JAL and TAM, I could understand, but I still don't see the benefit of allowing Swiss to join. From a business perspective, would you want Swiss to join if you were BA? What is the benefit? Do they go places that the current carriers don't? The only thing I can see is so that people have more trans-atlantic FF options, a reason that I don't think is compelling enough to warrant BA (or AA) from allowing them in. JAL would be a *huge* addition. And though I haven't flown TAM, I have heard very good things and OW could use a better South American Network. Lan Chile is good, but their networks are based widely on cargo traffic, which is going to limit their exposure to certain markets. Oneworld needs to hit the Brazilian market somehow. The other place that OW should be looking is towards the middle-east. Specifically EK (which has ties with BA) and GF (tied with AA). Both would open up the India market, and EK is going to be negotiating for US access in the next few years. The last would be Dragonair, which would open the China market. Why go for piddly airlines like Swiss in oversaturated markets when you can go for major players in major markets? Get TAM, Emirates, Gulf Air, Japan Air, and Dragon Air, and you just added about three billion customers to your potential market.

This is all besides the fact that the powers that be at Swiss made one of the most massive and costliest mistakes of any airline in the past several years. Treating them with a bit of skepticism by OW is a good thing, in my opinion.