TWA elite status and Oneworld
 

Although there has been some discussion on the AA board about AAdvantage status and using that on TWA flights, there hasn't been much talk about being able to use TWA status on AA or Oneworld for that matter.

A colleague of mine who is Elite 1 on TWA just returned from a week in Europe on a combination of TW (STL-LGW), BA (LGW-CDG-LGW), and AA (LHR-ORD-STL). He has been given AAdvantage Platinum status, but has not received his card yet. So he left with only his Elite 1 TWA card. He had the following to report:

He was able to use business-class check-in across the entire Oneworld system. There was only one issue in Paris, but they were able to consult a supervisor who accepted the Elite 1 card. This was an enormous time-savings he said. I told him to try to use the Terraces lounge, but he didn't have time.

In any case, it would seem that some of the benefits of Oneworld are available to us. Make sure you at least have your new AA number with you though.

Did your friend quote the AA number. AS the status was matched to AA Platinum, it will show up as OW Saphire. So maybe it was not the TWA card that magically opened the gates but the AA Aadvantage number (since the OW partners are now electronically linked to check your OW status in real-time).

The above is based on observation and speculation and not based on inside knowledge of how the system works. I am open to being corrected.

I asked him and he said it was enough to just show his TWA Elite 1 card and that was enough to check-in at the BA business class counter. He didn't try the Terraces lounge so I can't say there