Is OneWorld really an alliance?
 

The combinations of FF carrier, operating carrier and marketing carrier are confusing for earning miles and status. Compared to SkyTeam and Star, OneWorld is hardly an alliance at all. On the others, you don't even need to think about this. My major gripe with OneWorld is the zero, 25% and 50% miles on other carriers’ published discount economy fares.

Why, for example, can I accrue 100% AsiaMiles for CX discount economy but zero in AAdvantage? CX obviously doesn’t want to pay AA for the miles but what kind of alliance gives a carrier this option? Now I wonder if I book AA* on a CX operated flight, will I accrue zero based on CX operating or 100% based on AA marketing?

If you spent twenty seconds on the AA mileage earning chart, you'd know.

Every alliance - *A included - has its own mileage earning assymetries. Check out LH discount fares in Miles and More vs. United.

I find the chart on AA.com it is ambiguous on the AA*CX question.

Touché on the UA/LH issue. My *A program (AC) does not suffer from these asymmetries.

You will get mileage based on the flight number, not the operating carrier

If booked on the CX flight number then the AA earning table for CX applies
If booked on the AA flight number then the AA earning table AA applies

Dave

Huh? For codeshare flights with Star you earn miles based on the operating carrier and booking class, and it is usually close to impossible to figure out the mapping of booking classes between the operating and marketing carriers. In comparison, the oneworld poilcy where you earn miles based on the flight number on your ticket whether codeshare or not is extremely clear.

With the addendum that in general the flight must be marketed by a Oneworld carrier otherwise it won't earn miles eg LA-coded but JJ-operated won't get you AA miles

Indeed.

I think orongo has it almost completely the wrong way around!

I don't know about the other alliances, but the most frustrating parts of oneworld is that many service aspects don't cross airline boundaries.

Examples:

• Calling elite lines: you can't call AA EXP line as a BA Gold, and vice versa. Getting stuck with non-elite customer "service" is not fun
• Many websites/mobile apps that require the use that FF program to get services. Example: BA mobile app (can't do much with it as a oneworld emerald), in the past CX who would not allow ti sign up for SMS notifications
• Special lines, e.g. BA's FastTrack at LHR-5, open only to its elites but not to oneworld's

Perhaps I'm missing something, but why would a BA Gold expect to get priority when calling AA? I'm QF Platinum, and I whilst I fly BA more than QF, I don't expect to get priority if I call BA.

As for FastTrack, I've never had any problem using FastTrack at T5. From my experience it's open to BA elites and oneworld equivalents.

Because that's what's an alliance for: expand the reach of destinations for customers (or, as some analysts say, create cross-country mergers when those are generally forbidden by legacy protectionist laws). Heck, AA/BA/IB even advertise their immunized transatlantic joint business as such!

So if I'm flying to JNB I can't use AA, have to use BA to stay inside the alliance, but am treated like dirt if there's an issue with my BA flight.Not true; the boards at both the FastTrack line for the inconvenient "conformance" check invention and those for the security FastTrack line both exclude oneworld elites; I know very well because when a while back I connected from an AA J-cabin (upgrade) to a BA Y-cabin euro flight, a BA-uniformed person denied me the use of FastTrack. The board still excluded oneworld elites as of the end of May; only those departing in a F/J-cabin and BA elites are allowed to use them.

I think this is a misconception. Or in a more positive way: Wishful thinking. All of the alliances provide a documented set of benefits. Things like F lounge access for OW Emeralds or extra baggage for *G.

And you only get those written down benefits, which are actually not that many.
Everything else (arrival lounges, upgrades, service etc) are still things which fall outside the scope of the alliance benefits so each player sets their own rules. Some airlines offers services to other elites which they don't have to give (UA waiving baggage fee for *S for example) while other try to engineer their way around having to give benefits (BA by having the Concorde Room, LH by not allowing A380 F awards etc).

There is one side of me which thinks a bit like you: Each alliance airline should treat any alliance elite like their own. But there is also one side of me which thinks that different benefits for different people is a good thing and helps with the development of the overall industry. And keeps FT going.

Agreed that the boards at FastTrack only specifically mention BA elites, however in my experience (around 15 trips per year) I have never had a problem using FastTrack as a oneworld elite.

Your experience highlights an inconsistency, which I guess emphasises the central point that being in an alliance should encourage areas of consistency across the different members. We can but hope :)

Same here.

I guess that goes with AA as well, then. Or BA giving free pre reserved seat assignments. And so on.

The way I see it, the stronger the alliance integration and the lower the incentive to look elsewhere. If I can't get to the BA gold line in case of disruptions, then I might as well fly LX where their business class line usually picks up fast. If I'm stuck in two long lines transiting at LHR because I don't have FastTrack, I might as well transfer in FRA to LH where it's faster.

I'm flying IB JFK --> MAD --> FCO on tickets acquired thru AA on 6/25. I called IB to request seat assignments maybe six or seven weeks ago and was assigned seats on both legs.