It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Singapore Airlines will start code-shares with a fellow Star Alliance carrier, it may just surprise you with which carrier in the group they picked.

US Airways, which in my opinion is the 'worst' all around airline in the alliance, will begin carrying SQ flight numbers on selected routes in the US come June. Additionally, US Airways will be able to place its flight numbers on SQ operated flights to places such as Perth, Bandar Seri Begawan, Manchester, and Amsterdam just to name a few cities. US will also have a flight number on the non-stop flight to Singapore from Los Angeles.

For starters, I don't know how many people in the US can find Bandar Seri Begawan on a map, including US Airways reservation agents. In my experiences, airline customer service reps in America - those that haven't been outsourced to a call center on this side of the world at least, are geographically clueless to the location of some of their airlines destinations sometimes. Half the time when I have flown US Airways when I hand over my Krisflyer card at check-in, they don't even know the two letter code for Singapore Airlines! (which is SQ in case you are wondering). US Airways selection of cities in SIA's route network to place its flight number on is also particularly puzzling because they don't have a presence in Asia whatsoever as most all of their international operations are focused solely on Europe, Latin America, and Carribean destinations from their hubs in the U.S.

But despite the so-called "benefits" of code-sharing, I am going to go out on a limb and say that this is a bad decision for SIA, and quite saddly the only benefits that SIA will be receiving from this tie up will come in dollars and cents, something they have plenty of as we all know.

The routes SIA will place its code on make sense, as the destinations are major, growing markets in the U.S., including Las Vegas, which is a city SIA tried to serve but couldn't make work. But, where code-shares really fail in my view is where their is such a disparity in terms of overall quality from the operating airline of the flight, and the airline holding the code-share flight number. In more simple terms: SIA regulars are in for a real sad surprise when they get on that US Airways jet, and US Airways customers will see an unbelievable service improvement when they get on the SIA jets. Additionally, it will be interesting to see how US Airways prices their code-share flights when ticket booking is available in a few months, given the fact that US Airways went towards a more lower cost pricing structure that was adopted with the America West tie up.

SIA fares on the other hand, are on the opposite end of the spectrum practically, and are widely known in the airline world as being significantly higher than average in the 'premium' range. So it will be worth watching to see how they price their codeshare flights on US Airways.

Regardless of that factor, I think SIA is doing a great disservice to itself by linking up with such poor airlines. Singapore Airlines wins numerous awards on a yearly basis as the best airline in the world. US Airways on the other hand, consistently factors in much further down in terms of service, and you rarely ever see them win any accolades. During the 90's when US Airways was 'US Air,' their nickname become 'US scare' after a series of accidents and crashes.

I do however rank US Airways at the top of the list for one category; worst in-flight service, and rudest flight attendants I have encountered. But then again in America, this more often than not the norm, as good customer service in the skies is hard to come by.

US Airways also isn't the first substandard airline that SQ has code-shares with; Air India has a number of its flight numbers on routes operated with SIA aircraft.

The bottom line here is that SIA is known globally as providing a significantly better, and superior product than its competitors, and people pay money for that. However, when you link up code-shares with airlines that are significantly more substandard than yourself, it only hurts you and your brand. Such I think is the case we will find with this most recent tie up with US Airways.

-Curtis Bergh