oneworld rumoured to be courting China Southern

Four years after it resigned from the SkyTeam airline alliance, there are renewed rumours that China Southern may join the oneworld grouping. This would make it an Avios earning and redemption partner.

The move was expected back in 2020, once the airline had fully unwound itself from SkyTeam, but obviously the pandemic got in the way.

American Airlines and Qatar Airways, both oneworld members, are shareholders in China Southern. It also has a Joint Business Agreement with British Airways.

This latest rumour comes via a Bloomberg story last week (paywall) which claims that British Airways and American Airlines are leading the push to win over both the airline and fellow oneworld members.

Talks have, unsurprisingly, been complicated by the difficulties of getting in and out of China to conduct negotiations.

Whilst oneworld is lacking a mainland Chinese carrier, it does have Cathay Pacific.  China Southern has a major hub in Guangzhou which is on Hong Kong’s doorstep and would create complications.  If a deal went through it would provide a new set of Avios redemption options for getting from Europe to Asia.

Even if true, don’t expect this story to lead to any quick change. It tends to take 12-18 months for alliance memberships to launch from the day they are announced, and even this depends on trouble-free IT integration.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 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.

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.

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.