NWplatinum

I thought in the news release, and the whole point of this was that they we’re being “fast tracked” and would join before the end of the year.

NoLaGent

OW uses the term "hope" and AS uses the word "trying". There is no solid date yet as they have numerous hurdles and benchmarks to meet.

edgewood49

But isn't this a real part of the discussion ? As a long time AS flyer (MM) I like many have longed for an alliance for our international travels especially when transferring internationally or in a position to alter plans for one reason or another. I know a number of times my CC given status has come in handy for that reason and have often written AS regarding this. Even when in the old days we use to get personal calls from AS management and asked what I would like to see it was always "alliance"

Just saying

safari ari

Scoping and actually integrating the technology systems are also two totally different things. Unless the OW/AS team has streamlined their APIs and such, the fact that they aren't out of the scoping phase is not too promising for a "quick" turnaround.

williwaw

Truth. Real statement should be, “We are 60% of the way through figuring out how hard this will be.”

ashill

Ordinarily, these things are slow and take a long time. However, the fact that they announced they were targeting summer 2021 with the initial announcement in February 2020 and have now moved their estimate up to hoping for the end of 2020 (and said so first in an investor presentation a few weeks ago, not a press splash) seems to pretty clearly indicate that things are going quite smoothly so far and they have real reason to believe that end of 2020 is a realistic (or at least plausible) target. They obviously know better than any of us that it typically takes 6-12 months (or more, I thought) from invitation to actual joining. Presumably already having frequent flyer partnerships and the corresponding IT infrastructure with many of the oneworld member airlines helps.

But of course I know nothing; when airlines have joined alliances in the past, my recollection is that there was often or typically no advance announcement of a specific date. So we'll find out when they join.

NWplatinum

But who cares? Obviously we’re in unprecedented times, and OW wants them in the alliance now. It’s not like there’s millions traveling now anyway. So why not just officially have them join, and work out the kinks later? What does it mean to be “fast tracked?”

Doesn’t the press release say they’re going to officially be in OW before the end of the year and “fast track” them? I thought that was the whole point of this. I get it would normally take 6-12 months, but this is not normally.

NoLaGent

No, it doesn't. They originally announced summer of '21. As I said upthread, OW uses the term "hope" and AS uses the word "trying" to complete the work that needs to be done by the end of the year, but you can't just join without having everything in place for it to work properly. I'm not sure why that's so hard to grasp?

https://www.oneworld.com/news/2020-0...-join-oneworld

edgewood49

I agree with NW PLT "who cares" As will be in OW by year end in one form or another one point is get in work the kinks out later in normal times that "that dog don't hunt" today its a very doable, travel is off and will continue to be off for several years.

NoLaGent

Well, I would hope that OW, AS and OW's member airlines would care, but what do I know?

SugoiHikouki

While I agree this is not the same as a guarantee, it's also a lot more firm than just an offhand comment from an exec in AS. OW and AS both know how much work it is to implement the integrations needed, but still decided to publish the release with a target date of end of 2020 even knowing it might not look good if they miss it. They must have some confidence in the earlier date.

safari ari

If it doesn't matter that the infrastructure isn't set up, why isn't AS just joining OW tomorrow, considering they already have partnerships with most of the carriers, and having the actual implementation done is just a bonus...? And the same group of people complain when we can't redeem miles on partners two years after the partnership.

eponymous_coward

Because there is more to this than just paperwork. “Sorry, we can’t issue your OW ticket involving Alaska flights because while there’s a sheet of paper that says they are a member, we haven’t actually done the thing that lets tickets be issued”.

The oneworld explorer ticket FAQs

Now multiply by lounge access, baggage handling and fees and it turns into a mess that just gives you angry customers. See: UA/CO merger where they screwed up ticketing and operations day one of the merged airline.

safari ari

Decided to dig more into the topic. Seems OW uses Boomi as their integration tool, and it took Air Maroc from their announcement 12/2018 until 4/2020 to be fully integrated into OW. So ~18 months of work, OW also did the implementation with AB (RIP) in 2013 to integrate them with the OW system and other OW specific airlines, so this wasn't the first go around. I bet they have incorporated some lessons learned, but being that the latest project took ~18 months, I am not seeing how AS can get it done in 5 months, unless their IT department is that much better and committed, but they are probably handling much more data now.

https://www.oneworld.com/news/onewor...lin-s-addition
https://www.oneworld.com/news/onewor...ion-gains-pace
https://boomi.com/press_release/onew...ed-dell-boomi/

safari ari

My comment was facetious to the ones stating that AS should just be in OW even before the completion of their implementation into OW. People are very much putting the cart before the horse, saying AS should just be in and everything will work out on day one with nothing setup.