Oman Air to join the oneworld alliance with Avios ‘earn and burn’ on the way

Oman Air announced today that it is joining the oneworld airline alliance, alongside British Airways. We knew that the airline was interested in signing up but there was no sign that discussions were so advanced.

This means that, by 2024, you will be able to earn and redeem Avios on Oman Air flights between the UK and Muscat and connecting destinations onwards.

Qatar Airways, which already works closely with Oman Air, has agreed to act as sponsor for the application and provide support for the integration.

Adding Oman Air will give oneworld an even stronger position in the Middle East, flying alongside Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian.

It leaves Star Alliance and SkyTeam looking a little exposed, albeit that Star Alliance has EGYPTAIR and SkyTeam has Middle East Airlines and Saudia. Whilst Emirates is unlikely to ever join a major alliance, pressure may now increase on Etihad to partner with one of the other two groupings.

Oman Air adds three new destinations to the oneworld route map – Duqm and Khasab in Oman and Chittagong in Bangladesh.  The airline has lounges in Muscat, Salalah and Bangkok which will become available to British Airways Gold and Silver members who are flying on a oneworld airline.

Oman Air currently flies to 41 destinations in 20 territories, using a fleet of Boeing 737, Boeing 787 and Airbus A330 aircraft.

I reviewed Oman Air’s First Class Suite in this article and reviewed their Business Class seat in this article. We reviewed the Oman Air Business Class lounge in Muscat here. At Heathrow it uses the Gulf Air lounge in Terminal 4, although this will presumably switch to the Qatar Airways lounges in 2024.

Oman Air is a classy operation and a worthy addition to the alliance. The only downside is that British Airways is less likely to relaunch its own flights to Oman when Oman Air joins oneworld, in the same way that it no longer flies to Helsinki (home of Finnair) and Kuala Lumpur (home of Malaysia Airlines). You can at least rely on British Airways to open up 14 Avios seats per flight.

For reference, the current list of oneworld alliance members is Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian and SriLankan Airlines. Fiji Airlines is a ‘oneworld Connect’ partner members. The membership of Russian airline S7 is currently suspended.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 13th June, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is doubled to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – and you get £200 to spend at Amex Travel too! Apply here.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.