Oman Air announced last summer that it had applied for membership in the Oneworld Alliance. The carrier was expected to join sometime in 2024, but no firm date had been published to date and now there are further complications.
There has now been an update that the airline will incur an additional delay in the process and the joining date is now slated for June 30, 2025 – a whole year after the expected date.
In a previous interview with the Executive Traveler the CEO of Oneworld revealed that the joining timeline of Oman Air will fall into the second half of 2024 but they have just gotten word that this timeline can’t be kept.
Oman Air will only be the second Middle East carrier to be part of an alliance and will complement their regional competitor Qatar Airways in the Oneworld Alliance while both Etihad and Emirates remain independent.
We first reported about this last June when the announcement came forward:
It was an interesting choice when Oman Air came forward with the news of joining the group last summer, as I always expected that they would be a candidate for Star Alliance or SkyTeam, especially as Star has no alliance partner in the region.
Now, the Executive Traveler reports they received news of an additional delay to June 2025.
Oman Air will officially join the Oneworld alliance on June 30, 2025, pushing back from an expected “late 2024” timeline, and is also considering adding a new top tier to its Sindbad rewards program to line up against Oneworld Emerald status.
Oman Air CEO Con Korfiatis confirmed the new timetable to Executive Traveller, adding that the Muscat-based airline would “have some fun growing again” as more aircraft joined the fleet, including two new Boeing 787s in “early 2025” and then six more for delivery from 2027. …
This “fare class realignment… is the leading edge activity for joining an alliance,” Rutter told Executive Traveller, as this involves “every partner mapping every fare class to every fare class in another airline… so that’s why we chose June 30 as opposed to say January 1.” …
Oman Air is considering adding a third elite status tier to its Sindbad loyalty scheme, above Sindbad Silver and Sindbad Gold, which would be equivalent to Oneworld Emerald status.
In that model, Sindbad Silver would line up with Oneworld Ruby and Sindbad Gold with Oneworld Sapphire, although Sindbad Gold might launch as an Emerald equivalent before being downgraded to Sapphire.
“I think we will join with two tiers and we are working right now on finalising whether our Gold tier will map into Emerald or Sapphire,” an Oman Air spokesman told Executive Traveller, “and then in the course of next year we will introduce the third tier, which will definitely map into Emerald.”
“Gold could map into Emerald, but if we do that there’ll be a downgrade for some members.” …
This is definitely insightful information, but as far as the Sindbad program is concerned, I would take it with a grain of salt to rely on promises of the CEO at this point. After all, how many postponements have we seen in regard to Oneworld now?
It would definitely be good and fair for Oman Air top tier members to be able to obtain an Emerald status but can Emeralds of other programs receive respective First Class services with Oman Air when the carrier effectively doesn’t offer First Class anymore? It would be possible if you take Malaysia Airlines as an example as they still maintain their Business Suite and Platinum Lounge facilities that are accessible for Oneworld Emerald members.
Oman Air also had quite a few product changes in recent years. The airlines once featured a rather nice First Class which has now been discontinued and is being sold as a Business Plus. However, even the Business Class of Oman Air was almost on a First level considering space, comfort and service.
The carrier has survived quite long without being part of any alliance, so one could argue that it isn’t exactly a pressing priority for them to join as soon as possible.
That is still much better than having a half-baked attempt to join an alliance and being accepted but then there are countless problems like we see with ITA Airways when the carrier was quickly admitted into SkyTeam with all the logos in place and doling out elite matches to SkyTeam Elite Plus only to find out that almost no partner was recognizing the airline at that time. Or Alaska Air, where you still can’t combine Mileage Plan partner airlines in the same award ticket.
Usually, Oneworld always seemed to be better organized both on the administrative but also the technical front. For as long as I can remember, the IT aspect of Oneworld was very good at recognizing frequent flyers and issuing lounge eligibility either on the boarding pass or automatically printing an invitation, all while the competition still demanded to see and check membership cards. We shall see how this progresses!
Conclusion
The Executive Traveler interviewed the CEO of Oneworld recently, and he conveyed the news that Oman Air will delay their original plan to join the alliance in the second half of 2024 and rather aim for June 30, 2025 now.. There are still some technical and administrative hurdles to clear, but overall, the partnership is on a successful path to come together next year (or so they say).
Let’s hope that Oman Air’s integration into the Oneworld alliance goes smoothly and that the timeline of June 30th, 2025, can be kept without incurring further postponements. It’s rather unfortunate because I know someone who booked an Oman Air flight for December and hoped to earn BA tier points with these flights. That plan is now out the window.
