Randy Petersen
OK, tonight is the night we have as guests on FlyerTalk Live! our first guests from one of the global airline alliances. But, it's not just any alliance. The Star Alliance was not the first global alliance (Delta and Swissair might have messed up the first one) but it is by far that I consider it the best. Apologies to oneworld and SkyTeam and those other alliances without formal names, but this alliance rocks. The branding is great, the benefits are darn good and now that they fixed the global rewards among members of the alliances there's not much wrong with it. So, let me welcome for you: Denise Martineau (Director of Frequent Flyer) and Stephan Roth (Director of Corporate Affairs) from Star Alliance. Denise I've had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with through the years as she was an important part of Air Canada's Aeroplan program. So please welcome the two of them and on with the questions.

Randy Petersen
But if I could ask the first question. Denise and Stephan, what exactly is the Star Alliance for those that may not fully understand what alliances are all about.

Star Alliance
Star Alliance is the world's leading airline alliance, with 15 member airlines spanning the globe. The alliance's mission is to deliver a smooth travel experience and offer rewards and recognition to international travelers beyond the abilities of any individual airline. The mandate of Star Alliance as it relates to frequent flyer programs is simple: to extend travel-related benefits and services beyond what each airline can provide individually, throughout the Star Alliance network. It's important to note that Star Alliance does not have its own, single FFP. As such, it cannot and does not influence what each airline does within their own FFP's or even via bilateral agreements. Nonetheless, Star Alliance can and does offer a host of benefits above and beyond any individual carrier's program, in the areas of mileage accrual, status attainment, redemption awards and the Star Alliance Gold and Silver benefits.

Mikel at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier by Empress: Is Star Alliance considering introducing upgrades certificates that can be used at any Star Alliance airlines on a standby basis?

Star Alliance
There is one of the most often asked questions. Some of you may recall that Star introduced upgrades on a standby trial basis for its first anniversary in 1998 and this was well received by customers. While Star is continuously looking for new products to improve customer travel experiences there are no plans to introduce upgrades across the Star Alliance airlines in the near future. The reasons for this vary. Some Star airlines do not currently offer upgrade awards in their own programs. Those that do offer upgrade awards have differing products so there are significant considerations in terms of aligning system platforms, policies and procedures. There is also the important consideration of ensuing that award upgrades across the alliance does not dilute the product value. In other words ensuring there is proper capacity available and that it does not diminish the value of the business class and first class products.

Mikel at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier by Gaucho100K: When will Star Alliance have another of those very successful promotions; " fly X carriers and get Y bonus miles " promotions?

Star Alliance
Actually Star has never done a promotion as you've mentioned here. A few years ago we did doublemiles.com in France, the UK and Hong Kong but that's been the extent of it. The airlines however do promote Star Alliance in their own programs through these type of "flight frequency" promotions. Collective promotions are often limited by anti-trust legislation.

Mikel at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier by luftaom: What is the current situation regarding Ansett's position within the alliance? As a status member I am a little disappointed that the privileges afforded to Star status members with the AN Global Rewards program cease on Dec31. This has been extended somewhat briefly by a status comp on NZ but the general feeling amongst AN status members I have spoken to is the Alliance has shortchanged their loyalty somewhat.

Star Alliance
Ansett remains a member of Star Alliance and has throughout. Ansett's prospective new owners, the Tesna Group has publicly stated they want Ansett to remain in Star. Star and Tesna will be entering into discussions soon.

Mikel at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier by grenouille: Will Star Alliance airline partners one day agree to take into account mileage on a single basis: eg LH flights granted a 100% mileage by UAL (same problem with SQ)? Thank you for your answer and explanation on a common policy for all partners.)

Star Alliance
While there are areas where the airlines have common frequent flyer benefits such as miles/point accrual on any Star Alliance airline flown counting toward tier status or the ability to redeem awards on any Star Alliance airline, there are no plans to streamline or consolidate program structures. Each program structure is different based on market and competitive environment. Star looks for opportunities to bridge product benefits and services across the alliance network to provide a smooth travel experience. This is best demonstrated by Star Alliance Gold benefits with products such worldwide airport departure lounge access (approx. 500), Priority check-in, etc.

Randy Petersen
Good questions and we're very sorry the connections aren't working that well tonight. Where's Bill Gates when we really need him? Transcripts for this session will be available later in the day tomorrow.

Mikel at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier by Gaucho100K: Are there plans to unify, even only partially, the ffp's of all Star Alliance carriers? It seems like it would be possible to still keep Carrier specific loyalty programs, the best example than comes to mind would be SQ's Krisflyer and PPS Programs.

Star Alliance
Again, the same answer as before there are no plans to unify Star FFPs.

Dan at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier: "What is Star Alliance doing differently than Sky Team and oneworld?"

Star Alliance
Basically, Star Alliance has more destinations than any other alliance, more than 720. We offer access to more than 500 lounges, more than any other alliance. There are no restrictions on mileage accumulation for paid published tickets, unlike oneworld. There are 15 quality airlines, more than any other airline alliance. Since Star Gold benefits cover all of the airlines frequent flyer gold and platinum customers, more customers get more benefits. With over 11,000 flights a day, more than any other alliance, this provides mileage accumulation opportunities.

