Air Berlin is also joining the oneworld alliance based around British Airways and American Airlines.
British Airways, American and Japan Air Lines are key partners in the Oneworld Alliance.
The merged carrier would continue American's participation in the OneWorld alliance, which was founded by American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas.
More alarming to Virgin than losing this opportunity is that the deal tightens the grip that its archrival, BA, and its oneworld alliance partners have on Heathrow, London's main hub airport.
Instead of using miles to travel the globe through the Star Alliance of carriers, however, US Airways customers will have to deal with new international partners through the oneworld alliance, led by American and British Airways.
The pair are already members of the oneworld airline alliance.
Both Qantas -- known as the "Flying Kangaroo" airline -- and BA are partners in the Oneworld Global Alliance, an umbrella which links 10 of the world's carriers, including American Airlines and Cathay Pacific.
Since then, most airlines have collected themselves into three different alliances: OneWorld, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam.
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On Monday, Qatar Airways revealed its plan to join the Oneworld global airline alliance by 2014.
With the two largest groupings, Star Alliance and Oneworld, the most straightforward snags are those that limit the miles you can earn on partners.
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Membership in a major alliance, including Star Alliance, SkyTeam and oneworld, can also be considered a reassurance to nervous travelers, Voss said.
It beggars belief to think that oneworld can be more than a frequent flyer earn-and-burn alliance under those circumstances.
Air Berlin, Germany's second largest carrier after Lufthansa, has only been a member of Oneworld since March last year and if it were ever to leave, the alliance wouldn't let it go quietly.
Then, rival Tim Clark's Emirates set up a 10-year partnership with Qantas -- another oneworld member -- which will clearly have major implications on relations with other alliance members such as BA and Cathay.
The oneworld members are now either in bed with rival gulf carriers or hitched to rival alliance members in strategic partnerships.
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