sure why they put the release out. Maybe Delta is dragging its feet in the hopes that US Airways will just forget about it or something, and US Airways wants to point this out for all to see so that they can get things moving again.

One thing I do find very interesting is an article in USA Today which claims that US Airways will not fight for control of Delta if Delta management doesn’t want them to do so. Doug Parker made this statement at a meeting with USA Today reporters and editors yesterday. This seems very strange to me, because Delta management has been clear that they aren’t interested for months now. I’m not sure what would make Doug think that they’re going to change their minds, but maybe he knows more than we do.

The 757 is an aircraft that missed its calling. It was supposed to be a replacement for the 727 back in the 1980s. This meant its mission was for mid to longer-range domestic flights. The longest hauls were still the domain of the widebodies.

Delta seems to be on a neverending quest to spend lots of money to improve the customer experience. With that in mind, today’s announcement should be no surprise.

Beginning early 2008, Delta will install truly lie-flat seat in Business Elite, the airlines premium service on international flights. Not including Eos, which only flies between New York and London, Delta is the first US carrier to go with an all lie-flat product in business class.

They’ve chosen the seat pioneered by Virgin Atlantic in Upper Class a few years ago. Since that time, Air Canada and Air New Zealand have also purchased that seat. The unique feature of this seat is that it doesn’t face forward – it’s in a herringbone format so it’s angled inward. That allows them to fit more seats on the plane while giving a great deal of privacy. Here’s what it will look like:

As you can see, it’s a very nice looking product. Even though the seat has been bought from Virgin, this appears to be a slight change to their product. On Virgin, the seat back flips forward to turn into a bed. That makes a very comfortable bed even though the seat leaves a little to be desired. Upon reviewing Delta’s seat, it appears to work differently.

If you go to the press release, you can see more photos. From those pictures, it appears that this seat reclines into the bed position without flipping over. This may hurt the quality of the bed but the seat itself may be more comfortable. We’ll have to wait and see.

And yes, we’ll be waiting a long time. Early in 2008, only the two new long range 777s get the seats. The rest of the 777s don’t get it until fall 2008 and the 767s, the bulk of the airline’s international fleet, won’t be done until 2010.

Update (at 124p):

Silly me for reading the press release too fast. Delta used a little wordplay here:

“The airline also expects to offer a lie-flat option on its 767 aircraft. These modifications are expected to be complete by 2010.”

I took that to mean that the 767s would get the same lie-flat option, but it appears that they will get just “a lie-flat option.” This means it could be a different seat entirely, but no plans have yet been finalized. For now, it’s just the small fleet of 777s.

Back at the end of August, the District Court judge reviewing Northwest flight attendants’ right to strike put the decision on hold until he could gather more info.

Today, he finally issued a ruling saying that the flight attendants will not be allowed to strike at this time and the matter has to go back to the bankruptcy court for further proceedings. I’m not sure exactly what that means yet.

This all goes back to the interpretation of the Railway Labor Act (RLA) which binds airline employees as well as those that ride the rails. Now a little history.

Airlines and its employee unions/workgroups/etc come to agreement on a working contract. These contracts are for a set period of time, but they never expire. When the time period is up, they become amendable. If negotiations fail and mediation (National Mediation Board) is unsuccessful, both side enter a 30 day cooling off period. After that, they are entitled to self-help, which can include strikes.

This is fairly straightforward, but it entered a gray area when Northwest voided the flight attendants’ contract. See, the airline was given permission by the bankruptcy court to impose a contract that would dramatically reduce pay. As soon as they did that, the flight attendants argued that since they never agreed to this contract, the RLA didn’t apply. So they wanted to strike without going through all the hoops required in the RLA.

I’m not a legal scholar by any means, but I side with the flight attendants here. They are working under a contract that they never agreed to work under, and they should be permitted to seek self-help. Of course, my opinion sadly holds no legal value, so we’ll just have to see where this one goes. Appeals are flying as we speak.