This month InsideFlyer does an overview of the oneworld alliance and as they like to do is provide a "report card" from travelers who are actively engaged in the alliance of airlines and programs.

If you've got a rating and comments to back up your rating, we'd love to hear from you:

[email protected]

Thank you.

Randy, can you be a little more specific about what you're looking for? I'd be glad to volunteer information, but I'd rather it be useful.

Thanks for asking and looking forward to any feedback on oneworld from the members perspective. Here's a few comments from members regarding the Star Alliance, so you can see how they gave it a grade and what they said. Any format like this and many as well list bullet points for positive and negative aspects of the alliance or the program. Hope this helps and thanks for volunteering your comments.

Randy

EXAMPLES
Report Card
Grade: B+
The status benefits are excellent and respected throughout the network (with a few exceptions). Some places could do with more training on the benefits; e.g., LAX baggage handling seems to ignore priority tags.
However, the computers of the airlines and programs don�t seem integrated enough with ongoing issues of getting status recognized, and also posting of mileage to programs other than the airline flown.
. Some more clarity of lounge access would help, especially for those lounges that are contract lounges rather than airline-operated. The Star Gold access differs between contract and airline-operated lounges, which I don�t have a problem with, but it is not obvious in advance unless you know (e.g., through personal experience or research on FlyerTalk) which lounges are contract lounges.
. A number of programs offer more than one Star Gold status. It would be nice if a new tier was created for those high statuses with extra benefits (perhaps restricted to the airlines with the extra status) - currently the extra benefits are limited to one�s own airline..
Rob

Grade: B
Membership is pretty well spread throughout the world, with every continent having at least one, if not multiple members. Some member carriers are not up to par, however. Varig�s ongoing financial crisis means Star is underrepresented in South America. US Airways� merger with America West may have saved the carrier, but the quality of the product is still sub-par. Although Air New Zealand, Singapore, Thai and United make getting to Australia easy, the demise of Ansett has been a blow to getting around Australia with the Star Alliance.
. Award availability is, of course, a byproduct of each individual airline�s program, but most Star Alliance airlines seem to be fairly good at working together to release award seats to each other as needed. As with award seats, mileage earning rules are unique to each carrier, but I think miles seem to post very quickly from other member airlines� flights. Additionally, there�s not any situations I know of where some routes don�t generate miles on partners, such as is the case with American and British Airways on transatlantic routes.
Star Alliance elites are well-recognized by most member airlines, and access to lounges for Star Gold tier members traveling internationally is not only universal, but fairly well communicated.
. Star Alliance Round-the-World services are head and shoulders above what�s offered by oneworld, with better ticketing options, easier planning and fairly coordinated schedules.
.Richard Mendell

Randy, what is your deadline for us to provide this information?

I take it from reading your examples that you are not looking to compare the RTW products, but rather the alliance as a whole?

Grades, unless they involve comparisons with something else, don't seem particularly informative. So it might be good to encourage grades between one alliance and another (especially on individual attributes or dimensions of the RTW products). However, there may not be enough people with multiple alliance experiences.

As a supplement it might be good to encourage comparisons where people might have more experience with competing (sub)products such as UA vs AA and SQ vs CX-- not just individual carriers but the set of major ones within the alliances.

I think what Randy is after though is a comparison of alliances so while comparisons between AA and UA are useful they are not really relevant when discussing alliances

Hi Randy (and the rest of ya ! ).

I'll e-mail you more of my thoughts when I have a mo. to do so, but a few observations for now that for me stand out :-

Ratings : Am I rating them on an objective standard or a subjective one ?!? If its based on what alliances should give us then I give OW no more than a C+... but compared to *A they get a B+ in my book.

Its also hard to rate and compare alliances when the key aspect - the flying experience - is on individual carriers, not the alliance.

So I'm not sure I can give ratings either !

This said, the headline specifics that make OW my alliance of preference, and that explain my comments above, are as follows. (I will try to keep my comments to alliance issues, not to the merits of OW airlines/carriers over *A/SkyTeam ones, but will mention individual carriers when it relates to alliance benefit delivery [e.g. quality of lounges]). Easiest/best method is via a comparison :-

OW v *A etc

Day of Travel Status Benefits/Recognition - For me, as a very frequent flyer who is often down the back, this is by far the most important consideration - I emphasise 'Day of Travel Status Benefits' because to me these are FAR more important than the clear benefits of many *A carriers over OW ones, namely super-generous mile bonuses and redemption rates etc.

Lots of miles and free flights are great of course, and will matter to me when I'm retired, but my key concern now is receiving as easy, quick, and relaxed a travel experience as is possible when travelling, and travelling so much. OW win hands-down in this regard over *A.

