Last year MA was selling J YYZ-BUD for USD 1100; so it has been able to double their fares thanks to OW membership. MA J is roughly equivalent to BA WT+ (seats are like the AA 757 F seats, maybe a bit better; food/wine is hearty and pretty good, but the planes and cabin is really old and state of the art for 1985). It makes EI J look pretty luxurious.

The additional of JL and RJ will be a real benefit to me personally. It will make trips to Cyrpus easier from SYD - and I can even redeem flights for my parents (potentially) to get them to SYD in J for free

Dragon Air will be a better addition as it will add flexibility to travel to/from Asia.

Perhaps that will change as MA swaps out their 767-200's for newer 767-300's (I believe one has been swapped already). But I agree, it's not going to be fantastic, but a lot better than coach.

Steve

You may not see much value added in the given and new additions like for example Malev, but for they bring some more possible destinations. And as I have to go through a feeder anyhow, I do not care if that is london or budapest.

It will open up some new possibilities to explore and actually have some special fares available other than just on the NA market.

For a European, this is a plus. I for example am not interested in the Asian market that much, which is why the new additions there have no value for me- but that would not make me say they have no value.

Just not for me.

Keep in mind the capitalized word you used twice in that sentence: Europe. Europe, as in EU. EU, as in the place that just adopted an "open skies" agreement. "Open skies'" is likely to change flight options in the EU a lot over the next few years; whether MA (or any other OW airlines) are posed to take advantage of that is another story, but keep in mind that the connection cities of this year may not be the same as the connection cities of a year or two from now...

The most pertinent comment I've seen on this thread so far ^ ^

I've been playing around a lot with trying to add-in RJ to a OW itinerary I am currently working on and planning to book but ultimately decided against it as I read some horrible reviews on the seats, entertainment, and service. I can't understand why OW rushed to add RJ instead of waiting to see Gulf, Ethiad, Emirates, etc. would join. RJ seems to be among the lowest quality of all the middle eastern carriers.

Malev is a nice addition in Europe but until we get some AA flights non-stop to BUD its somewhat irrelevant for most of us. That said, if and when there are US-BUD then it will open up a lot more options.

I can't complain on JL except for the flight schedules. The huge additions of US-Japan flights is great and really does add value. That said the schedules seem to necessitate either 8+ hour connections in NRT or an overnight to get to most SE Asian destinations outside BKK or SIN.

I'm glad JL joined, but I do wish that OW had not necessarily "Recruited" RJ or Malev. Instead, I would have much preferred the addition of the newly-expanded Brussels Airlines (which has a whole host of European and African destinations, and is planning to expand) and waited to get a Middle Eastern partner.

I read in the oneworld wiki entry that OW is not planning to add any more airlines in the near future (though I'm not sure the source of that), and if that is accurate, then I must say that I am quite disappointed that RJ and Malev are what "filled up" the alliance in terms of capacity.

Well, it does mean that oneworld is the only alliance that can get you miles to SDA.

I don't think RJ/MA is huge, but they add something especially if you need to go to eastern Europe or the middle east and more options are always good. It's not like we have the *A access for transatlantic travel (US, UA, BD, LH, SQ, and probably someone else I'm forgetting). Now instead of going through somewhere and then LHR, you can go to JFK and BUD. That may not be the same amount of connections for everyone, but most of the midwest and east coast that are not LHR nonstops should be about the same.

Edit: I just noticed that MA is LGW instead of LHR, so that actually makes it easier for me (RDU-AA-LGW-MA-BUD) than for other people. Their LHR flights are BA codeshares. AA and MA are both in the same terminal, so connections shouldn't be too hard.

Think a number of the other ME carriers would have been blacklisted by QF,BA due to competition on the kangaroo route.

what I don't get is why there is not a OW Indian carries like Jet/Kingfisher? I mean there is more than enough business to that side of the world and AA only has one route....so why would not that be a better option than having CX and JL?

and AA has so many flights to NRT...

What makes you think that SN would agree to join OW if they were invited? I doubt they would think it is desirable to join any alliance, given their business model, and they are doing quite well with bilateral agreements. In fact their existing bilaterals probably provide more value than Oneworld could ever offer, and they avoid all the tremendous costs of converting their systems to be OW compliant.

As for the "rush" to get RJ to join, it is spelled in one word: Iraq. And all the US govt business that will now have to fly on AA codeshares on RJ when going to/from Iraq. A true goldmine (I read somewhere that 50% of RJ's profit last year was from their Iraq flights).

EK has the business plan to put SIN/BKK/HKG out of business for Europe to Australia/Asia traffic. This makes them arch enemies of QF, CX, BA and SQ. Their success hinges on taking business away from those airlines. And it is a 20 year plan, funded by billions of oil money, so they can play the long game. It remains to be seen how it works out, but EK will never be a part of Oneworld, that much is sure.

EK is the one airline on a personal level that I would have loved to have seen in OW - almost direct flights from SYD-LCA. As you say though they do want to close down those airports...

Pity RJ flights to Iraqi 'destinations' are precluded from earning mileage on AA. Remains to be seen if flights originating from those places are allowed to earn miles though...

You can credit to QFF