24
DECEMBER 2017 businesstraveller.comSTAR LETTER
PRIZE
UNEASY ALLIANCE
Increasingly, I have noticed that I am booking f lights
(not the cheapest, as I need f lexibility) with Star
Alliance members who promote mileage to their own
members during the booking process... only to find out
after I’ve booked that they don’t offer mileage to other
alliance airlines’ FFP members.
I recently purchased f lights on both Singapore
Airlines and Lufthansa via their own websites. I am a
Gold Card holder of Thai Airways’ Royal Orchid Plus
scheme, and when I see member airlines promoting the
fact that they give mileage on the fare purchased, assume
this would be reciprocal... How wrong can you be.
When you buy your ticket, of course you can then look
at the fare code/booking class, visit your FFP website and
work out if the fare you purchased is eligible, but honestly
who has that amount of time? And frankly it’s already
too late as you have already parted with your money.
This is clearly what the airlines rely upon but I think
it’s false advertising at worst, and regardless, extremely
negative for keeping people loyal to the network. This
has nothing to do with Thai, who in general are very
good to their loyal members, however it has everything
to do with the value of staying loyal to Star Alliance as a
whole and giving business to airlines other than – in my
case – Thai Airways.
I would like to call for better and more open
communication on this. If an airline can clearly state its
own members receive mileage, why in the same place
can it not clearly state that even though it’s a member
of an alliance, it does not pass on the same benefits to
its partner members? Such communication means you
can make informed decisions on whether to stay loyal or
vote with your feet.
Chris Bailey, SingaporeStar letter
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reserve the right
to edit letters.STAR ALLIANCE REPLIES:
Thank you for allowing us to respond to
Mr Bailey’s letter. One of the main customer
benefits of Star Alliance is the possibility to
collect and redeem miles across all 28
member airlines.
The commercial framework for enabling this
is based on individual bilateral agreements
between our member airlines. These cover the
amount of mileage credited per booking class.
As Mr Bailey has correctly pointed out, some
fares do not qualify for mileage collection.
For both legal and regulatory reasons we
cannot provide these details on our website,
staralliance.com. We can therefore only
recommend that customers check the websites
of the individual frequent flyer programmes, as
these provide full details on mileage accrual
and redemption, and also list any fares that are
not eligible for earning miles.
While this answer may not fully satisfy
Mr Bailey’s concern, it correctly describes the
current limits of global collaboration under the
existing regulatory framework.
We will in any case refer to this feedback
in our regular discussions with our member
airlines as part of our ongoing effort to further
improve our joint alliance-wide frequent flyer
proposition for customers.TELL US ABOUT YOUR TRAVELS AT [email protected]INBOX YOUR LETTERS