Star Alliance - Rate Star Alliance

We are writing a cover story comparing the three global alliances for the December issue of InsideFlyer magazine and would like your input.

If you would like to participate, please post your response in the thread with the pros and cons of Star Alliance and grade the alliance from A to F (A being the highest grade). You can include a plus or minus with the rating.

You can also respond directly to me at dmankell@insideflyer.com.
Thank you!

Is this legit? Can anyone vouch for it? I have been participating in this forum for almost five years and I have never seen or heard anything about this person. Makes one wonder...

cheers,

Henry

Edited to add: OK, thanks for the verification. Can't be too careful nowadays.

They are a staff member of Inside Flyer, the magazine Randy publishes.

Every issue they survey various airlines/hotels/alliances, and ask for FTer input by posting in the relevant forum.

Since any given airline/hotel/alliance is only surveyed infrequently you most likely won't have come across many posts unless like me you read a lot of forums on FT.

Bottom line is it is legit.

Thanks Kiwi Flyer. It's true—I work for Randy as an Associate Editor for InsideFlyer magazine and have never posted in the Star Alliance forum before.

We frequently ask for the opinions of FlyerTalk members to help us evaluate the programs and are grateful to those who share their opinions and expertise.

For an upcoming cover story, we are comparing the three global alliances and would like to include the perspective of frequent travelers who participate in one or more of the alliances.

Like I posted in the other alliances, I am top elite in them all, and like them all. The thing I like about Star is its coverage, especially in Asia. But I like OW better since it has more flat seats in business and better lounges.

Lounge access - OW better than *A as you get access at the first elite level (with your own airline), whereas *A requires the second elite level. And even then its often a "speical" *G lounge that is lower end instead of the business class lounge.

Check-in - same except OW is even further ahead as the first elite level already gives business class check-in on all OW airlines, not just your own.

Ok, here are some thoughts:

- network: B+
largest alliance network, especially strong in Central Europe, North America, Oceania (except for inner-Australian flights) and parts of Asia
IMO integration of the airlines into the alliance could be better (lack of common policies/some airlines not following the alliance "rules", e.g. UA starnet blocking, SQ restricting F award flights)
IMO network is growing far too fast

- upgrade opportunities: C
very limited opportunities to use points/certs on other airlines despite the fact that most Star Alliance carriers have already agreed on a common upgrade scheme

- benefits for *Silver: D-
hardly any benefits when flying on other carriers, especially no lounge access

- benefits for *Gold: B+
lounges tend to be quite reasonable (except for some pathetic RCCs), exec. bonus for some airlines, priority boarding etc.

- RTW flights: C
Though it´s good to be able to buy RTW tickets, the value has decreased enormously over the last years (prices almost doubled for some countries, fewer segments allowed etc.), IMO the OneWorld RTW product is far superior to its *A counterpart

I'm primarily an international traveler and a big fan of Star Alliance for a variety of reasons.

Pros:

Ubiquity. I travel to some really weird places. I have no issue getting there on a Star Alliance operator. In fact, the last non-Alliance flight I had was almost 18 months ago. The other Alliances seem to have huge, gaping holes in their coverage, while *A is constantly filling in holes with regional members and new operators.

Move Under One Roof. Moving around Heathrow and Narita is infinitely better due to this Star Alliance initiative.

Great, Seamless Code Share. I travel on multiple mixed itineraries and, particularly in irregular operations, I've had operators work like crazy together to get me to my destination.

Cross-Network Benefits. I've been upgraded by other operators in overbooking situations and had numerous airplanes held for me on tight connections.

Frequent Flyer Redemption: When I'm on vacation, I like to come up with some weird ideas. I've managed to create some strange multi-airline itineraries over the years and never had a problem making it work due to the wealth of options and combinations permitted by the number of operators in the network.

Lounges: Lots and lots of them, all open to me with my 1K Star Gold card. It's nice to have a place to relax after a long flight.

Excellent On-Boarding of New Operators. Flew with Continental two days after they joined the Alliance. Every flight was credit to Mileage Plus, welcomed into First Class check-in at all three stations, had my bag delivered early, had decent seat selection and, when I misconnected due to a mechanical delay, they had a waiting boarding pass upgraded into Business waiting for me upon arrival. They even rebooked me on an earlier United flight combination without any complaint. *That* is a sign of good process.

Cons:

Expensive Cross-Alliance Upgrades. I wish it were "cheaper" in terms of miles to upgrade cross-alliance, as in many cases, the upgrade in miles is almost the equivalent of an award ticket in the upgraded class of service.

Ubiquity. I travel to some really weird places. I have no issue getting there on a Star Alliance operator. In fact, the last non-Alliance flight I had was almost 18 months ago. The other Alliances seem to have huge, gaping holes in their coverage, while *A is constantly filling in holes with regional members and new operators.

I agree with most of your points, but not 100% with this one. When I think of really weird places, I think of Africa. Mostly West Africa. Star has a long way to go to catch up to Skyteam in this respect. Egyptair gave them a few more African destinations, but it's still pretty weak.

