As others have said, this is a huge deal because it's so much more than a marketing agreement.nycbusdriver said:
Oneworld (and the other alliances) are marketing agreements. Earn and burn frequent flyer miles on each other and, theoretically, the member airlines treat each others' elites very well. Most of the benefits accrue to the frequent fliers.
These joint ventures are a completely different animal. They're in place primarily to benefit the airlines, not the passengers. The admission of US Airways is a big deal because it's the first time that US has been a part of such a venture. No longer does US Airways have to compete against BA/IB/AY across the Atlantic. Parker long wanted US to be admitted to the UA/LH joint venture, but those airlines did not invite US to their reindeer games. So US was forced to compete against AA, DL and, more importantly, UA and LH across the Atlantic, while UA and LH cooperated, jointly setting fares, coordinating schedules and jointly deciding capacity. All US got was pro-rate revenue from carrying the UA/LH passengers on some connecting flights (providing feed for the UA/LH joint venture).
For nearly 20 years straight, US has had the lowest yields on TATL operations. Joining this joint venture provides the best opportunity for US to raise its yields on flights to Europe from CLT and PHL, which is obviously necessary to help pay for the higher payrates for flight crew members. For tickets between the USA and Europe, AA/US/BA/IB/AY will act as though they've merged. They act as one airline in setting fares, schedules, capacity, etc. And as jimntx pointed out, this would all be criminal antitrust violations in the absence of official approval from the Justice Department.
