OneWorld: LATAM leaving early – 1 May 2020

In September 2019, LATAM announced that Delta airlines were taking a 20% stake in them, and that presumably prompted the notice of severing membership of OneWorld. LATAM also abandoned the negotiations for a joint venture with its OneWorld partner American Airlines.

At that time, the proposed date LATAM would sever its ties with OneWorld was 1 October 2020. That has now been brought forward by 5 months to 1 May 2020.

So what’s going on here?

Well, for Delta (Skyteam) formal membership of an alliance is becoming less important. They have pursued direct investment in a number of airline partners, forming an ownership alliance. They then parlayed these interests into joint venture arrangements whether the other airline is a member of the SkyTeam alliance or not.

There are currently no plans for LATAM to take up membership of Skyteam.

For a long time, Delta has been weak in South America. So the alliance with LATAM has two effects – it gives them a presence in South America, and also deals a blow to their rival American Airlines, by ripping a partner from them.

LATAM needed to give OneWorld 12 months notice to leave the alliance, hence the 1 October date. They could always leave earlier if OneWorld and its members agreed.

Well, it looks like they have, allowing LATAM to leave 5 months early.

What’s the deal?

Essentially everything stays the same until April 30, 2020, and then with OneWorld airlines – Excluding American Airlines – LATAM is maintaining bilateral agreements with most of their ex-alliance partners, including:

• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Jordanian
• S7 Airlines
• SriLankan Airlines

If you travel on those airlines after 30 April 2020, you will continue to:

• Earn and redeem frequent flyer miles/points via each airlines loyalty program
• Have reciprocal lounge access (subject to final agreement with each carrier)
• Top tier recognition in each airline’s frequent flyer program (subject to final agreement with each carrier)

LATAM will continue to honour mileage/points accumulation on tickets flown within 12 months from May 1, 2020, if purchased before that date.

For a full rundown of benefits retained and those lost and when – check the OneWorld Media Release, and the guides for the individual airlines you are flying with.

2PAXfly Takeout

This seems a very fair deal. For Australian travellers, let’s hope that Qantas maintains its relationship with LATAM.