bevan7

Hi

Does anybody know anything more about this? http://www.staralliance.com/news-art...ticleId=606874

In Particular I'm looking at what airlines might join and what benefits are there for star gold customers e.g. lounge access

Thanks

Kiwi Flyer

Thanks for posting this. It seems like *A benefits will not universally apply but instead benefits will be individually negotiated.

I wonder if this will be rolled out to non-*A subsidiary airlines (e.g. Silk Air)?

dvs7310

Saw this a while ago and meant to post myself before New Year but never got around to it.

The launch airline is Mango with South African. I really hope they go further and put SA Express and Airlink in as well.

In the big picture it's a small win since customers can get some benefits when they have connecting flights on these airlines... but the downside is that now we can expect that these airlines will never become full members with regularized benefits. (SA Express, Silk Air, etc). The connecting partner benefits are only on connecting itineraries, not standalone, so flying RGN-SIN will not count on MI if SQ puts then into this program nor would CPT-JNB on Mango (not looking up the code now, on mobile).

I can see airlines like Mango not becoming full members, but those like Airlink, SA Express, Silk Air, it's a disappointment.

At some point I wouldn't be surprised to see Azul in here, even with O6 in *A now, Azul is much bigger. Good chance of CAs regional affiliates as well.

Concerto

I think this is a really interesting idea and I hope it expands to lots of other airlines. It could do with a bit more publicity though, than just the mention in the Lufthansa inflight magazine that I saw. I am one of these that thinks Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines would fit better with this concept, rather than as full Star Alliance members.

I spent an interesting half hour browsing the Mango airlines website:

www.flymango.com

Palal

OU and JP are not LCCs and have biz class as well as lounges. JE on the other hand is an LCC co-owned by SA (comparable to VY) and has few frequent flier benefits.

Concerto

It would seem that the next associate Star Alliance airline is Juneyao Airlines of Shanghai, which I have never heard of. It operates out of both Shanghai airports.

http://www.juneyaoair.com/en/

Some more detailed reading here, where I am not sure if Mango is still a partner of not:

http://centreforaviation.com/analysi...-member-307269

It mentions that the deadline for Mango being implemented as a member has long passed, and now Juneyao Airlines will be the first implemented member. I thought that Mango had been part of the deal all along. The article goes on to mention that it would make sense to make Eurowings a connecting partner, too.