Another *A vs. OW Thread - RTW Specific
 

I wanted to post a question i had in the *A forum here because I feel that both sets of parties might have a difference of opinion. The original post is

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=655051

The text was:

With OneWorld gaining access to the different LANs, JAL, Malev, and Royal Jordanian along with their cheaper RTW prices with more flexible rules and better opportunities for earning miles on the RTWs, they seem like the obvious choice for any RTW trip where you are not flying just to compare airlines' C/F product as it would seem that *A still has the nicest choices in that regard with SQ and others.

I know I'm over thinking this but the reason I bring this up now is because I plan on taking a year long RTW with my wife in Sep 08 and right now I have 1P on UA (and Gold on AS) and was going to focus on getting 1K on UA this year. Part of me says I should drop everything on *A now and focus on AA status for my RTW. The other part of me says I should enjoy my benefits on *A/UA/AS this year and focus on status next year on AA before the RTW begins using something like the Plat challenge.

Thoughts?

No one can give you advice until you give us an idea of where you want to go and when. The addition of more OW airlines changes some of the previously held assumptions. I would say enjoy your current status and worry about your RTW in Sep 2008 later in the year.

I had to choose between Oneworld and Star back in 2001 when I decided to stop flying Skyteam; it was a really hard choice then (easier choice now), and I decided on Oneworld. One reason was that I fly a lot of paid F, and Oneworld has a far better F product worldwide than Star does. Only SQ and a few routes on AN (but at that time, precisely one route out of their network) had a good F product. The other aspects of Oneworld are also better (lounges, ground handling, irregular ops). The advantages of Star (easier to earn status, elite baggage bonus, better route network) didn't matter for me (in fact for some key areas, such as Australia, it was Oneworld only). I do fly a fair bit on SQ and LH, but not the rest of Star, so I have seen the changes there (LH in particular is really putting the pressure on BA). Even so, my assessment is that Oneworld is still significantly better for their premium (F/J) hard and soft product, compared to Oneworld. Star does have ardent loyalists but most of them don't fly non-Star very much. So, I find your assumption that Star has the "nicer" F/J product to be rather amusing. Actually I hope you keep thinking that, and leave those Oneworld seats empty, they are getting scarce these days.

The FT guidelines ask that we post our questions in one place only.

http://flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#q64

Post Your Thread to Just One Forum
Don't post the same thread more than once. Our members read many forums, and weeding through the same message in multiple forums can be frustrating. Duplicate threads will be deleted, combined or locked.

I'm going to lock this thread, and encourage anyone interested to follow the discussion in the link given by the OP in the first post.

SanDiego1K
OneWorld Moderator