Bonus miles & reciprocity for oneworld/Star Alliance shake-up

One of the things which impresses me most about the oneworld alliance is their consistency and coordination when it comes to new members and promotions. All of the member programs make sure to welcome the new partner with a bonus miles offering and the new member reciprocates by offering up bonus points for flights on the existing members. This time around the promo opportunities are doubled as there are two programs joining oneworld.

US Airways

For Dividend Miles members the offer is a sliding scale of bonus points based on how many partner carriers one flies before 30 June 2014 and credits to the Dividend Miles program. Registration is required.

If you’re going to be in Europe anyways and can find a way to get Finnair, British Airways, Iberia and Air Berlin into an itinerary that could be a quick, fun way to grab some extra points. Getting the LAN 5th freedom flight in Europe (MAD-FRA) would be even better.

In addition, most of the other oneworld programs (except AAdvantage) are offering double miles for flights operated by US Airways during the same promotion period. Registration may be required so check with your program of choice if you have a US-operated flight coming up.

TAM

The promo window for TAM’s joining bonus party is shorter – only flights in May 2014 will count – and the numbers are a bit different: Everyone gets double everywhere. Tam FIdelidade members will earn double points on flights credited from other oneworld partners and members of those programs will earn double miles on TAM flights. Similar to the US Airways promotion registration may be required. American is definitely requiring such.

Star Alliance

The Star Alliance group, unlike oneworld, rarely seems to be coordinated in their efforts related to programs coming and going. And, while it certainly is not perfect, there is something resembling coordination this week in an effort to keep some TAM elite customers in the Star Alliance fold. Nine programs have coordinated a status match effort for TAM Fidelidade Red & Black cardholders (Star Gold status) to bring that status into a program which is still part of Star Alliance. For travelers who split their time between multiple airlines across the alliances this is a nice deal. There does not appear to be a similar program in place to attract US Airways passengers, though I’m guessing a normal status match/challenge request would work just fine.