Mikel at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier by JS1K: Membership number and status does not appear to pass seamlessly between carrier. What is being done to fix?

Star Alliance
Such a good question. Star has spent a lot of time addressing this issue, because we feel if you fly you should get your miles and not have to request them after the fact. Some good news is that in 1998, we knew that 32% of miles/points were not being automatically credited to customer accounts, however by the end of 2000 this came down to 15%. Not perfect however but the number #1 reason why customers don't get their miles in 50% of the time is because their frequent flyer account number is not included in their reservation. We need customers and travel agents to help in this regard. Make sure your travel or corporate booking agent provides your frequent flyer number at time of booking. To further ensure you get your miles, provide it when you check-in (for each flight). There are other areas we are looking to address as well to ensure we lower the number of retroactively credited miles over time. If you have specific recurring situations that you could report, please do so to your airline FFP so that the situations can be reviewed and corrected.

Dave Gahan
Does Star Alliance have restrictions on any routes for accrual or rewards?

Star Alliance
No, there are no restrictions on published paid tickets for flights for which miles/points would normally be accrued in each of the airline frequent flyer programs. There are no restrictions on mileage accumulation between Europe and The Americas and there are no minimum flight segments needed so that your miles/points count toward your tier status.

Mikel at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier by Gaucho100K: Alliance wide awards are good because they allow (in theory) easier combinations of awards that would otherwise have to be purchased separately (in theory making the total award itinerary cheaper). However, since carriers in Star have different 'prices' for similar itineraries, lumping these awards together tends to move prices up, or....?

Star Alliance
Great question and an opportunity to draw some attention to Star Alliance Awards being introduced through each airline program over the next few months. Each Star Alliance airline is introducing new award to incorporate all Star Alliance airlines. The benefit to customers is that they will be able to combine flights of more than one Star Alliance airline on one award ticket. Note there is not ONE chart which cover all airlines. Each airline is developing new charts based on their own frequent flyer program structure. Each airline is introducing these changes to their own frequent flyer customers through their own communication channels, i.e. newsletters, statements, etc. and the timing of introduction also varies by airline, i.e. THAI announced in May, ANA announced in July and others are introducing through to early 2002. So check out your FFP communications for new when Star Alliance awards will be introduced in your selected program.

ThisFlightNoFuel
Given the seemingly unstable economic environment for airlines, would Star Alliance ever consider offering some kind of mileage protection insurance? It seems like the Alliance may be able to pull together some programme whereby members of Star FFP's could pay a yearly fee for the benefit of having their mileage balances transfer to another Star Alliance partner, should their primary carrier's FFP be discontinued. (My apologies to Randy's Privilege Flyer programme...) ;-)

Star Alliance
This is a difficult question to answer, since it is an emotional one for many customers as we saw with Global Rewards. Each Star Alliance frequent flyer program is independent and structured differently based on its market environment. The bulk of most FFP miles are usually accrued on the host airline, and on non-airline partners such as financial and telecommunication partners. Also, miles/points are bought and paid for by participating partners. The cost of taking on mileage liability from another FFP can be significant and it's something to consider for the future.

Mikel at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier by JS1K: Can we get a upgrade progam that allows transferable upgrades between carriers. At least when partner and codeshare?

Star Alliance
See Upgrades answer above.

LGA_UAL
Are there any plans to make 3 levels instead of 2. So a 1K would have more star alliance benefits than a Premier Executive?

Star Alliance
Star Alliance is not planning to introduce a Platinum tier for now, given that Star Alliance Gold customers get more benefits than most other alliances. While alliances offer more or less the same benefits, Star Alliance Gold members get access to more lounges and in recent research Star Alliance Gold customers were very happy and would rather that "not too many people know about it so that they can keep the benefits for themselves"

Mikel at WebFlyer
This question was submitted earlier by Gaucho100K: Frequent flyers understand that Alliances can only go so far and that each individual carrier strives to maintain its identity and specific policies, but... many Star flyers on FT are uncomfortable with what some call 'discrimination; by SQ to Elite Star flyers regarding access to the coveted SQ Silver Kris Lounge. Many elite *A members are usually rejected by SQ bouncers and sent off to a (lower quality) generic lounge. What is your stance on this?

Star Alliance
The Star Alliance policy allows for access to over 500 lounges worldwide, almost double of any other alliance. There are some exceptions when there is a seating capacity limitation or if there the lounge is limited to First Class ticket buying customers. We can't say this enough, but look for "STAR ALLIANCE GOLD" logo to know which lounges are available.

Randy Petersen
The process was certain less than what you and Star Alliance deserved tonight but I hope you enjoyed some of the answers to your questions. I know Star Alliance is moving offices soon and maybe next year we can get them on again and have the corporate firewall problem solved.

Star Alliance
We appreciate having had the opportunity to participate and apologize for the technical difficulties. Maybe we can reschedule later some time to do this again without technical difficulties, thanks to Randy

Randy Petersen
So, I think we'll open up the lines and let you all chat with one another. On behalf of Denise and Steve I want to thank you for your support of FlyerTalk and please enjoy the best of all holidays.