Ansett Australian Global Rewards - It AN well known around the world?

I was travelling on AC from TLV to EWR via YYZ, and when i tried to give the gate agent my Global Rewards number, she said to "I've never heard of Ansett, and even if there is such an airline, they're not partners with AC".

This occurred when AC had already linked with AN, only a few months before AN joined the *A. Once in YYZ, my number was entered by a another AC employee, who first asked if my G.R. card was the new design for Aeroplan cards.

Would you say this was a one-off, or is Ansett considered "inferior" in the FF world?

goodo

I doubt that AN is considered inferior in the FF world; it's the FF's that consider it to be a great airline.

However, I'm not surprised that the AC employees were unfamiliar with AN prior to the Star Alliance. Most airline employees don't really know too much about the FF programs (do you think you can ask a gate agent to recite to you every partner?). This is compounded by the fact that AN is really an unknown quantity outside of the Asia-Pacific.

In short, it's not really a surprise. But it would be terrible if they repeated the mistsake now, when you have Star signs all over the place with the partner's listed. And I know AN employees have been through Star "classes", so AC should as well.

What are the odds that VS will join Star? Its got a handful of partners, AN, NZ to name some, but Wings on the other hand.

Cheers,

Justin

I agree, Ansett is not really known outside the Asia/Pacific market. There was prior added confusion with "Ansett NZ" and "Ansett Australia" being somewhat separate. But every Star Alliance member staff should be fully aware who's in the alliance! On the other hand, Ansett is known worldwide for failing to credit mileage to UA's Mileage Plus accounts (LH too!). This is a sore point for many UA flyers that connect to AN.

on a recent rtw with *A, ac lh & ua posted on my AN account. tg didn't - and i flew most legs with them

goodo