The sad decline of Oneworld Emerald
 

Interested in others perspectives. I have had OWE on AA and/or BA for as long as can remember and my sense is that the benefits and differentiation between Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire status have declined markedly over the years.

Specifically, I am referring to alliance benefits like lounge access, first class check-in, etc (not the benefits for the individual program, e.g. AA EXP flying AA). There is a general decline outside of HKG, TYO and LHR of any real first class lounges open or true first class check-in even existing for OWE members.

I used to enjoy the AA Flagship lounges throughout the system but now these are open to sapphire level members, BA's OWE lounge options have declined and the advent of things like TSA PreCheck in the USA make priority security (where it truly even exists anymore outside of facilities like AA Flagship check-in) much less of a benefit.

When traveling across OW carriers in business class or even coach on OW carriers what does holding OWE status vs OWS with another OW airline provide in 2018 outside of the potential for increased mileage earning and ostensibly a greeting (pretty meaningless IMHO)?

In the same spirit what are some of the benefits/perks written or unwritten you miss that used to exist for OWE members? My experiences at least a decade ago were access to better lounges especially in the USA as a BA OWE and priority check-in at many USA airports vs everyone with a credit card being allowed in today.

Sort of with BA, CX and JAL, I mean look at Qatar's lounge products and premium business/first check-in ex DOH, only for business or first. It seems like more airlines moving to this model (which frankly I think makes sense).

I pretty much agree with that. Where First Class facilities are available, there is a differentiation (JFK and LHR are the places where I experienced it). I flew AY and AA recently and I was given J class drinks flying Y, or free drinks in case of AA domestic, and some other small perks like that. If I'm not mistaken, on AA OWE will have a boarding group number ahead of OWS.

This might sound silly, but one thing that is still a clear differentiation to me for OWE is ASR. I fly mostly Y and I'm OWE through LATAM. Earlier in the year I flew a lot of AA and BA, and I could reserve my Y seat as early as booking, and choose extra leg room seats (which both AA and BA charge extra for) at no cost. As I'm no longer living in South America and moved to Germany, I have switched to UA and have become UA 1k, or *A Gold. If *A had 3-tier status like OW, that would mean I would probably be on the top tier with the UA 1k status. Occasionally I have to fly LH and I can't even reserve seats before check-in unless I pay for it. It looks like the two-tier level of *A doesn't allow the differentiation that OW three-tier level can get. This is the one perk I miss from my OWE status that I don't get on *A.

OP seems to be complaining more about others getting more than OWE getting less.

:confused:

OP,
Title is a bit misleading. I thought I was going to read about the decline in #s of ow Emeralds.
In fact, you were talking about the "benefits in decline".

The decline in benefits is experienced throughout all alliances. The infamous airline "enhancements" as they were!

For completeness, there are excellent F lounges also in SYD and MEL with OWE access, and soon to be in SIN as well (thus doubling your number of F lounge cities :) ). These 3 are courtesy of QF, who doesn't play the BA Concorde room F lounge game and gives OWE benefits. The AA FL was never really F caliber lounge, comparable to J lounges by CX/QF/BA so AA has recognized that sad fact.

To me, OW is still going strong.

I read it not as a complaint that lowly Sapphires get AA Flagship Lounge access, but rather as not seeing much point in going beyond Sapphire to get Emerald status. Kind of like complaining that Hilton Diamond isn't worth much, since once you have Gold you get free breakfast.

Quite content with OWE/BA Gold when flying BA or AA. Perhaps I set the bar low?

Resurrecting this as my experience with One world over the last few months has not been great. I am platinum with Finnair so Emerald one world.

In September I had issues with a BA ticket for QR metal flight which QR absolutely refused to deal with other than via a refusal to allow travel.

In March an IB ticket on QR metal was rerouted without fuss to BA for the outbound flights but the return flights turned into a kafkaesque experience. IB were simply dredful and bizarrely I sendup on Etihad rather than QR or indeed a BA flight option.

Today it's a simpler issue with a booking for my wife and my self. The ticket is avios booked by AY on AT. One booking, one PNR, two passengers. I can get a free seats but OH must pay €48 euro to sit with me. Of course if I forego my benefit of free seat selections we can sit together at the back of the plane.

I am really confused about what exactly One world actually offers. On every flight I take, especially with BA I am advised that ground staff or any one world airline is waiting help me but the reality is that one world airlines simply will not assist anyone who is not actually flying with them. At LHR this can see people being shunted not pillar to post but terminal to terminal as they seek assistance with connections or issues.

Moreover if you have a problem with a BA flight ( or indeed any OW airline's flight) but have no status with that airline, then there is no option for OW sapphire or Emerald to obtain any sort of enhanced service. Calling AY to fix a BA problem is simply a waste of time.

I dont expect it is any better for other alliances but that surely is not the point.

Airlines look out for their own elites.
That's the only thing you can count on these days.

understandably. But what then is the point of one world and, perhaps more importantly, the lack of support across carriers destroys the argument for the commercial revenue sharing link ups as there is simply no benefit for passengers.

If only one could proclaim sum smaragdus and be protected from rebooking fees...
Nevertheless OW is an Alliance not an Union....

If only you could count on _that_ (spoken as a BA member who most definitely can't count on BA for things like operating vouchers are per rules as an example)

Maybe there's been a slight decline in the last 15 or so years that I've been OWE, but overall I think that the value of it has held up pretty well. I would compare it to my Marriott Lifetime Platinum which has really lost in value in that time.

The First Lounge network is a great perk, even if my home BA lounge (which I'm in now) has plummeted precipitously in quality. First check-ins like in HND/ NRT/ LHR are really nice. And sometimes you do get the occasional bit of special treatment on board - rarely with BA nowadays despite me being one of their elites, but CX and MH can often surprise with a special welcome.

That’s only true to a point. The revenue sharing agreements are a union in that they protect and enrich the airline. They don’t help passengers!

What does Emerald get me that I value? First class checkin. First class lounges. Mileage multiplier. Priority boarding.

Which ones do I not care about? Fast track security (I don't need it much as most of the airports I fly through have Clear and I have PreCheck). I don't care about the additional baggage allowance, I never check bags.

Depends what you mean by revenue sharing, all OW members pay into the OW alliance, maybe pro rata to revenue or profit but it's not as deep a relationship as the Atlantic Joint Business between BA AA IB EI AY.

Maybe OW should have an alliance standard that emeralds should get priority customer service on any airline, they already do at airports, but it will be hard to implement. You still have to call into the pleb line and declare you are emerald. Or they can implement call patching through, you call your own airline and they patch over to the concerned airlines elite call center. I can see the line just dropping. Or there are no available English agents. Speaking for IB and CX, the best agents only speak the local language.

As for booking fees, not going to be an alliance benefit and IMO I would not welcome it. Fare rules are fare rules.

The lack of information or colour on boarding passes when you are Emerald with another one world carrier colour, led to me being subject to the sniffy “ oh your flying business class” when trying to access First wing yesterday!

Your BA BP doesn't say emerald?

Not on the phone. You get a white BP with no detail. It simply says business and has group 1. It does not show status nor you FF number. Those details are imbedded in the QR code so it needs to be scanned but some agents make assumptions before doing so.

if you have a BA gold card the BP is gold colour with same level of detail

"Here's my emerald (virtual) card, thank you"