Code share and the existing of an 'alliance' are for the most part unrelated. Code-share involves one airline, in this case United, buying seats from Mexicana and reselling them with a United flight number. The current arrangement of alliances are more complex arrangements, but involve things like: - common use of ground-staff at small destinations - schedule synchronization for connecting flights, especially through hubs - frequent flier plan 'inter-connections' - treating alliance partner segments "favourably" for airfare calculations. Many American airlines are ending the practice of reselling seats on foreign airlines for the reason of US consumer protection laws. United, as a US corporation, becomes the 'vendor of record' when it comes to the a United flight number on a Mexicana plane and therefore becomes liable for any damages, and responsible for Mexicana's compliance with all forms of US safety, tax, labour laws in the execution of the flight. I'm not certain of the precise numbers, but Delta Airlines suffered more financial impact from the Swiss Air 111 crash than Swiss Air due to law-suits launched against them re: the 53 seats sold by Delta on the ill-fated flight. Previously, having a United flight # on another carrier's flight is no longer carrying the illusion which existed. Or at least they will realize it when they are told to check in at the Air Canada desk and the plane is white and the service is questionable vs. a grey plane and slightly upgraded service. Matthew On Nov 8, 2003, at 3:27 PM, Alireza Alivandivafa wrote: > According to the UA website, UA and Mexicana are ending their code > share. > Does this mean Mexicana is leaving STAR?