Key examples :-

Check-in - As OW Emerald I get to check-in at F desk even when in Y. This saves me at least an hour at LHR T4 for e.g. over the Y queue (the poor people in the queue in that absurd system ), and on a busy day 15-25 mins. over the J queue. On *A (as a G) I join (at many airports) about 60% of the pax who are in a long line for the J check-in !

Lounges - F lounge access even when in Y. And generally to excellent lounges with real facilities and real food etc like the vast majority of BA, QF, CX etc lounges. CX HKG lounges are the best that exist, BA ones at LHR (in my home town) with the MB Spa etc are fab., etc, etc, etc.

And access to Arrival Lounges (where available of course) even when flying in Y. Great benefit. ^

This is in comparison to total non-access to F lounges on *A unless flying in F, and the disgrace that are many/most *A lounges (including some of the F ones). So many of the *A G lounges are truly awful facilities by comparison (and so often are full to the brim).

On OW I can (before flying in Y) have a bath in the lounge (CX HKG) or a massage (BA in LON)... while on *A all too often there are not even showers available for me to use.

General - *A wins over OW hands-down a) on op. upgrade rates (*A carriers are way better in my experience in this regard than OW carriers (apart from the exception of AA for its own FFs) - QF for e.g. almost never OpUp, rare too on BA); b) no. of seats made available for upgrade and award redemption; and c) with the new Alliance-Wide Upgrades idea.

Otherwise its OW for me all the way - they could and should give their top tier FFs a lot lot more, as should the individual carriers that constitute it, but are very clear winners for me in a head-to-head with *A - cos, bottom-line, when I fly across OW its a vastly better, easier and more comfortable (even luxurious) experience than when I fly across the *A network, almost every time.

SkyTeam (for me) may as well not exist - not enough airlines/too limited route coverage, airlines I can never see myself picking over OW and *A alternatives (some of which have the worst reputations of any major airline - i.e. AF !), bad status recognition (only very top tier get lounge access), etc, etc, etc, etc.

Oh, and one other huge reason why many may want to choose OW over *A - *A airlines gift status, many absurdly easily, on OW you need to earn it. So if you want status in both but won't be flying enough, earn it in OW and then get it matched in *A. The likes of BD will even match OW Sapph. (as long as its in a prog. that calls it Gold or Platinum - i.e. QF or AA) to *A Gold, and will match you year after year after year.

And this btw is one of reasons why 'elite' FF experience is so much better on OW than *A - less people so less dilution of benefits (and less people in the lounges, at lines for check-in, etc !), and more recognition of you as an 'elite' FF.

I know of someone (retired, and thus he and his wife appreciating any benefits he can get with on now very limited amount of flights) who has Life QF Gold (OW Sapph.) and has used it to get 4 years (so far) of free *A G status, just by going to one *A carrier after another ! Absurd... and actually encourages FFs to fly OW not *A !!!

Background - Im Emerald in Oneworld as EXP with AA and Gold on BA; Im top level in Skyteam as a Platinum w Delta

Network -- For me, OW has a very well balanced network which is important since I do several RTWs a year - the only hole is between the Middle East and SE Asia (SIN or BKK). Pre August - I liked transiting in LHR but the new one piece rule even for F pax make it less advantageous as I dont like to check bags

Lounges -- I find the general lounges by the Oneworld carriers I use (CX, BA, IB, AA, QF) very good and superior to what I have seen on an overall basis from other carriers - I base this on showers at intercontinental hubs and availability of food as well as comfortable environment and sufficient seating. I think an advantage of OW is at the top level I get to access F lounges (w Skyteam this is not the case and I have a colleague who is 1k on UA but I think with SQ and TG he only gets the J lounge) with the exception of Concorde Room in LHR and JFK.

Credit of Earned Mileage -- So far I have not had any major problems and credits come fairly quickly.

Class of Service Offered - OW still has the ability to put together F RTW itineraries fairly easily and this will improve w JL whereas Skyteam this is almot not possible anymore now that AF has reduced where it offers F service.

Check-in - I like the F check-in based on my status - again I dont think the other alliances offer this if you are not flying F

New Members - I think it is great JL is joining - RJ really doesnt help as they dont hub in the Middle East so to speak - it would be nice if Oneworld can attract a quality ME member such as Emirates, Qatar or Etihad - although even GF would be ok.

Hope this helps!

When I answered the similar post for *A I assumed it was only alliance-specific features. Ie what does the alliance provide rather than a specific airline or FFP or RTW/circle fare. To me that came down mainly to the statuses and status benefits, plus inter-connectedness of the airlines in the alliance.