TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published. For more details please see the advertising disclosure found at the bottom of every page.
The oneworld alliance, as dysfunctional as it is, is celebrating its 20th birthday today in London and there have already been a number of announcements made that give an indication as to the direction the alliance is taking.
With more news expected throughout the day (I’ll update this post with further information as its released) the oneworld hierarchy has unveiled four new initiatives that will be rolling out from this year.
- Digital revolution: Customers flying on connecting flights on oneworld airlines will soon be able to check-in, retrieve/download/print boarding passes, track their baggage, receive flight updates and pay for additional services all through their preferred airline’s app or website – If you’ve booked an itinerary through American Airlines that includes American and British Airways flights (for example) you will not have to use both airline sites to fully manage your trip going forward.
- Even better customer experience: Technically there already is a oneworld branded lounge (at LAX) but the alliance has now announces that oneworld-branded and managed airport lounges will be rolled out “at key airports” from later this year.
- More member airlines: As has already been announced, Royal Air Maroc will join the oneworld alliance in 2020 and Fiji Airways will be inducted as the first oneworld connect partner next month. The alliance has confirmed that discussions are currently taking place with the view of signing up more oneworld connect partners.
- Easier corporate sales: Not much detail has been provided on this point but we do know that oneworld will be implementing a new process with the aim of speeding up responses to multinational corporations.
Oneworld’s Digital Revolution
Here’s what oneworld had to say about its “digital revolution”
These capabilities, announced as oneworld marks the 20th anniversary of its launch, are being rolled out on a phased basis – both in terms of functionality and the oneworld member airlines offering them.
Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways are the first oneworld members to connect up in this way, enabling their customers to use either airline’s app and/or website to check-in and receive boarding passes for connecting flights on either airline.
Other member airlines will be added progressively in the next year to 18 months. As more carriers link to the platform, it will cover an increasing number of transfers between oneworld member airlines. With its full roll-out, every journey involving a connection between two or more oneworld member airlines will be supported by this level of ease and convenience.
Additional capabilities due to be added to the platform’s portfolio, also from this year, include flight information and baggage status. Later, the alliance plans to expand it to provide the capability of paying for additional baggage and other extras for connecting flights.
Oneworld Lounges
With reference to the oneworld branded lounges, the alliance has said that the idea is for oneworld member airlines to come together to offer a unified lounge at select airports worldwide in a bid to offer flyers “bigger and better lounges” than the airlines could justify individually.
No specific location has been announced as the first recipient of a new oneworld lounge and all that the alliance has said is….
A number of airports are now being considered for the development of the first lounge to be branded as “oneworld” and managed by the alliance on behalf of its member airlines with the location of the first due to be unveiled later in 2019.
New oneworld Branding
With its 20th birthday comes a rebranding for the oneworld alliance and be prepared for a burst of color.
Oneworld is adopting the tagline “Travel Bright” and, along with it, adopting a remarkably bright set of colors (someone call the 1950’s – we’ve found its pastel colors!).
The alliance says that the new branding “is designed to communicate the character of the alliance and the benefits it delivers, drawing on three core themes”
Per oneworld these core themes are:
Guidance: oneworld and its member airlines work together so customers have a great journey wherever they need to travel – a world-class collection of airlines that connect together seamlessly.
Understanding: No matter where you find yourself, oneworld is there to provide tailored service that understands you, your journey and why it matters.
Anywhere: Across six continents, oneworld enables you to earn rewards, travel further and relax in comfort with special privileges for frequent flyers all the way.
Apparently a key objective of this rebranding is to simplify the way the alliance’s offering is presented to travelers and therefore “making it easier for customers to understand the key benefits the alliance delivers”
The new colors are already up on a redesigned oneworld website (oneworld.com):
I have to confess that I have absolutely no idea how a new color palette is meant to do all that oneworld expects of it but, as the alliance has clearly paid a marketing/design team a lot of money for this, presumably it’s confident that the messages will get across…..but I have my doubts.
Last but not least (for the time being), oneworld has released an infographic summing up some of the key facts surrounding oneworld and its development over the past twenty years.
Click to enlarge
Bottom Line
Oneworld is doing its best to look unified at a time when I suspect it’s anything but and the rebranding is clearly an attempt to refresh an image that has been around for quite some time – I’m not sure I like the colors.
The announcement of new oneworld lounges is interesting and sees oneworld follow the same path that SkyTeam and Star Alliance have already gone down. Hopefully this news will see lounges opened in locations where new facilities are most needed (e.g. a umber of European cities) and not at airports where the choices are already pretty good (e.g. LAX) – when we hear where the first lounge will open we’ll have a better idea of the way oneworld is thinking.
Overall nothing negative has come out of the birthday celebrations just yet (Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker may even have turned up) so that’s something….but I’ll keep an eye on things as the day progresses just to make sure.
Happy Birthday oneworld, here’s to another 20 years 🙂
nice they’re making changes, but weird the motif of the whole design seems so pandering to the IG/millenial crowd. You’d think people would think twice before going the same route that Joon took.
The more you need to pronounce how unified your alliance is, the less unified it looks.