Lauda belongs to the Austrian Airline Group (together with mother company Austrian Airlines and 'sister' Tyrolian Airways).

Lauda 'runs' only two classes. Their international business-class 'AMADEUS' is often rated the very best business-class worldwide.

Since this spring 2000 all airlines of the Austrian Group belong as full members to LH's miles&more frequent-flier-program (they left Qualiflyer then). And at the same time all three companies joined StarAlliance (LH had to do 'diplomatic/convincing work' with some old/founder-members of StarAlliance then to get them in so fast).

I will fly Lauda (NG 001 and NG 002) for the first time this january-2001 (in upgraded business) from Vienna to Melbourne (with stops in Kuala Lumpur and Sydney) and back from Melbourne to Vienna (with one short stop in Kuala Lumpur again). The ticket is Zurich (Austrian) - Vienna (Lauda) - Melbourne and back for SFr 1'999 in eco plus 2*50'000 miles&more miles for upgrading all segments to 'Amadeus' (starting/ending in Zurich).

More or less the same frequent-flier rules in other StarAlliance-programs apply for flying Lauda as they do for flying LH - but not sure yet (even Austrian people working at the StarAlliance-office, run by LH, in downtown Zurich, don't know) if you can use UA-miles for upgrades (as you can on LH flights).

homepages:[*]NG = Lauda: http://www.laudaair.com [*]OS = Austrian: http://www.aua.com [*]VO = Tyrolean: http://www.tyrolean.at

some Lauda destinations:
Vienna, Hamburg, Munich, Geneva, Manchester, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Nice, Istanbul, Agadir, Riga, Tallinn, Sofia, Berlin (Tegel), Dusseldorf, London Heathrow, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Athens, Kula Lumpur, Sydney, Melbourne (plus many code-shares).