Mexicana's joining date
 

FedUp2: Bringing any airline on board any alliance is a complex project - lots of systems to connect, procedures to put in place and employees to train. In the case of Mexicana, it is in the process of switching its main IT platform, so it makes sense for most of the oneworld IT connections to be put in place once that move is completed. Generally, oneworld only confirms a recruit's joining date once near final testing and auditing has been completed - and that obviously comes very late in the overall project plan. So all we are saying at this stage is that it will board some time during 2009. Happy travelling.

Does this mean we cannot earn any status or destination miles at the moment for any flights within Mexico on any carrier within oneworld?

AFAIK MX has some partnership arrangements with various airlines. For those FFPs you could earn redeemable miles, but not status miles.

AA members can use the AA code shares with MX (which seem to be all flights from MEX to JFK and LAX and 3 of 4 to ORD - 3 of 6 to MIA). There are QF code shares MEX-LAX. Of course AA metal flies to a fair number of other Mexican destinations from DFW with even the occasional regional flight from MIA and even TPA.

My complaint at the moment is that those MX codeshares are ineligible for xONEx ticketing. I think that the other OW FF programs are going to have to wait for full membership of MX.

Fred

If one flies on MX metal with a QF or AA code-share label, is the flight eligible for any OW status or bonus mileage (i.e. status bonus, NOT class bonus)?

AA will award you an elite status bonus for flights by another carrier codeshared by AA with an AA flight number.

HI oneworld4u and others, my question as I have not found any relevant info on it is in regards to the European businessflyer program.
The company I work for is based in Zurich and we are looking to join in the program as we are not big enough to qualify for large corporate. It looks appealing but my question, for me personally, is what fare categories will this offer me. I am concerned that using this program may affect my mileage earn/burn and elite status qualifications. I fly a mix of Y and J and while this propgram may offer a significant discount I am wondering if there is a trade off with fare type.. ie does your product limit me from booking full J or Y fares on participating airlines?

There is a map link available on the oneworld web site that may be indicating oneworld defined "Continents". If this is the case then there are some discrepancies as posted here:
With the xONEx rules, Continents are defined as:

Some xONEx online tool bugs are listed in the opening post.

10% discount
 

hi oneworld4u,

hopefully an easy question:

does the oneworld 10% discount apply to the single continent visit passes (i want to visit asia, starting and ending in new york) in may / june, assuming i book it before april 12th?

i was told by an aa rep that it is only for rtw tickets, but the press release seems to only say that the global explorer tickets do not count...

thanks in advance!

mw

Perhaps this thread should be de-stickied and allowed to sink off into oblivion (like oneworld4u seems to have done)

<nods vehemently>

Dave

Indeed. Note to oneworld: if you're not going to the job properly, best not to start at all.

Out of 173 posts on this thread oneworld4u has 14 (and Kiwiflyer 13) If Oneworld were genuine the oneworld4u post count would be a lot higher. :td:

The point has been made. I'm waiting to get a response from oneworld4u.

I am not sure if this has been discussed before. But I want to know from oneworld4u, if there is any plan for OW to recruit any China-based airline to join OW. I heard that Hainan airline had applied to join OW in 2007 but do not know why it did not happen.

tylorcl - I would not expect an answer from oneworld4u on that question due to commercial sensitivity.

Update from oneworld4u
 

Dear FTers,

First things first – apologies for the break in service, for reasons that I will not bore you with here… Suffice it to say that oneworld4u is still on board and ready to resume dialogue with you folks, our valued customers.

Without further ado, let me respond to some of the outstanding queries/issues posted since my last response, in reverse chronological order (ie the latest first)…..

tylord: oneworld Chairman Gerard Arpey (Chairman and CEO of American Airlines) spoke about oneworld’s airline recruitment strategy at our 10th birthday media event in Madrid at the beginning of February. I reproduce the relevant sections here as I think it may be of interest to many who follow oneworld at FT:

“For ten years, we have worked hard to differentiate oneworld, primarily, by the quality, rather than the quantity, of our members – and I’m proud to say our members represent the strongest airline brand names in the world. By concentrating on quality, we assure ourselves, and our customers, a consistent standard across the entire global network.

“Our focus on quality has paid dividends, so as you would expect, we have been, and will remain, very selective about which airlines we regard as potential recruits.

