Booking FFP award flights: 7Continents, welcome on board oneworld! We appreciate your custom. You asked if all oneworld member airlines are expected to share award ticket availability equally. The simple answer to that is: Yes! One of the key principals of oneworld is that airlines should not give preference to their own FFPers over those from their oneworld partners. So, as far as award flights are concerned, they should not make award tickets available to their own FFPers in preference to FFPers from another oneworld airline...

oneworld expansion: 7Continents also asked about oneworld plans for expansion - and there is a separate effect full of FTers' speculation. Our strategy is to add airline recruits who match the quality standards of the alliance's existing members, who share their priorities of focussing on customers, profit (profitable companies can invest more in service and product) and safety, and who add network coverage, rather than simply replicating what we already offer, in key regions of the world. I am not at liberty to disclose with which airlines we may be in discussions until we are in a position to make a formal announcement for reasons of commercial confidentiality, as I trust most FTers will appreciate.

Viajero: There will be times when FTers post observations or queries that I need to check out with our subject experts before responding. My colleagues travel a great deal and, as we are a small team, they are all very busy with their priority projects. From time-to-time they also rather enjoy an odd weekend with their families and vacations etc. So your patience is appreciated!

oneworld4u - Interesting comment and certainly how I would expect it to occur, and generally does within OW, but there appear to be a number of instances where this doesn't occur.
1. Availability of class upgrade typically restricted to airline's own program
2. OW booking available at different timeframe to own program (eg 330 v 355 days)
3. Special request for high tier members through yield management
4. Plans of FF programs to introduce Any Fare redemptions which will also presumably not be available to other OW members

The discussion about QF awards on LAN flights SYD-AKL-SCL has been moved here, in order to keep this thread focussed on questions for oneworld4u.


Kiwi Flyer
OW moderator

And adding to moa999's questions:

5. What happens if an airline makes the majority of award seats only available to their own FFP even so they shouldn't be doing this as per your post?

oneworld4u:- This post on the QF Forum says

Due to E-ticket limitations, the maximum segments (including surface segments) will be reduced to 16 (from 20) for:
- Oneworld Explorer Fare (AONE*/DONE*/L#ONE*)
- Global Explorer Fare (AGLOB*/DGLOB*/L#GLOB*)
- Oneworld Circle Trip Explorer Fares (AONEWC*/ DONEWC*/ L#ONEWC*)
- Circle Asia and South West Pacific Explorer Fares (AAS13/17/ DAS13/17/ LAS13/17
All effective 01 June 2008

Is 01 June 2008 the effective date ??

Seems so - QF has updated its tariffs. For the xONEx:

Interesting that the 16 figure includes surface segments. Since the surface segments aren't ticketed (correct me if I'm wrong) then it's surely possible to leave the total flight+surface segement limit at 20 and limit flight segments only to 16.

- James

Surface sectors do count as a sector since a sector between the 2 airports needs to be included

Dave

Surface segments incur -----VOID----- coupons and are hence segments for all intents and purposes.

Here are mine:


I understand that OW is the only airline alliance with a central management team, and that you have an office in Vancouver, BC. Are the members appointed as a representative of each oneworld airline, or did you apply for your position as any other job? If latter, where is the best place to look for interesting job openings?

What are the major challenges of working in a team that spans different corporate philosophies?

What is the most difficult part of getting all of the airlines in the alliance to cooperate? Is it the language barrier(s), the technological gap(s) between the carriers, or something other?

What is the likelihood of OW going out "headhunting," i.e. trying to lure a Skyteam or *A carrier into OW?

What are kinds of qualities do you look for in an airline to be accepted into OW - existing codeshares with OW carriers, profittability, flights to new destinations, or something else?

So far we have seen where OW recruits a carrier to join and the other where an existing OW carrier backs up a carrier for initiation. Are there any differences in the approval process, or are all potential carriers treated with equal consideration?

Just wanted to throw in a general thanks for this! What a great idea to have some(one? people?) at oneworld responding to our queries. Talk about making the right alliance choice! Keep up the good work!

I have a question/general comment about OneWorld Award availability across carriers.

I am in the process of booking a OneWorld award with AA miles. I have had no problem finding Iberia flights but am finding RJ to be quite stingy. THey only have U availability on one of their flights (CAI-AMM), and don't seem to release any on AMM-BKK. (And I am checking 330 days out and am flexible so have had AAgents check dates on either side of my preferred dates.) Also, I am a solo traveler so I'm only looking for one seat.

