Actually, I have not been able to get a clear answer about the "Star Alliance" awards and whether they will be available from all *A members or not. According to the info on the LH site, it seems that the idea is that all airlines will have (at a minimum) these awards. The LH rep on the US SEN line was very confused about the new awards and said they had just gotten a load of information and it was difficult for them to understand the rules (the "three continents" award specifically is very confusing). I asked him if this award system was designed by *A (rather than LH), and if yes, did that mean all *A members would offer them... he did not know the answer. When I called both AC and UA award desks, they knew ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about these awards and said that it was an LH-only thing. As far as I know, SK and ANA already offer these awards.

I think this is a really important issue, because if all airlines standardize on these awards, it means many awards will cost more points. For example, a eco ticket to Hawaii now costs 40k in aeroplan, under the star alliance awards it is 50k. As I understand, nothing would prevent aeroplan from offering it for 40k, but why should they do it if everybody else is standardized on 50k? This might be a case where we actually LOSE flexibility and benefits because of *A co-operation.

Ron