“First, we have only considered carriers with brands that are consistent with those of our established partners – which we believe represent the best and highest quality airlines from each region of the world. Second, we are only interested in working with airlines who share our commitment to safety, customer service and profitability. Third, in looking at potential recruits, we look for ways to expand our network, rather than simply duplicating what our existing members already offer.

“So as we welcome Mexicana and contemplate the future, there are just a few strategic regions of the world where we believe we could benefit from new members. These include, over time, Mainland China, India, Russia and Brazil. Beyond those regions, we see relatively little opportunity for expanding our roster without diluting the quality we offer our customers, or the value the alliance creates for its existing members.

“Quite frankly, our approach differs from that of other alliances, but we are convinced it is the approach that works best for our customers, employees and shareholders. And I think our experience over the last ten years bears that out.”

So, as you will see from the above, Mainland China is one of the few regions in the world where oneworld would like to add a new member airline. But, as KiwiFlyer, rightly points out, we will not be in a position to provide any updates on progress here, for reasons of commercial confidentiality, until we are able to announce that a carrier has been invited on board.

Mindz: The 10 per cent offer to celebrate oneworld’s 10th birthday applies to all our alliance fares – including Visit passes. Make your booking fast, as the offer only has a few more weeks to run. See oneworld.com/10years for full details.

Serfty and Pandaperth: Thanks for your comments on the positioning of the Galapagos and some Caribbean islands on your map. I’ll have the team responsible look into this…

OzinUK: If you want to send an email to my private FT inbox, I’ll have our sales folk responsible for Switzerland contact you to answer all queries you have on businessflyer.

FedUp2, wandering_fred, revkev7 and others: oneworld services and benefits only apply on flights both operated and marketed by airlines that are oneworld members. Tier status points are only awarded for flights both operated and marketed by oneworld member airlines, but some individual airlines within oneworld do offer special mileage awards bonuses and benefits for flying on various code-share operations. Best way to check these things out is directly with the airline whose frequent flyer programme you are a member of.

MX is expected to become a full member of oneworld later this year. Full oneworld services and benefits will be extended to it then. Meantime, it is already participating in the Global Explorer round-the-world fare, which features all oneworld carriers plus some other airlines that are not part of the alliance.


Now we are back in harness, can I make some general observations about FT etc:

First, as I said right at the outset when I joined the forum, we’ve kept a close eye on FT for many years and have come to recognize FTers as some of the most insightful and knowledgeable folks in the industry. We appreciate your custom and your feedback. None of that has changed.

Second, a reminder that there are some issues on which I/we cannot comment in this forum – mainly rumour or speculation – for reasons of commercial confidentiality.

Third, this is not an alternative channel to our airlines’ regular FFP and sales outlets. Please use those regular channels for customer service/sales issues.

Happy and safe flying,

oneworld4u

oneworld4u, nice to have you back.

What are the rules with respect to changes/reissues of oneworld (xONEx) tickets? At least BA seems to make up rules as they go, as long as they don't have to do the reissue.

I guess it should be either the ticketing carrier, or the carrier of the next flight?

AWC3 upgrade after departure to AONE4/AWC4
 

:confused:Is this possible?

Is an AWC3 a circle trip explorer? If so:

According to technical rule sheet for circle trip explorer fares rule number 16 (2) (d) it is possible to upgrade to an AWC4. (could be rule 17 as printer run out of ink!)

rule 16 (c) (5) states can upgrade to a oneworld or global explorer.

I have taken 1 flight one my AWC3 routed Africa-Europe-Asia with only 3 flights on it issued by BA in CPT/JNB who told me that I could add segments/continents later.

Now trying to re-route and told by QF desk in AUS that no changes allowed once first flight taken AND by

BA in MRU that it can only be upgraded to an AWC4. (according to rule 16 (c) (3) this should be without the $125 re-issue fee as its First class, is this correct?

Which is right? I read the rules that I can upgrade to an AONE4 Af-E-NA-SWP-Af as long as I pay for the extra segments. Is this correct?

Question on ticket issue - BA in JNB state that the carrier that has the first flight must still issue the ticket but I understood that you can elect who issues the ticket now, eg as I am a QF FF and can theefore get through to them quickly I want my ticket issued by QF for ease of changes.

Question on taxes - Does the same itinerary vary depending on which carrier issues the ticket?

