SAA & Swissair
 

Just to confirm that BA Exec's are currently holding meetings (advanced stages) with SAA & Swissair, with a view to the two carriers joining OneWorld.

An announcement is due in two/four weeks.

Nick

This would be good (I think)--will give me more options for Africa.

Will this just be Swissair or the Qualiflyer Group which has over 9 different airlines?

However, I think SAA tends to be closer to the Stars rather than Oneworld

SAA has marketing and codeshare agreements with both OneWorld (CX, AA) and Star (LH, SK) in addition to Qualiflyer (OS, SR), so it is too difficult to say who is going with whom at this point.

one word - oneworld!

Celestar raises a good point though - just how strong an alliance is Qualiflyer, and how easy will it be for SR to get out on its own? (If that is what they wish).

All right who is taking bets on which way for SAA here? http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Assuming SR does join up with oneworld, when would the partnership go live? I have heard around the boards here that an announcement might happen mid-July. Would things get going right at the announcement time?

BlondeBomber: it would be unfair to bet - I know already the outcome ...(as posted above).

billm - it is unlikely that they would be able to go live with oneworld that quick. Apart from the staff training program there are several changes that have to made to the reservations systems. For an idea of possible timings consider that Finnair and Iberia will come online at the end of the year - both signed up shortly after oneworld was announced. Lan Chile is expected sometime Q1 2000 - they signed up in May this year.

I agree with Rudi. It's in Swissair's best interest to join Oneworld. Their interest in SAA is mainly as an investment. (How else can a small airline from a small country expand?) Their only competing route is ZUR/JNB. I never viewed the Qualifier airlines as having great synergies except for some SR/OS codeshares.

Oneworld would do alot for SR.

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speedbird001

Then the question comes , what about all the other airlines which SR has invested in? What do you think they want to be? part of Qualiflyer without Swissair? The biggest question is the the Qualiflyer Frequent Flyer Programme. If Swissair goes to OneWorld, then the OneWorld co-branding will apply to Qualiflyer members. The problem lies here - Qualiflyer only has 2 levels. Regular and Elite. (There is a level higher than elite but it's invitation only, so that rules out it being emerald). All the other Qualiflyer airlines like SN, OS,NG, TK, IM etc have branded together to market Qualiflyer as THEIR one and only frequent flyer programme. So if Sr joins OneWorld, wouldn't the 1w branding apply to them too?

I am not sure it is terribly relevant. For example, I can fly on Alaska or Midway or US Airways (Shuttle) and have it count toward my tier status on American. All of the Oneworld Airlines have other partners which enable you to accrue miles but are not necessarily part of Oneworld. It's the same with the Star Alliance.

If you look at Swissair, other then their investment in Sabena (they needed a leg into the EU) the other investments are passive. i.e. They just bought one of the large catering companies.

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speedbird001

So Rudi, perhaps I should try to get onto the (next) Swiss project... http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

What I would *really* like from both alliances is an ability to pool/transfer miles between ff programs - I have masses of BA miles, and about 20000 (? or less - I'm not certain...) SR miles, which would be of far more use to me in my BA account.