*Confirmed* Mexicana to join oneworld [on November 10th 2009]

[Keith009]

Avionews

Mexicana is to join oneworld®. Mexico and Central America’s leading airline today accepted a formal invitation to become part of the world’s leading quality airline alliance after being unanimously elected on board by the grouping’s existing ten member airlines, which include some of the biggest and best names in the industry.

Its subsidiary Click Mexicana will join at the same time, as an affiliate member of oneworld.

Their joining process is expected to take 12 to 18 months to complete, with Iberia supporting Mexicana through these tasks, as its prime oneworld sponsor, assisted by American Airlines.

So Mexicana and Click Mexicana will be flying as part of oneworld in 2009, when they will start offering the alliance’s full range of services and benefits to their own customers and those from their new oneworld partners.

Adds some interesting options for xONExing in North America. I've always wanted to go back to CUN and this should add direct options from more cities.

Also nicely gets around that nasty AA lounge access restriction for Mexican cities other than MEX.

 

[AussieTim]

Ah, about time... This opens up so many options!

MEX-DFW-LAX-MEL without DFW will be so much nicer.

 

[wrldtrvllr]

And when would MX flights be available on a OW products such as xONEx?
I'm looking at organising a DONE4 commencing mid July and MX options would be useful for my NA legs next May/June (2009)...do you think the Dallas all-stars would allow me to make such an itinerary? When JAL came aboard OW did ATW desk allow JL flights to be scheduled in advance of their "official" commencement (if there is such a thing...)?

 

[Keith009]

And when would MX flights be available on a OW products such as xONEx?
I'm looking at organising a DONE4 commencing mid July and MX options would be useful for my NA legs next May/June (2009)...do you think the Dallas all-stars would allow me to make such an itinerary? When JAL came aboard OW did ATW desk allow JL flights to be scheduled in advance of their "official" commencement (if there is such a thing...)?

The ATW desk only allowed me to include JL flights in my itinerary on the date JL actually joined the alliance - 1APR07. But that was fine as I wasn't in a hurry to ticket the booking anyway.

You cannot include members-elect on a booking if they're not already members. A list of permitted carriers are stipulated in the rules and the rules get updated everytime a member-elect becomes an official member. You're stuck with the rules you got at the time of ticketing. It works both ways - you can't add members-elect into your ticket, but your ticket will still be valid on an airline that leaves oneworld post ticketing.

edit - am referring to the xONEx and any OW product which only allow OW members.

You *might* be able to get away with it if you've got a paper ticket and the endorsements read "valid oneworld carriers" instead of "valid <list of members at time of ticketing>." This would require a reissue of course. But this is purely speculation and not a statement of truth.

Speculation on FT is that MX will be a full member sometime during Q1 2009.

 

[dajop]

And when would MX flights be available on a OW products such as xONEx?

IIRC, when it was announced JL et al were going to join, they were added pretty quickly to the Global Explorer product, but not xONEx. Or was it that they were already permitted in that product long before their joining OW was mooted? I can't remember!

 

[Mal]

Date has been announced as 10 Nov this year.

oneworld - News

Mexico and Central America's leading airline Mexicana will become part of oneworld®, the world's leading quality airline alliance, on Tuesday 10 November, offering oneworld's full range of services and benefits from then.

Its subsidiaries MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink will join oneworld at the same time, as affiliate members.

 

[notzac]

Finally!!!

My MX flights are shortly after the join date (18th November and 23rd November), so it will be interesting to see how the OWE bennies are offered/applied.

 

[aus_flyer]

They should make it a day later....

The 11th airline*... joins on the 11th day.... of the 11th month.

(*as poor KA doesn't seem to get much of a mention, being a subsidiary)

 

[serfty]

Cool, I'm off to MEX in January.

On AA but I'll maybe do some lounge hopping.

 

[Cynicor]

Will this mean some anything for airpasses? As in, is there a North America or other airpass that now has an extended range of destinations?

Jon

 

[futaris]

oneworld - Visit North America

 

[anat0l]

Perhaps this gives JL another potential partner to milk cash out of (instead of the Japanese government ).

Just kidding.

I wonder if this will have ramifications on AA's Central American routes, i.e. cutting off their metal in favour of MX codeshares. That could have interesting implications on YUPP runs and/or AA challenges.

Apart from that, it is good to see OW getting more options about the Americas. If only they had better options in Europe (BA is really the only "viable" one; AY isn't too bad and perhaps IB (but their service doesn't look too hot) but MA and let's not get too started on potentially S7).

 

[obrienja]

Slightly off topic but in defence of IB - I flew them (reluctantly) earlier this year a few times for work and was very impressed with the quality of the lounge in Madrid and the service on the ground in London, Madrid and Tenerife.

Their planes were significantly newer than any BA equivalents on the route (LHR-MAD not TFS) although their prices are a little higher than BA - but I'm definitely looking at flying with them again in preference to BA.

 

[moa999]

Also on IB's defence.

Their regional carrier - Air Nostrum (think Qantas Link) is also exceptional, particularly in Business class.

FF lounge at MAD is high quality as well

 

[drron]

As to IB just wait until you have a problem and then come back and tell me their service is good.

 

[adrian]

I have flown IB quite a lot, and they have managed to lose my bags more than once (last year they lost 1 bag on the first flight, and then the 2nd and final bag the next day!!!). That was fun.

The bags turned up a couple of days later.

I sent in receipts (to Madrid?) for clothes that I had to buy to get me thru - can't remember the exact amount, but would guess it was 200 to 400 euros. I expected to really have to chase this up, receive nothing, and then eventually claim it through my insurance company. To their credit, I received a cheque in the mail for the full amount about 1 month later. Maybe I just got lucky, as I have heard a lot of bad stories from others...

I like their flight attendants, and really like Madrid airport and the lounge.