Welcome back oneoworld4U!!
The 10% RTW promo was great! Thanks. The MRS. and I have 3 OW paid for !
Please use whatever influence you can exert not to let the RTW prices escalate like the STAR AXIS has! It does not make sense to me. The premium cabins are less than half full: Oil is less that $50 a barrel and there are 30%-50% discounts on international business tickets. Why raise prices on a product in which the airlines can limit the number of seats, if necessary and get a constant revenue stream year round?? PLEASE HELP! Look at the empty seats on * flights!

Business Class Awards on AY Question for Oneworld4U
 

Hi,

I have been searching for business class awards on Finnair Flights HEL/HKG in 2010 and the QANTAS search engine shows plenty of Economy Class awards but never any Business Class awards in Jan, Feb, March. Is this policy by Finnair? I need to travel business class for health reasons and this is a severe restriction on my potential Round World itinerary.

I have searched for relevant postings without success, so I would appreciate any advice.

I have posted this question on the Finnair site and it has been suggested that AY may restrict access of QF to awards. An AY platinum member was able to find awards CPH-HEL-CPH not available to another poster who was using the QF site to search for availability.

It has recently been suggested that I should seek comment from the official representative of OneWorld on FlyerTalk so here are my new questions

Are there any Business class awards HEL-HKG for AY FFlyers in 2010?

Are any award restrictions by member airlines consistent with OneWorld codes of practice as I thought that a discussion some time ago suggested that this not consistent with an airline's membership of OneWorld?:confused:

nielsdc:

Apologies for the delay in responding to your post... just back from a bit of a spring break...

While the oneworld rule book does say that all member airlines should service all their oneworld partners' tickets, what this means in practice is, to be honest, open to interpretation by individual airlines and their employees.

In reality, some find it a great deal quicker and easier, particularly if the original issuing airline uses a different GDS, to refer the customer to the original issuing airline, if it has an office close by. That can benefit the customer, by sorting out the problem much faster than having an agent work through procedures and ticketing language with which he or she is unfamiliar.

We are introducing new systems to make it easier for employees of all our member airlines to view tickets booked on other alliance members in a more "neutral" format, to make it easier for more employees to handle ticketing issues relating to other alliance members at first point of contact.

With best wishes,

oneworld4u

2old4coach:

Many thanks for your enthusiasm for our 10% discount promotion to mark our 10th anniversary. The response to this offer superceded all our expectations!

We regularly review all our alliance fares to ensure they are competitive in each country and provide worthwhile revenue to our member airlines.

Fortunately oil prices have dropped back to more realistic levels right now - if they were at the record levels of nine months or so ago there would be few airlines still left in business the way revenues have collapsed in the past few months...

Rest assured, we'll always aim to offer the best possible value.

oneworld4u

wrekker platinum:

Thanks for your post... It is up to each oneworld member airline to work out how many seats to offer in each fare category. What they should do is the same levels of access to award flights etc to FFPs in alliance partners' schemes as to FFPs in their own scheme.

But don't forget also that inventory changes frequently - airlines review how many seats they are offering in each fare class on individual routes very often - which may be the reason for the CPH-HEL-CPH issue you mentioned.

I regret that I am not in a position to check inventories on specific airlines on specific routes for specific periods for FTers.

If you have problems in gaining seats on a route, then please contact your regular airline FFP desk. If there is no availability on a specific airline on a specific route in a specific cabin during a specific period, then you may need to consider alternative routeings...

oneworld4u

Expansion of the Booking Tool?
 

OW4U:

Any update on if -- or when -- the OneWorld Explorer RTW booking tool will add the capability to book and ticket other OW products -- like (especially!) xCIRxx?

Bitterroot:

Thanks for your post. The long-term plan is to offer other oneworld fare products for sale through our on-line booking facility, besides oneworld Explorer - but I cannot at this stage give any details on the timeframe for this.

oneworld4u

Dear oneworld4u:

How come LA's JFK-YYZ-JFK is not included in the oneworld visit North America Pass? CX's YVR-JFK-YVR is allowed, so I suppose LA's JFK-YYZ-JFK should also be allowed, right?

Hi oneworld4u,

Would it be possible for the xONEx online booking tool to accept multiple credit cards for payment? There are several reasons for wanting this; especially when booking multiple people on the same trip it the costs soon add up. If buying a A/DONEx for a family, then it's quite a lot of money to hit one card with. In my case I wanted to split such a purchase across two Amex cards (for another reason ... BA's 2-4-1 amex offer) which meant I ended up with two PNRs, and of course the attendant hassle that causes/will cause.