It just seems to me that there should be a policy or enforcement mechanism to make sure that a seats (even 1) are made available at the beginning of the booking period AND available to be booked by any OneWorld member.

Because right now I'm looking at some pretty creative routings to get from AMM-BKK in business. If that doesn't work out I'll have to cancel the ticket!
This isn't the first time I've had the problem. I've also experienced it when trying to book business award seats on Cathay and Qantas with AA miles, even 330 days out!

How do you know that RJ isn't like QF and release awards more than 330 days out (355 for QF)?

Just because AA uses a GDS that limits to 330 days doesn't necessarily mean other airlines do likewise.

Hey KiwiFlyer. I don't know what system RJ uses, and you may well be right. But, my basic point (not well written at midnight ) is that it would be nice (although I recognize the difficulty in making it happen) if all OneWorld airlines were required to use the same basic system, or follow the same rules for award redemption.

Because it's more than just RJ. I currently have a segment of my OW Award CAI-LHR-BKK, because I couldn't get the Amm-BKK. BA and Qantas show business being available for FF mile bookings, but (for whatever reason) AA cannot see/does not have access to the same availability and I am currently booked in coach on that leg.

It would be nice if there was standardization.

First of all, apologies for the delay since my last posting� We have been rather tied up in the past few weeks finalizing arrangements for the election on board of Mexicana, announced on Wednesday last week, as highlighted in other FT oneworld threads.

At the same time, we also published the first edition of the oneworld environment factsheet, summarising the various initiatives our member airlines are taking to minimize their environmental �footprint�. See http://www.oneworld.com/ow/news-and-information

And our friends at LAN rolled out their first aircraft decorated in a special oneworld livery, to mark LAN Argentina�s first anniversary as part of the alliance. Again, details and a picture are posted at http://www.oneworld.com/ow/news-and-information

Main themes in your postings since I last wrote cover FFP issues, specifically how many of you would like mileage redemptions standardized throughout the alliance.

All I can really say on this issue, like many other topics you raise, bearing in mind the need to retain competitive confidentiality, is that we take note of what our customers say in reviewing our services and products. Ideally, we would really like to deliver everything all of our customers want all of the time, but sometimes that is just not practical for all sorts of reasons � not the least of them profitability. Also, you need to bear in mind that when standardizing things across ten (soon to be 11) carriers, there is inevitably some compromising needed along the way � resulting at the end of the day with something that may be better for some customers but not so good for others. A fairground is never all swings � there are generally a few roundabouts in there too, if you get my drift.

On equality of delivery between member airlines, let me reinforce a statement I have posted before � a key tenet of oneworld is that our member airlines should not differentiate between their �own� FFP cardholders and those from their oneworld partners in delivery of oneworld services and benefits. We do police this and if breaches of this code are identified they are taken up with the airline concerned.

Kebosabi asked a number of questions about the central oneworld management team. Star, incidentally, has a central alliance team too, but they have many, many more people working for them. SkyTeam seems to get by with folks seconded from its member airlines to work on alliance projects, although they now have a permanent alliance Chairman.

Ours is a small team and job vacancies do not occur too frequently. When they do crop up, they are posted at http://www.oneworld.com/ow/news-and-...-opportunities You�ll see two openings available right now�

What are the challenges of alliance working? I guess one key challenge for oneworld is that we have ten strong airline brands, all rightly proud of the services and products they provide. While that is undeniably a huge strength, it does sometimes mean they take some convincing in adapting what they offer to enable us to offer new and consistent alliance services and benefits worldwide etc.

What sort of airlines do we look for as potential oneworld recruits? First, we only look at carriers who can add value to what we offer right now. Generally that means airlines with networks that expand our current offering, in key strategic regions, rather than simply duplicating what we already have. Second, they have to have brand names to match those of our existing carriers, with key focuses on safety, customer service quality and profitability. Third, they have got to want to join the club. Usually, a first step towards oneworld membership is the development of one-on-one links with individual oneworld members � code-sharing, frequent flyer reciprocity, that sort of thing�

Electronic timetables: FTers have made a number of suggestions in this thread. Our experts in this area are looking at them to see which can be accommodated.

Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming! We appreciate it. And happy flying!