One World needs better partners
 

I have f.f. points in AA but it seems difficult to use them for overseas flights some times. Star Alliance seems to be growing and partnered with so many airline options. When going to Europe I find that the partners I can only work with AA and British Air. Why has One World lost so many of it's previous partners??

It's only lost 2 so far, Canadian Airlines in 2000 when it was taken over by Air Canada, and Aer Lingus last year because of it's shift to low cost carrier status. Star Alliance has lost three, Ansett, Varig and Mexicana (which is about to join OW), SkyTeam's about to lose Continental.

Oneworld doesn't have as many options in Europe as the other two, but what doesn't work for you works better for others. It has better coverage than the other two in South America and Australia for starters.

They lost Swiss Air too. I'm trying to plan a trip to Johannesburg with a stop over in Zurich for a few days. They're saying I need to go from Zurich BACK TO HEATHROW before flying to Johannesburg. All the best options seem to be with Star Alliance carriers. I want to stopover somewhere, anywhere but the UK.

Iberia also gets to Johannesburg from Zurich, no?

Swiss was never a ONEWORLD member.

Regarding flights to Europe, current ONEWORLD carriers that operate between the US and Europe and intra-Europe are British, Iberia, Finnair and Málev. Brussels Airlines is an AA partner and you can use them if you are using miles for an AA All-Partner Award. So that's a total of 6 (incl. AA) airlines to choose from for US-Europe routings.

That's correct - Swiss Air had a partnership with AA and BA but (after the mega-bankruptcy) Swiss never became a member of oneworld.

Brussels doesn't actually fly US-Europe, but maybe you're talking about flying SN intra-Europe as part of a whole trip? Your point is a valid one, though: Iberia and BA will get you anywhere you want to go in Europe, and Finnair and Malév are good specialty carriers in the northern and eastern regions. Oneworld could definitely be beefed up around the globe, but Europe is really the last place from which I'd like to see the next partner (that is, of course, unless it's SN, but that's only because of their African destinations.)

Thank you for your suggestions. I didn't know that Swiss was never part of OneWorld. In my case it worked well when I redeemed AA miles for a flight to Zurich. I definitely need to use AA miles to get to JNB via some airline that flies from Europe but prefer not to use BA.

I would make a point of asking an agent to search IB inventory via MAD, if LHR is unacceptable.

Friend just informed me that he used AA miles to fly on Turkish Air last year . A stopover in Istanbul would be wonderful if this works out. I didn't realize that AA and Turkish Air were partners.

Not a member of OneWorld but they used to be an "other partner" for AA (couldn't redeem a OneWorld award) - this arrangement ended earlier this year (announced last year).

https://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do...lines/main.jsp

They were but are not anymore. I suggest you check out aa.com and the all-partner award pages for the partners. You can connect through Europe on any of a number of carriers, but the only two partners you can use to get to Jo'burg are BA and Iberia.

He could also look in to El Al it might be bit if detour but i know plenty of people that fly from europe to south africa via DXB and Doha.

Yup, we have it pretty good over here at *A.

Except for South America that is...

Not without two tickets. He can only connect through Europe. While Israel used to be in Europe as far as AA was concerned, it was changed to the Middle East.