Planning/Exploration
--Overall Grade: A+

The oneworld web portal is very professional and in a few ways is even better than the *A web portal. The interactive map is excellent and provides a graphical representation of direct flights vs. connections. This utility has been invaluable to us during our plannig phase, especially with the new 16-segment limitation. I wish the *A site someting similar visually appealing as this utility.

Ticketing
--Overall Grade: B

*A has oneworld beat in this category. We found the best fares to be from South Korea on CX stock. The method of ticket issue was a bit cumbersome. Yea, we could have used a TA from Canada to get our tickets issued, but I'm not sure how a change-in-itinerary would have played out, given that it was like pulling teeth going through CX, our original ticket issuer. Another thing that I didn't care much for is the vast difference in fuel and tax surcharges amongst the different ticketing airlines. Get you acts together, will you, if you are going to act like an "alliance."

Changes to Itinerary
--Overall Grade: F

The changes involved RJ segments, and it was a colossal pain! We initially had CAI-AMM-ATH segments booked in 'L' and we wanted to get them rebooked in 'D'. When we called RJ, the D class was wide-open but they wouldn't make the change because the ticket was issued on CX stock and not on RJ. ...?!? It looked more like a cluster-F#$k more so than an alliance. And, CX wouldn't make the change either because the CAI station couldn't re-issue the ticket and they couldn't find anyone in this world who would?!? After a lot of yelling and screaming and a personal visit to the CAI CX office (which was actually a contract-office) we were finally issued D tickets for our CAI-AMM-ATH flights. Niether RJ no CX were behaving like either of them was part of an alliance.

Airport Lounge Experience
--Overall Grade: A

The lounges were very good to excellent, except for the one at CAI. Don't expect much at CAI when flying out in RJ. The lounge is one of the worst lounges that we've ever been in - even LAX interim *A F lounge in 2007 was better than this one.

In-flight Experience
--Overall Grade: A-

A few of the most memorable flights:
- BKK-HKG-LAX: CX on the upper deck of 744
- JFK-LHR on AA: Wow! We had low expectations but the crew + service were amongst the best and the arrivals lounge in LHR was a welcome relief after fast-track through immigration.
- LHR-CAI; LHR-BKK-SYD: BA. The NGBC cabin and crew were some of the finest and quite comparable to CX transpac business class. We even scored AA elite bonus by booking the LHR-SYD as a QF codeshare!
- CNS-BNE-HGK: CX on slant lie-flat seats. Very comfortable experience.

The only reason for A- is because the SQ business class soft product is defintely a notch better than either BA or CX. We did SIN-CMB-SIN-ICN in SQ as part of an award to go with this DONE4 and these three flights had the best soft-product overall!


AAdvantage
--Overall Grade: A++

Wow! Platinum Challenge, enough said. We were able to almost double our redeemable miles just because of the Platinum Challenge! Thank you, AA!