bmi diamond club - Egyptair to join Star Alliance

http://www.egyptair.com/English/AboutEgyptAir/NewsPress/star_alliance.htm

Following the successful conclusion of membership talks with EgyptAir, the Chief Executive Board of Star Alliance has voted to accept as a future member, the national airline of Egypt, which in the last five years has undergone a significant transformation process and is now one of the foremost carriers in Africa and the Middle East.

“Egypt is one of the most important aviation markets in Africa, with a large potential for both business and leisure travel. We are proud that EgyptAir, a world class airline, has chosen to join Star Alliance, thereby recognising the importance of alliances in aviation today,” commented Jaan Albrecht, CEO Star Alliance. “EgyptAir provides an ideal network fit for Star Alliance and will permit many more passengers to experience the alliance’s customer benefits especially in markets in which Star Alliance was up to now under represented,” Albrecht continued.

“Egypt, the home market of EgyptAir, has a strategic location which offers a good link between Africa, the Middle East and Europe to the rest of the world. The company equally serves the needs of the leisure and the ever-growing business travel market, thereby adding prosperity in tourism and different sectors of the Egyptian economy,” said Engineer Atef Abdel Hamid, Chairman and CEO, EgyptAir Holding Company.

“By joining Star Alliance, EgyptAir will offer its customers a wide variety of benefits such as a diversity of destinations, frequency of existing destinations, a wide choice of convenient fares across the globe, frequent flyer advantages on all Star Alliance member carriers and the great facilities the passengers will enjoy at major airports through the Move Under one Roof concept,” added Eng. Abdel Hamid.

In order to implement the Star Alliance “Move under one Roof” concept at Cairo Airport, EgyptAir and the Star Alliance member carriers flying to Cairo will move to the new Terminal 3 once it opens in 2008. Talks to this effect are already underway with the airport authorities in order to ensure the creation of another hub with an optimal customer experience.
“EgyptAir’s membership in Star Alliance along with the strategic location of Cairo Airport will create a hub for the alliance members and a gateway for the Middle East and North Africa”, commented Engineer Atef.

With the integration process now underway, EgyptAir is set to become a full Star Alliance member carrier within the next 18 months. EgyptAir will add nine additional unique airports into the Star Alliance network, bringing the overall total to more than 17,700* daily flights serving 944* destinations in 161* countries.

- Figures are based on current 17 member carriers and the four carriers set to join soon – Air China, EgyptAir, Shanghai Airlines and Turkish Airlines.


About Star Alliance:
The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer customers worldwide reach and a smooth travel experience. Star Alliance was voted Best Airline Alliance by Business Traveller Magazine in 2003, 2006 and 2007 and by Skytrax in 2003, 2005 and 2007. The members are Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, THAI, United and US Airways. Regional member carriers Adria Airways (Slovenia), Blue1 (Finland) and Croatia Airlines enhance the global network. Air China, EgyptAir, Shanghai Airlines and Turkish Airlines have all been accepted as future members and are expected to join Star Alliance soon. Overall, the Star Alliance network offers more than 16,000 daily flights to 855 destinations in 155 countries.

About EgyptAir:
EgyptAir is the world-renowned national airline of the Egypt, based in the cosmopolitan city of Cairo.
In more than 75 years, EgyptAir has experienced extraordinary growth, taken the lead to be the first airline in the Middle East and Africa and the seventh in the world to join IATA and become a treasured brand.
Currently, 48 aircraft crisscross the world to 60 destinations in 44 Countries through 1,200 weekly flights, carried more than 6.5 million passengers in 2006/2007, to fulfill the travel needs of both business and leisure travel.
In 2004, EgyptAir demonstrated the scale of its commitment to the highest standards of safety by being the first IOSA certified airline in the Middle East and Africa.

Just as bmi starts flying to Cairo. You couldn't make it up...

On what date would a flight on Egypt Air accrue miles in United's Mileage Plus program? EQM's maybe???

Please could replies to this thread be restricted to the BD-related aspects of this announcement? Otherwise it should probably be in the * forum. PhlyingRPh I've moved a copy of your post over there (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=746793).

there's a McDonalds right next to the Egyptair lounge in CAI.. will make you BD folks feel much more at home, as the lounge is rather odd and not up to BD standards !

Just as bmi starts flying to Cairo. You couldn't make it up...

Ahhh, but didn't BD PR the new Cairo flights as working in conjunction with Egyptair anyway? (I may be wrong, so happy to be corrected)

Plus look at it as an opportunity rather than a threat. Connecting traffic on BD tickets to Egyptair destinations not already covered by *A etc. Plus without being too judgemental, I suspect the BD product will stand up pretty well against Egyptair on the Cairo route.

