Anytime that CX wants to add BOS-HKG service, that's fine with me.

As an option for SE Asia, MH would be a fantastic addition.

For what it's worth i.e. probably not too much, Wikipedia currently lists as possibles only:

- China Eastern (and thus Shanghai Airlines)
- Grand China Air
- Jet Airways
- Kingfisher Airways
- Westjet (!)

It is wikipedia. People add and remove whatever they want.

Agreed, but I don't know of any other listing of potential new members.

If you can point me to somewhere that, using cited credible sources, lists Air Berlin, Alaska, China Eastern, Gol, Grand China Air, Kingfisher or Jet and Malaysian to join and South African, Korean or Asiana to leave their respective alliances for OW, I'd be more than happy to use that instead!

I go to Bordeaux and getting there from DFW on OW is tough. Connex thru MAD causes a long layover; or you get into the LHR/LGW airport transfer in London, which no one does. Or you do the AA/AF interline via CDG. As alliances go, ST and SA have far better options to many European destinations.

+1. BOS really has a large HK and Taiwanese-backed Chinese population. Usually, choices to fly to HKG are BOS-JFK on AA and JFK-HKG on CX OR UA.

But...I don't think BOS has sufficient F/J demand for the 77A...:(

Have you tried using the often overlooked AA-codeshares with the French TGV? You might want to look into that option: AA to CDG, CDG to Bordeaux St Jean on TGV.

In my experience air-to-HSR actually gets there equally fast because there's less time involved in waiting for your connecting flight. Plus when you arrive, you're already in the heart of Bordeaux. ^

http://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/codes...tners/SNCF.jsp

Well it sounds like there will be a couple of ex-LHR AA/BA slots at BOS, so who knows...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...plication.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...operation.html

Hey, thanks kebosabi, I never thought of that. I have taken the TGV btw Bordeaux and Paris or Lille, moving back and forth, but never in conjunction with a flight.

No problem. It's one of those "I didn't know that was an option" things partly because:

1. It never occurs to us Americans because we don't have any airports that have direct air-to-HSR option over here in the States (our intra-city passenger rail system is crap)

and

2. AA has a really outdated and inefficient marketing web page to tell the average flyer that such a codeshare even exists. One has to go to "About Us," "Alliances & Affiliates," "Other Alliances (Codeshare Partners)," scroll all the way down to "Deutsche Bahn (German Rail)" and "SNCF French Rail" :rolleyes:


But bottom line, AA codeshares with the French TGV out of CDG and the German ICE trains from FRA work really great. They really should push this more in ads because it puts more destinations on the map for AA.

And yes, you earn AA miles for taking that TGV leg ;)

I agree that they have sadly been lacking in SE Asian carriers. Malaysian, Thai, etc. would be great addition. A Chinese carrier would be a game-changer. What would they gain with an African carrier? Who would be a viable candidate? Too many risks, IMO.

as said previously in past posts, it all boils down on how invitations/requests for alliance joining are handled. OW has a rather slowly and thoughtful process, while the other two are more gung-ho about new entrants joining, and this is reflected poignantly on the total financial situation of the alliances (ST and * are deep-down red, OW is the almost exact opposite). Perhaps given the current business climate, OW and its thoughtful process will be more enticing to potential suitors, but in any case the alliance has to overhaul drastically it approach in many areas, and the JL saga hopefully is the trigger needed.
For what I know and understood MH was quite advanced in its negotiations with OW (CX was the main sponsor) but at the end they tried again (unsuccessfully it seems) to join ST on the back of their long standing relationship with KLM. Also every some time there is a news story surfacing about combining MH with QF. All in all I think MH will join OW in relatively short time, giving both the relative uninterest of ST and the confirmed accession of GA, and it should not be too difficult wooing them, kinda low hanging ripe fruit for OW to pick.

Is there a some back up data to show it? As far as I know, at least JAL, BA, CX and AA are in red.

"Based on latest 2008 full year results from members of all three alliances, Oneworld members combined lost US$1.7 billion net, against total losses by Star Alliance of US$8.8 billion and SkyTeam's collective US$13.3 billion deficit."

Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneworld

Lan would be one of the most profitable airlines in the world come to think of it, qantas does okay and so does cathay. I guess the big loss maker is JAL in Oneworld. In Star I would imagine quite a few loss makers and would only think SQ, TK, and maybe Lufthansa would be profitable but there might be more in there somewhere floating around with profits but just what I would guess from memory, I am sure someone will go and look up the profits to paint a picture.

Meridiana and Finnair are intensifying their co-operation. Meridiana will start flying directly from Florence to Helsinki some time in the end of March replacing AY Helsinki-Pisa seasonal flights. I think this is the first time there will be a scheduled flight to Finland by an Italian carrier (the only exception was when Volareweb flew a couple of months between Helsinki and Milan)

There are only three airlines in the world with an investment grade credit rating: Southwest, Qantas and Lufthansa. Star Alliance has much higher losses but is also a much larger alliance. Each camp has one of the performance champions so I don't think it is justified to say that OWs performance is so much better than *As. You would also need to look how much one time items effect the results either positively or negatively.

TAAG Linhas Aereas de Amgola
 

Saw my first ever TAAG plane today taxiing for take-off at Gaurulhos Airport today. Now that would be a real catch for Oneworld -fills in the Southern Atlantic hole with Luanda-Sao Paulo/Rio as well as Southern Africa,West Africa and 5 European ports. Would also add Cabo Verde which I don´t think any Oneworld airline serves.

