With the recent changes on BA, QF, LA, and AA's new chart, are we seeing an unravelling of the ties that bind the OneWorld alliance or at least the ties that bind a OneWorld elite to OneWorld flights?

For mixed leisure-business travellers, BA and IB are to be avoided, if frequent flier mileage and tier status are sought. For AA members QF award flights from the US to Sydney are out of the question basically. Apparently, LA does not honor certain fare classes for the appropriate cabin.

Most oneworld carriers don't treat the elites of other carriers any differently than non-status members (except for check-in/lounge privileges).

As a personal example, I am now just as well (or better off) flying the AA-codeshares on Swiss to/from India/Middle East than I am flying on BA. US-UK BA flights give no credit to my AA account at all, and in my BA account they are only worth 25% of actual miles travelled except for my few (6) business trips on BA. Flying London-Europe on BA or IB is basically pointless as leisure trips give 25% credit at most, and business trips that are less than 2.5 hours are mandatory cheapest coach now which means 25% mileage too or nothing at all.

The implications of the alliance based on AA's new award chart also may give indication that the alliance is not any more important than other AA partners.

In the short-term, OneWorld carriers benefit from this unravelling in that they don't have to pay for members using their status on other carriers (principally lounge access), the carrier to whose program we belong can route us on the cheapest AA partner instead of letting us have a full range of choices within the OneWorld alliance; and AA has to buy fewer miles from other airlines on which AA members are flying. These changes (and especially an allowance to only accumulate full mileage and tier bonuses on your own airline) would actually drastically reduce the number of OneWorld elites and liabilities/costs associated with tier status members.

[This is in the short-term. Long-term, I predict they lose out as price becomes the primary currency for getting loyalty -- something that airlines should avoid if they don't want to be a mere commodity.]

[This message has been edited by GUWonder (edited 07-10-2003).]