Just as bmi starts flying to Cairo. You couldn't make it up...
:confused:

Codesharing and routesharing with Egyptair was part of the deal from day one, and access to ground services at the new Star terminal was high on the list of reasons for BD starting CAI. LH has long been codesharing with Egyptair, and its possible membership was been discussed on here when the route was announced. Shambolic though bmi can be at times, this has been a move long in the pipeline and well-foreseen by all parties.

:confused:

Codesharing and routesharing with Egyptair was part of the deal from day one, and access to ground services at the new Star terminal was high on the list of reasons for BD starting CAI. LH has long been codesharing with Egyptair, and its possible membership was been discussed on here when the route was announced. Shambolic though bmi can be at times, this has been a move long in the pipeline and well-foreseen by all parties.

Ok, I stand corrected. Was noting the chaos in my own company and universalising it....

Actually rather looking forward to a trip to CAI in December, but, although I am sure I have read several threads detailing this, I still have not got it into my head whether DME and CAI are, in miles-earning terms, long-haul or short-haul. I am hoping the latter, so that T still gets 50% - is this hope justified?

Yes, it is long-haul (and yes, that is confusing).

Of course, the fact that routesharing LHR-CAI with Egyptair was planned doesn't mean it is going to be popular in practice. I had to carefully avoid flying UN on LHR-DME, for example.

That is a shame... somehow one would hope that £308 r/t, for that kind of distance, would earn more than 25% miles. Still, I don't suppose BA would be any more generous :)

Just what *A needed ...

So would EgyptAir flights taken from now but before the (official?) joining date qualify for DC miles?

Probably not. When baby became a partner they announced that earning would commence on flights from x date (10th May I think), which was some time after the announcement was made, it wasn't immediate.

I think that LH has some codeshares in place that already credit to M&M, but that's about it as far as earning goes for the minute.

So would EgyptAir flights taken from now but before the (official?) joining date qualify for DC miles?

I would expect if and when BD place a codeshare on MS flights, you'll probably get destination miles a la QR/VS, but no status miles until full *A integration.

So would EgyptAir flights taken from now but before the (official?) joining date qualify for DC miles?

I'd say not. They don't join Star Alliance until 2009 I believe. Only option as FlyingOnceMore mentions is whether they become a partner in the same way as Qatar and Virgin for destination miles.

I'd say not. They don't join Star Alliance until 2009 I believe. Only option as FlyingOnceMore mentions is whether they become a partner in the same way as Qatar and Virgin for destination miles.
Ta!

Ah well, atleast there is the LH M&M back-up until that time.

I can't locate photos of MS' F cabin anywhere (Their own website, A.net, etc.). Anyone know of a site that has pics? I'm considering using them to get back from the OSL-SVO-HKG SU C fare that cropped up recently, but wouldn't want to buy before knowing what their F cabin is like.

Nice to see MS in Star . Another airline to earn and burn DC Miles on from 2009 !!! There are some great diverse airlines in Star now and this is a good thing . ^

Now here, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=650648 LH have also signed a codeshare agreement with Ethiopian Airlines. As LH signing codeshares with MS was the precursor to them joining *, will we see ET joining at some point too?

BD codeshare on Egyptair has magically appeared on flybmi.com this afternoon.

It certainly wasn't there this morning.

For what I can tell, the codeshare flights are up to three times higher than the BD fares. Either BD is shafting Egyptair or its own flights are very very empty :D

Strange. I tried several dummy dates for the end of Nov, and the prices were mostly the same. I say mostly as on some dates using the Egyptair codeshare in one direction was cheaper by about £50. :rolleyes:

Just another word of warning when picking fare class, the red promo box fares earn 25%, that we know, but if you choose economy, thinking 50%, be careful, it's still comes up with a promo fare code even though it details the economy earnings below.

Some things never change :mad:

I can't locate photos of MS' F cabin anywhere (Their own website, A.net, etc.). Anyone know of a site that has pics? I'm considering using them to get back from the OSL-SVO-HKG SU C fare that cropped up recently, but wouldn't want to buy before knowing what their F cabin is like.

I saw their long haul product last Christmas when a 777 turned up on a short SSH - LXR leg. We had the business cabin to ourselves and had a wander around F.

V large cradle seats, looked a bit tired, PTVs (I think). Didn't look anything to get excited about.

I saw their long haul product last Christmas when a 777 turned up on a short SSH - LXR leg. We had the business cabin to ourselves and had a wander around F.

V large cradle seats, looked a bit tired, PTVs (I think). Didn't look anything to get excited about.

Thanks for the reply. If Status miles can be earned by next May, I think I may give them a go, as they are a cheap way to get back to Europe in a premium cabin from my OSL-SVO-HKG SU trip.