Alaska Airlines considering partnership with Oneworld airline

Friday, November 30, 2018

Alaska Airlines executives said that the company is considering a membership in the Oneworld airline alliance.

The Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Harrison told analysts in New York City during the company’s annual Investor Day that Alaska Air is looking at joining Oneworld as a “connect” member.

Oneworld Connect is a secondary membership tier that offers airlines some — but not all — customer benefits provided through the alliance.

Fiji Airways is currently the only Oneworld Connect member. It joined in Summer 2018, when the membership tier was announced. Harrison explained the move would help Alaska keep the domestic business of passengers who often travel internationally from straying to other airlines. That represents a pretty hefty sum of  travellers who are based at Alaska’s four largest operations: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

At SFO and especially at LAX, Alaska faces the fierce competition from United, Delta and American Airlines.

With a connect membership, elite Alaska fliers would receive priority check-in desk access and priority boarding when flying airlines across the entire Oneworld alliance. Other more valuable perks, like lounge access, through-checking of bags and passengers, and award mileage redemptions would largely depend on which Oneworld airline the Alaska Mileage Plan member would be flying.

Under the current Oneworld Connect set-up, the more generous benefits would be offered by at least three of the airlines that had to sponsor Alaska’s entry into the alliance. Fiji Airways was sponsored by American, Cathay Pacific, British Airways and Qantas Airways.

The relationship between Alaska and Oneworld founding member American Airlines has grown more distant following the acquisition of Virgin America. For example, Alaska stopped awarding miles for American flights operating out of the West Coast, so it will interesting to see how the dynamics of that relationship evolve should Alaska join Oneworld.

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