Being able to enter multiple cards would be useful :)

thanks!

ernestnywang: Thanks for your post. LAN has only recently started flying JFK-YYZ-JFK. This is indeed a sector that should be included in oneworld's Visit North America pass - but sometimes it takes a short while for the necessary systems and paperwork to catch up with route changes. We anticipate that this will all be sorted out in this particular case soon - hopefully in the next regular update at the beginning of next month. Happy and safe travelling! oneworld4u

SLF: Glad you like our new on-line booking tool for Explorer. We are closely looking at all feedback posted and identified to help us in refining the tool as we go forward. Whether or not this will include the ability to split the payment for a single booking between two credit cards we'll have to wait and see. But I think it is unlikely. The software powering the facility is complicated enough as it is, bearing in mind the incredible flexibility of the product offering - giving customers the capability of booking up to 16 sectors on any of up to some 9,500 flights a day covering almost 700 destinations in 150 countries... Sorry! I am sure you'll find other ways of solving this issue - perhaps, if you are getting more than one ticket, by creating separate bookings for each of them, or by making a "payment" from one of your credit card accounts to another... FTers seem to be full of ingenuity! Hope the trip is great! oneworld4u

Dear oneworld4u

Now you are back, would you mind solving my problems written in thread 85 in page 6 a year ago? Sometimes, CX will be able to assign me exit row seats on AA-marketed & AA-operated flights, but that does not happen very often. However, on a CX-marketed & AA-operated flight, ASR is never possible from CX's side, and AA is generally relunctant to do ASR for me on a flight marketed by CX as they are afraid that they would jeoperdize the PNR and the computer connection between CUPID and Sabre. USAAA always charges me service fee for doing ASR on PNRs booked by CX, and TPEAA, though does not charge fees, is often busy and I often ended up listening to the engaged message for hours. Thank you so much!

SWINE FLU
 

The Swine flu outbreak in Mexico wories me a lot recently. I have a ticket booked MAD-MEX-MIA on IB and AA. If the Swine Flu went on badly in the coming weeks, would One World members allow route change involved MEXICO CITY on XONEX ticket Free of Charge?

If you're convinced it's that dangerous surely $125 is insignificant? Although I can see that it could perhaps usefully be spent on some basic education in risk analysis...

Unlike you need some basic education on manner, I do save every penny and donate to charity.

Don't worry about going to MEXICO CITY to catch swine flu, if you believe the hype being shown on TV (and it appears you do) then you know this thing will go pandemic and you'll catch it anywhere. :rolleyes:

In the words of Public Enemy, "Don't Believe the Hype"
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/28...flu/index.html

IC6A: I'm pretty sure that all oneworld airlines serving Mexico have introduced special policies for passengers due to fly to the country at this time enabling them to change their travel plans without charge - and this should cover your needs. I suggest you contact the airline that issued your ticket if you want to change your schedule.

However, the advice of the World Health Organisation at this time is that there is no need for any travel restrictions on Mexico.

oneworld4u

ernestnywang: Sorry to hear of your frustrations... Pre-reserved seating is a benefit offered to oneworld FFP members - but, as our website states, "in accordance with the individual policy of the oneworld member airline operating the flight".

The complicating factor here is that you are booking flights marketed by CX but operated by AA - a code-share, which can make things like this more complicated than perhaps they should be.... As you have discovered.

We are working on moving the handling of as many as possible of these kinds of thing into the self-service arena and are keen to iron out snags like the one you are encountering.

Meantime, it is up to AA and CX to sort out their agreement and arrangements covering the operation of their code-sharing.

Simplest way for you to avoid the problem for now may just be to book these sectors on flights both marketed and operated by AA, assuming there is no price differential. All your regular CX FFP priveleges should still apply...

oneworld4u

If this was the case, I wouldn't have any problems with it. Unfortunately in my experience the agent will try to get out of it because the reissue is to much work, or they do not understand to do it.

2 examples:

BA in NRT refused to reissue my BA issued xONEx ticket, and told me cathay had to reissue it. (cathay were wonderful, but it would have been much easier for BA to have done the reissue).

BA in AMS refused to reissue my AA issued xONEx ticket (after mumbling about it being a lot of work), and told me AA had to reissue it. The nearest AA office is in BRU, so not really an advantage for me as the customer.

I am happy to know you're working on this, but I fear there is a long way to go before the oneworld airlines are properly integrated.