Two rather unexpected developments have recently emerged from the oneworld alliance.
The first is that after both China Southern and STARLUX found their paths into the alliance effectively blocked by Cathay Pacific, Philippine Airlines has now announced that it will join oneworld next year. The second is a new alliance-wide partnership with India’s Taj Hotels group, marking oneworld’s latest move beyond the aviation industry.
To be fair, cross-industry partnerships aren’t entirely unprecedented. SkyTeam once announced plans to bring Eurostar into the alliance, although that initiative seems to have quietly disappeared. Oneworld, however, appears to be taking things much more seriously this time around.
The most interesting aspect of the partnership is the planned reciprocal status matching between Taj Hotels and selected oneworld airlines:
- oneworld Emerald members will be eligible for Taj Gold status, while Sapphire and Ruby members can receive Taj Silver status.
- Taj Platinum and Gold members will be eligible for oneworld Sapphire status, while Taj Silver and Copper members can receive oneworld Ruby status.
Naturally, the second part is where things get interesting. Airline status is generally much harder to earn than hotel status, and oneworld elite benefits are genuinely valuable. Sapphire speaks for itself, but even Ruby comes with perks such as complimentary seat selection, priority check-in, and priority boarding on many airlines.
What’s more, the qualification requirements on the Taj side are surprisingly accessible. Copper status requires just five nights or INR 50,000 (£391) in spending, while Gold requires 40 nights or INR 400,000 (£3,131) in spending.
And it gets even more interesting: you can effectively buy your way to Gold status without staying a single night.
Taj operates a paid membership programme called Epicure, which offers benefits such as complimentary stay voucher, room upgrade vouchers, lounge passes, and dining discounts. In many ways, it resembles programmes like Accor Plus and All Plus China.
Crucially, it also comes with elite status:
- Epicure Preferred (INR 29,500 / £231) includes Taj Silver status.
- Epicure Privileged (INR 59,000 / £462) includes Taj Gold status.
In other words, for roughly £462, you receive two free nights, four upgrade vouchers, four meal vouchers for two people, and both Taj Gold status and oneworld Sapphire status. It almost sounds too good to be true.
That said, today’s post is not a call to action. For starters, Taj Epicure is officially available only to Indian residents and requires an Indian address and phone number during enrolment. In addition, most of the included vouchers can only be used within India.
More importantly, the detailed terms of the oneworld – Taj partnership have not yet been released. There’s every possibility that such “free” Taj statuses may be excluded from the status match programme.
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