On second thoughts maybe it would fit in better to Skyteam :)

AAJFK:

You can fly AA / BA to TLV with no problem. I loved it when TLV was considered to be in EUROPE; LOL. You could fly to TLV from the USA for only 40,000 miles between Oct 15 and May 15. That was the biggest bargain in the sky.

Then when EL AL hooked up they spoilt it by reminding AA that Israel was in the Middle East.

Do AA fly to TLV these days?

Actually, it would be nice to be able to do an Southern Hemisphere Circle. Maybe not with TAAG but maybe when LA offers SCL-JNB. A DONE3 from SWP would become possible. Ahh, I should stop dreaming.

No.

I second the Done3 from SWP, although if they could just change the rules and make the AA flight from DEL-ORD permissable a DONE3 for SWP would be possible. Does that flight even operate still or have AA cancelled it. Imagine the possiblities if Malaysian Joined I for one would like the KUL-JNB-EZE run would be a nice little earner.

Kingfisher Joining OW
 

FYI.. Looks like it is in the making- http://www.aa.com/viewPromotionDetai...&_locale=en_US

You still can do it for a cheap. The way to do it is to fly to the farthest destination AA considers to be Europe on an award ticket and then book cheap a roundtrip ticket from there to TLV.

Remember, "Europe" can span anywhere between the Canary Islands off the coast of Western Sahara all the way to Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea. A little knowledge in geography and a world map will help you in finding out the farthest distance you can go that fits under the "Europe" definition and the closest one to Israel.

For example, AA considers Turkey and Cyprus to be under Europe ^. Therefore, one can still book an award ticket all the way from the US to IST for 40k miles during off peak season. Then all you have to do is to buy a cheap roundtrip IST-TLV ticket on El Al (and earn AA miles while you're at it). Or, you can book an award ticket to LCA and buy a cheap LCA-TLV roundtrip on Cyprus Airways.

, book an award ticket to ATH and buy your own ATH-TLV, etc. etc. And while you're at it, you can stick in a mini-vacation to those cities and countries in conjunction with a trip to TLV :D

In China, there are a number of decent but not too large airlines:

- Shenzhen
- Hainan
- Xiamen

I'd prefer to see a number of these in OW instead of CE which is simply one of the worst airlines I've ever flown on. CE is a terrible dent in the OW quality brand - this is an airline that delays planes incessantly with the weakest customer service, an airline on which it is impossible or close to impossible to even get fully refundable tickets refunded, an airline with just about the worst communication standards one can imagine.

one often overlooked possible member could be Air Mauritius, although small and based on the middle of Indian Ocean, it nevertheless has connections to many African and Indian cities, and would be useful to cover another OW black spot. Given the historical ties between Mauritius and France it is at the moment aligned with AF, but with a little persuasion can be possibly made to switch to OW.

Many African cities ?

Currently MK flies to only 4 cities on the mainland JNB ( daily ) , CPT ( 2 x weekly ), DUR ( 1 x weekly )and NBO ( 1 x weekly ) . For OW JNB is already served by BA from LHR , QF from SYD , IB from MAD and CX from HKG . NBO and CPT are both served from LHR by BA . DUR along with CPT is also served from JNB several times daily by BA franchise carrier Comair ( who also compete with MK on the JNB-MRU route ) .

So far as I can see MK would add only four destinations to the OW map - TNR in Madagascar , St Denis and St Pierre in Reunion and Rodrigues in Mauritius . All nice to have , but hardly major destinations in their own right .

As for the 4 cities served in India ( MAA/BLR/DEL/BOM ) , between them they get a total of 6 flights per week last time I checked .

Sorry , it is an interesting suggestion , but I dont really see MK having much to offer OW .

Agreed, OW should continue adding quality members and in China Hainan Airlines has recently been awarded 4 stars by Skytrax. They've also been expanding their destinations and have large shares in a variety of airlines eg. Hong Kong Airlines, Hong Kong Express, etc.
Haven't they been sponsored by JAL to join OW?

I think HU's relationship with HX and UO is the main reason that prevents them from joining OW. CX would not be happy about that.

A way of getting from North Africa to South Africa apart from anything else. And another route in from Hong Kong.

When did MK start flying to North Africa ? There are no North African destinations on their website , and , having lived in Mauritius up until 3 months ago , I have never heard of MK North African flights .

Is OW really going to be interested in a carrier just because they fly to HKG 3 x per week ?

There is also the point that 2 of MKs most important routes ( MRU-LHR and MRU-JNB) are actually run in competition with BA services on the same routes .

Bad use of the term "North Africa", sorry. I meant that it at least removes NBO from the "cul-de-sac" list that can only be accessed through London and opens up a few more interesting ways of using 4 segments in Africa.

Canada's Westjet is "scrutinising" both Skyteam and Oneworld

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...rticle1521871/

Westjet's ties to AF/KL and potential codeshare arrangement with Delta may tip this one against OW.

I've never even heard of this company..

QF/MU
 

MU has started codesharing on most of the domestic Aussie routes and the latter will also be placing QF codes on 6-7 new Chinese domestic cities served by MU. I really hope this will eventually bring MU into OW...

MU is operating on behalf of AA in mainland China, so that might be a hint ;)

On the other hand they have just signed a close co-operation deal with CI who have long been touted as a future Skyteam member

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...operation.html

I think at the moment MU are still playing everyone off against each other , although I suspect that to maintain a 'balance' the PRC Government will eventually tell them to join OW so that the PRC will have a member in each of the three alliances .

I missed this from the OW press release this week.

Oneworld Eyeing JetBlue Links

Rumours about that MU is signing with Skyteam this Friday.:td:
Link

Maybe AA will cancel their "partnership" with MU very soon?