Oneworld Alliance-Wide Upgrades Are Coming in 2022
If you fly on Oneworld member airlines often, you could soon be able to score points-based upgrades across the alliance. Oneworld CEO Rob Gurney says that frequent flyers of the 14 member airlines should have this option sometime in 2022.
Travelers will be able to use loyalty points from their favorite program of one airline in the Oneworld family to upgrade into premium economy, business class of first class on any other airline across the group. But there are still many questions, and not enough details on how it will actually all work.
Oneworld alliance-wide upgrades were first planned to be introduced in 2020, and then delayed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But Oneworld now says that it will roll out the much-anticipated platform this year.
“We are actively progressing in developing the Oneworld upgrades programs,” a spokesperson for the group told Executive Traveller. The new upgrade system “will deliver greater value to member airlines and customers in the future as international travel recovers.”
But with 14 member airlines with different loyalty programs, each with its own set of rules, creating a unified system will not be easy. Oneworld has not revealed any specific details on how the new upgrade system will work. We don’t know which fare types would be eligible for alliance-based upgrades or if there will be a waitlist or instant confirmation. Then there’s the question of how much an upgrade will cost and whether it will be the same across the alliance. What will availability look like?
“There’s a lot of work being done in rounding out what the ideal customer offering is, and just as importantly, how it’s executed,” Oneworld CEO Rob Gurney said.
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