Kingfisher's oneworld entry put on hold a week before launch
Just a week before its scheduled 10 February 2012 induction, oneworld puts Kingfisher Airlines' membership on hold, citing the need for the airline to strengthen its financial position.
Kingfisher was seven days from joining oneworld. The induction was locked for 10 February 2012. Then the alliance pulled the plug: entry is now indefinitely postponed, officially to give the airline “more time to strengthen its financial position.”
Decode the alliance-speak and it reads: this isn’t happening. Alliances don’t halt a member’s entry a week out over paperwork. They do it when they’ve looked at the books and decided they don’t want their brand attached to what they found.
For King Club members, the loss is concrete. Oneworld membership was the payoff that would have turned King Miles into a global currency — earning and burning across the alliance network. That door just closed, indefinitely, with the champagne already on ice.
Our take: this is the clearest public signal yet that King Club — and the airline behind it — is running out of runway. A loyalty program’s value is exactly as good as its airline’s balance sheet, and oneworld just told you what it thinks of this one. Stop banking King Miles.