In early 2015 Aer Lingus was taken over by IAG, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia. I've always liked Aer Lingus as an airline, so in many ways I was sad to see them taken over by one of Europe's mega-airlines. Aer Lingus was a member of the oneworld alliance until 2006, at…
Continue reading: Aer Lingus Has No Plans To Join Oneworld After All
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Can't help but notice the CEO's view of the alliance, that by implication, joining it would compromise his business, and by implication, be dentrimental to cost effectiviness and capacity. Ties in with articles going about in the last couple of weeks about the future of airline alliances in general. ".....without compromising any of our existing businesses or the consumer. We’re about building cost efficiency and capacity.”
Sad, as a OW alternative to BA would be----would have been--so very welcome.
You can earn avios on them and also redeem avios. Have a look at today’s article on headforpoints.
If they joined oneworld, is there a limit on out of alliance codeshares? I.e would United and JetBlue partnerships have to end? Ignoring the other costs of re-branding and servicing elite customers, they have big out of alliance revenue deals.
I am happy they aren't joining. I like more competition across the atlantic, especially by bigger carriers than Norwegian who have IROP recovery options. While joining the JV may still ruin this, any separation is probably better for customers given the relative strength of the big alliances today which don't really have holes in their networks or a lack of frequencies
Too bad. Was hoping someone would save Oneworld travelers from them misery of LHR and BA. Iberia and Finnair aren't enough.
I'm neutral as I cant find any J (I for award) on them, ever. LAX-DUB would be the flight for me, but - nothing. Like ever. So who cares.
When they left Oneworld in 2006, they were quoted stating that their business interest with some alliance members in different parts of the world are rather minimal. This certainly hasn't changed. EI is not flying to Asia, Africa or Latin America. Therefore the only contact with carriers such as JL, CX, QF, LA, RJ is in London, Madrid and possibly a few other outstations (e.g. ZRH, AMS). On this basis, I can relate to their reluctancy.
On the other hand side, I don't understand why they don't create any incentives at least inside IAG. As a BA (or IB) frequent flyer, I no incentives whatsoever to fly EI. I can't collect tier points and have no status benefits on EI. So why should I fly EI ...
I think this is almost similar to what's currently happening with Gol (G3). Delta and AF/KLM own some % of it. They have some reciprocal benefits between their FFP. But Gol still manages to partner with Air Canada, TAP Portugal, Copa Airlines, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar. And some of the Skyteam partners like Korean Air,Alitalia and Aerolines Argentina (fax, anyone?).
Aer Lingus J passengers still have to use the crappy United lounge at SFO international, rather than the much better Qantas, JAL, Cathay and British lounges
I actually see it as the easy solution for LEVEL. Level, as it stands, is still IB AOC and IB mainline costs.
instead of spending the time and money on yet another AOC, just leverage the EI one. It’s a similar strategy on how LH Group is placing Brussels Air more in line with Eurowings
another factor is both Norwegian and SAS that’s now running Irish subsidiaries at low cost. If IAG brings EI into oneworld (with all the associated cost and more full service image), it’ll make them even worse shape to compete against DY SK and Ryanair.
This is purely a cost benefit tradeoff Call. Nothing about “death of alliances.”
I would rather earn miles with UA than AA. As far lounge access, there are ways around using a United Club. I hope EI stays earning with UA, as I have goals for those miles.