Star Alliance halts plan for new Platinum, Diamond status tiers
By Chris C., June 2 2019
Star Alliance is no longer actively considering new alliance-wide elite tiers above the Gold level – such as Star Alliance Platinum, or even Star Alliance Diamond as tipped in 2018 – with the alliance instead redirecting its focus to bolstering benefits for its long-standing Star Alliance Silver and Gold levels.
Speaking with Executive Traveller on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Annual General Meeting in Seoul, Star Alliance Vice President Customer Experience, Christian Draeger, elaborates:
“There were some thoughts around that third (or even fourth) tier, but after looking at that, we decided that instead of doing that, we rather want to focus on solidifying our benefits that we currently offer.”
“We're in the middle of a review on this,” Draeger continues, “but it's not only about new benefits: it’s also the extension and the upgrading of existing benefits.”
This includes the ongoing expansion of Star Alliance Gold Track – offering business and first class passengers, and Star Alliance Gold frequent flyers, a clearly-signposted and expedited path through the usual airport formalities – which the airline has now rolled out to over 200 airports worldwide.
Executive Traveller understands that during meetings between Star Alliance member airlines, some of those members indicated a strong preference to maintain the exclusivity of their existing high-level loyalty tiers and the perks they provide, so the alliance’s focus shifted to increasing the experience for Star Alliance Silver and Gold members.
Star Alliance CEO Jeffrey Goh explains that a key part of the review is on “keeping and pursuing (Star Alliance) Gold customers, (through) benefits the airlines themselves can offer, or benefits we can have in partnership with other parties related to the travel industry.”
Draeger tips that “it would be too early to say what some of those benefits are – I don't know, free inflight WiFi or things like that – and it might very well be that (the third tier) will be periodically looked at again. But right now, we’re just really focused on the benefit side.”
Chris Chamberlin is attending the IATA AGM in Seoul as a guest of IATA.
PREVIOUS [June 4 2018, by David Flynn] | Star Alliance Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond? The world's largest global airline alliance – which includes heavy-hitters such as Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and United among its roster – is looking at adding one or more top rungs to its frequent flyer ladder.
Star Alliance CEO Jeffrey Goh confirmed to Executive Traveller (formerly Australian Business Traveller) that the group's board meeting in Sydney yesterday discussed introducing "one or more levels" above the Gold tier.
"It's a question that's been floating around for some while, at how we can upgrade the loyalty proposition of Star Alliance," Goh said, adding that part of this was "understanding there can be perhaps one or more levels above the Gold proposition. It's not an easy proposition to address but keep your eyes peeled."
Most of the 21 frequent flyer schemes represented in Star Alliance have the two or even three highest ranks of their frequent flyer scheme bunched together in the same Star Alliance Gold tier.
Adding Platinum or Diamond tiers above Gold would better align the alliance-wide scheme with the individual loyalty programs of its member airlines.
By way of example, this could see Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer PPS Club and Lufthansa's Miles & More HON Circle shift into a more alliance-wide rarefied tier with increased benefits.
The competing SkyTeam alliance has an identical two-level structure with Elite and Elite Plus tiers.
However, Star's arch-rival Oneworld offers three levels – Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald – which generally match to the Silver, Gold and Platinum (or equivalent) grades of its member airline's frequent flyer programs.
Emerald-grade members subsequently enjoy access to the first class lounge of most Oneworld airlines even when flying in economy, while Sapphire card-holders are restricted to business lounges.
Read: Why Oneworld Emerald is the best status a frequent flyer can have
Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
06 Jun 2017
Total posts 55
If this happens, I would image we would see *A Platinum flyers finally get SilverKris Lounge access in Changi. Hopefully this would extend to VA Platinum when flying SQ too. All just hopeful in the end...
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
08 Aug 2016
Total posts 54
This would make Star alliance a lot more competitive against one world as at the moment this is definitely one of the biggest advantages one world has.
13 Aug 2015
Total posts 40
This would totally make *A more competitive, but in general their FCLs are smaller and couldn’t cope with much more extra traffic.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
13 Jan 2015
Total posts 580
SQ have a separate First lounge for Star partner airlines to send their F pax, so they'd probably use that rather than have additional entry to TPR
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1031
Wait, Star Alliance had a board meeting in Sydney when it doesn't have any members in Australia?
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
Airline CEOs are in Sydney for IATA summit.
China Airlines - Dynasty Flyer
22 Sep 2012
Total posts 73
Sky team would likely struggle to get all members to add another level in the program. And to be honest the biggest issue would be with the Chinese airlines.
06 Jun 2018
Total posts 1
China Eastern actually added the Platinum membership 2 years ago, and both China Eastern and China Southern are known to have invite-only elite membership for the VVIPs. Also, it has been rumored than China Southern will add another elite level to their FFP in the near future catching up with Air China and China Eastern.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
15 Nov 2017
Total posts 49
Good news for anyone scraping through with enough miles for Asiana *G every two years :)
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
12 Jul 2016
Total posts 27
Star Alliance huge draw back is they do not reward or award status for all flights on member airlines - recently flew LHR - Shenzhen - LHR in business class ( discounted business class ) to discover no air points or status points with these flights with my primary account on Air NZ as £2300 ticket was an excluded award class
18 Sep 2018
Total posts 4
> One World recognizes and rewards all flights
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
13 Jan 2015
Total posts 580
oneworld most definetely do not reward all flights
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
12 Jul 2016
Total posts 27
Maybe Star Alliance could genuinely ensure that they reward loyal customers for every flight rather than the current plethora of booking class exclusions when booking with a different Star alliance airline than the one which you have your primary account.
We should not need to join multiple schemes in order to benefit which is the current stupidity of SA set up
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