u/RyanAirhead

The article is behind a paywall, but below is a summary.

According to Alaska's MD of Partnerships and International, speaking at the IATA conference this week:

- Going Global: Now that Alaska Airlines is officially a global carrier (they just launched flights to Rome on April 28), they want to jump into international joint ventures as their next growth phase.

- Deepening Ties with American Airlines: Alaska is looking to get much closer with its fellow Oneworld alliance buddy, American Airlines.

- Eyeing Existing Networks: American already has massive, established joint businesses covering Europe, Australia, and Japan. Joining any of these would give Alaska a massive global boost, though it still needs the green light from antitrust regulators.

- Scouting for a Latin American Partner. Alaska ended its long-term partnership with LATAM Airlines back in October 2025. While their current partners fly to Latin America, none actually fly within the region.

- Executives say to "stay tuned" as they actively look to fill this gap. While Oneworld doesn't have a specific Latin American member airline right now, American Airlines already has stakes in Chile's JetSmart and Brazil's Gol, which could help fill the gap.

So this got buried in the IATA announcements that included PR joining oneworld, but oneworld also brought in Taj hotels as a new partner.

What this means for AA (and other oneworld) elites:

"oneworld Emerald members will be matched to Taj InnerCircle Gold, with Ruby and Sapphire members aligning with Taj InnerCircle Silver. Plans are underway to introduce miles earning opportunities on hotel stays across select oneworld partner airline programmes later this year"

TLDR: oneworld chief acknowledges they have to fix the "seamless" technology promise that they aim for; smaller airlines need to be heard better; India, as well as South America and Africa are big holes for the alliance; and buried all the way at the end of the article is some quick mention of a new partnership with Taj hotels.

TLDR: Alaska CFO says they would "love" for BoFA points to become transferrable to Alaska.