New Avios partner coming: Royal Air Maroc is joining the oneworld airline alliance

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• ankomonkey says:

  6 Dec6 December 08:29

  “Star Alliance already has Ethiopian and South African…” and EgyptAir?

  • marcw says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:58

    He probably just copied some press release…

    • Rob says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:09

      No, I did think about this. Technically, Egypt is in BOTH Asia and Africa whilst also being a Middle Eastern country. I decided it didn’t really count as ‘Africa’ on that basis.

      • marcw says:

        6 Dec6 December 11:28

        What a BS explanation – Middle East is not a geographical separation based on continents (there is actually some middle east in europe as well). The majority of Egypt’s mass and population is in the African continent.

        Spain is in both Europe and Africa – so applying your logic… we can’t consider Iberia an European airline either.

        Anyway, according to Rob, if you are flying with EgyptAir you are not flying an African airline. LoL.

      • Peter K says:

        6 Dec6 December 13:57

        @marcw I actually get Rob’s reasoning. I view the Middle East as it’s own separate area, almost like a mini-continent.
        I would put Egypt as an African country personally, but Israel next door as Middle East. Where do you draw the line… Maybe a personal decision? After all, Israel won the Eurovision Song contest!

      • marcw says:

        6 Dec6 December 14:38

        It is very difficult to draw a line, I agree. But we can argue whether Egypt is or not a Middle Eastern country, but it is an African country. Culturally they may be different from all other African countries and perhaps more linked to the traditional Middle Eastern culture. But that doesn’t imply that they are not an African country.
        We could use geological features to separate regions (because humans love to classify, separate everything). Tectonic plates and major geological structures has been used to separate regions traditionally (and, in fact, countries). This should be the most objective way of separating regions, which is as system (I think) the UN nations uses. The problem is, with time and history, politics and geopolitics get involved and mess up everything, and now even the MENA region exists.
        Furthermore, using Middle East (or Near East or Far East) is very egocentric, as if Europe (or UK for that matter) is the center of the world.
        Perhaps we should ask Egyptians whether they feel Africans, Middle Eastern, or both. Any Egyptians around?

• Joe Carr says:

  6 Dec6 December 09:09

  This is a terrible airline, I flew them once to Gabon, via Morocco.

  Never again!!

• ThinkSquare says:

  6 Dec6 December 09:27

  I can’t see 21 new countries on that map. Nor can I see connections from Manchester. Something not quite right here.

• Concerto says:

  6 Dec6 December 09:36

  I wonder if RAM could be an alternative to Iberia and the defunct Air Berlin for getting from Germany/Switzerland to the Canaries.

  • marcw says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:32

    RAM only flies to Gran Canaria and Tenerife North. I think no airline offers such an incredible good network to the Canaries like Iberia/Express. Notably, Air Berlin had a fantastic network there with incredibly good redemption options.
    Nevertheless, in low season a cheap Ryanair/easyJet/Laudair … should get you there for peanuts.

• DaveF says:

  6 Dec6 December 09:47

  I flew RAM from MAN-Casablanca in Sept and credited Iberia earning Avios. Lovely flight and auto credit with no hassles. Was cheap, 1st bag included. I’d recommend them every day.

  Used TAP via LIS on the return, that was a different story.

  If I can fly on miles via RAK to the rest of Africa on Avios that opens up a huge redemption opportunity for me.

• Prins Polo says:

  6 Dec6 December 09:48

  Flew RAM last year via Casablanca to Fez and it was a little bit of a third world experience… I won’t be jumping on that wagon again.

  Flights can be credited to Iberia to get (some) Avios in the meantime.

• Pierre says:

  6 Dec6 December 11:32

  Worked for that airline on a couple of occasions, and had a couple of onsite visits there.
  Dirty planes, crap lounges in Morocco, awful food in Y,…
  oh, and they managed to lose my bag on a CMN-RAK flight (no connection involved)
  I’d rather go via CDG on AF or even IST on TK just to avoid that airline again.

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