Lounges: Lots and lots of them, all open to me with my 1K Star Gold card. It's nice to have a place to relax after a long flight.

This one too is iffy. Yes there are a lot you can access, but you cannot access the First Class lounges with your 1K card. Oneworld lets you use the F lounges at any partner even if you are flying Economy. Most all the Star Gold lounges are quite poor actually, with a few notable exceptions.

I agree with most of your points, but not 100% with this one. When I think of really weird places, I think of Africa. Mostly West Africa. Star has a long way to go to catch up to Skyteam in this respect. Egyptair gave them a few more African destinations, but it's still pretty weak.

I considered highlighting this--Australia is a hole for everyone but OW and West Africa is strong in ST due to the historical relationship with France... I even considered mentioning its weak position in South America--but one can't dispute its dominance of APAC, Europe and, now, North America, which is the bulk of international traffic origin/destination.

This one too is iffy. Yes there are a lot you can access, but you cannot access the First Class lounges with your 1K card. Oneworld lets you use the F lounges at any partner even if you are flying Economy. Most all the Star Gold lounges are quite poor actually, with a few notable exceptions.

Actually, I like that policy. F lounges are for F passengers, either upgraded or paying, and should stay that way, as there are far too many elite FF passengers and they'd flood the intimacy of that experience. On the other hand, LH seats me in the SEN lounges when I travel, not the far more crowded Business ones.

I agree with most of your points, but not 100% with this one. When I think of really weird places, I think of Africa. Mostly West Africa. Star has a long way to go to catch up to Skyteam in this respect. Egyptair gave them a few more African destinations, but it's still pretty weak.


African coverage will improve when SN joins the alliance next year and with the new UA flights to LOS/ACC.

Ditto with South America, with the recent addition of CO and TAM next year.

African coverage will improve when SN joins the alliance next year.

SN is joining? As I recall, they only fly to KGL, DLA and FIH via DLA. Right?

SN is joining? As I recall, they only fly to KGL, DLA and FIH via DLA. Right?

Yes, they are, in 2010 or even earlier (Dec 5, 2009 was mentioned not so long ago).

Are you talking about intra-African coverage? From BRU they also fly to DKR, ABJ, ROB, NSI, FIH, EBB, KGL and LAD, among others. That's probably the second biggest EU-Africa network for an EU carrier (after AF, of course).

I'd say with SN and ET onboard *A will finally start looking halfway decent for travel to/from Africa.

That's great news! I used to fly SN back when they were Sabena and they had the best food in the sky. How is it now? How is their business class on flights to Africa? Flat seats?

When is ET joining? I'm flying them in a few days I think.

Actually, I like that policy. F lounges are for F passengers, either upgraded or paying, and should stay that way, as there are far too many elite FF passengers and they'd flood the intimacy of that experience. On the other hand, LH seats me in the SEN lounges when I travel, not the far more crowded Business ones.

But the hub OW F lounges are massive, like LHR and SYD for instance. Never any overcrowding. And they have special lounges beyond F that are for paying F customers and VIP's. LH's SEN lounges are usually horribly overcrowded all over Europe and nowhere even close to what BA offers.

Star Alliance once someone has elite frequent flyer status is the alliance of choice, especially with the addition of Continental, the parks of Star outweigh any possible negatives

^I'm primarily an international traveler and a big fan of Star Alliance for a variety of reasons.

Pros:

Ubiquity. I travel to some really weird places. I have no issue getting there on a Star Alliance operator. In fact, the last non-Alliance flight I had was almost 18 months ago. The other Alliances seem to have huge, gaping holes in their coverage, while *A is constantly filling in holes with regional members and new operators.

Move Under One Roof. Moving around Heathrow and Narita is infinitely better due to this Star Alliance initiative.

Great, Seamless Code Share. I travel on multiple mixed itineraries and, particularly in irregular operations, I've had operators work like crazy together to get me to my destination.

Cross-Network Benefits. I've been upgraded by other operators in overbooking situations and had numerous airplanes held for me on tight connections.

Frequent Flyer Redemption: When I'm on vacation, I like to come up with some weird ideas. I've managed to create some strange multi-airline itineraries over the years and never had a problem making it work due to the wealth of options and combinations permitted by the number of operators in the network.

Lounges: Lots and lots of them, all open to me with my 1K Star Gold card. It's nice to have a place to relax after a long flight.

Excellent On-Boarding of New Operators. Flew with Continental two days after they joined the Alliance. Every flight was credit to Mileage Plus, welcomed into First Class check-in at all three stations, had my bag delivered early, had decent seat selection and, when I misconnected due to a mechanical delay, they had a waiting boarding pass upgraded into Business waiting for me upon arrival. They even rebooked me on an earlier United flight combination without any complaint. *That* is a sign of good process.

Cons:

Expensive Cross-Alliance Upgrades. I wish it were "cheaper" in terms of miles to upgrade cross-alliance, as in many cases, the upgrade in miles is almost the equivalent of an award ticket in the upgraded class of service.

^

Well explained !!