I think these "partnerships" that we see cropping up everywhere now are the new "alliances". I was half expecting VS to join Sky Team after their partnership with Delta was announced, but it didn't happen.
It would make some sense to join Skyteam. But with the joint venture in place, is there any extra value from having Aeroflot, Aerolineas Argentinas, etc. as partners? China aside, Skyteam is the alliance of airlines that would be rejected by *A and Oneworld...
It may make premium seats on Air France, KLM and Garuda more accessible with FC miles. And there would be access to the SkyTeam lounges, although at Heathrow that's in Terminal 4, as opposed to Virgin being T3.
That might be the best reason of all to not join Skyteam - the resulting pressure to combine everything together into T4. I know it was new and shiny years ago, but now it's just incredibly inconvenient. Unfortunately FC have spent their entire existence making it hard to spend miles on partners, so I can't see them joining Skyteam just so that members can thrill themselves with rewards on Garuda and Aeroflot! Might be good for members, of course, but VS corporate?
Plus if Virgin moved to T4, their private terminal adjoined to T3 would presumably become redundant. I can't see them doing that. It's one of the good things about Heathrow. Although, we've seen many benefits vanish in the points collecting world recently, so it wouldn't surprise me if that was another.
Given the restrictions Qatar place on the use of their lounge in T4, I can't see them being that keen on it being overrun if they moved to T3! Malaysian might not mind too much if the remaining OneWorld airlines moved from T4 to T3. I guess you'd need to move some of the non-SkyTeam "odds and ends" from T4 to T3 to balance up if Virgin headed to T4. T4 is a pain to get to, compared to T2/T3/T5, but should actually have a better Crossrail service than T5 unless things change...
