the crux of my reply was not centered on who "won" or "lost", but the singular insistence on TAM switching as an unwelcome situation for his country at all, when it was clear all along these years that * was a sub-optimal choice for both business and leisure travel. The set of examples he gave was demonstrating this instead of verifying his clear cut conclusion (having LIS as a connecting point to go to JNB, or the example about flights from China to Brazil).
I am also noticing that OW the past two years had had a big stride in terms of members, and almost all of them are coming from *. I hope the trend continues, as I most like a situation when the 3 main alliances are of similar strenght and offerings.