South African Air and Star Alliance?

Is there any word on when South African Air will _really_ join Star
Alliance. The announcements in 2004 stated "sometime in 2005".

I have a flight in February, 2006, and would _really_ like to get the
miles onto a useful account (like my USAir or United accounts)!

Mike

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Michael Trick Carnegie Mellon

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wrote in message
oups.com...
Is there any word on when South African Air will _really_ join Star
Alliance. The announcements in 2004 stated "sometime in 2005".

I have a flight in February, 2006, and would _really_ like to get the
miles onto a useful account (like my USAir or United accounts)!

Some * partners have agreements in place with SA already,
but they are individual agreements and not a blanket one.
The initial delay was due to a lengthy study undertaken by the
S.A. Govt and only when that was finished did integration start.
However, once the integration process started, it was found
there was a lot more work involved in getting the SA systems
up to scratch before integration processes could take place.
Last word seems to indicate March 2006 *at the earliest* for
SA to become a full partner.