Press Releases 2006

Star Alliance launches New Website

Star Alliance, the airline network for Earth™, today unveiled its new www.staralliance.com website. The most obvious change to the site is its new look and feel, with a fresher and more modern design. The new layout has the site structured into three different lobbies, one for travellers, one for business partners and one for the media. In order to better serve the needs of the ever more diverse alliance customer, the Star Alliance website is now available in seven different languages – English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

“The re-launched staralliance.com will provide our customers with new services to help plan their travel across our global airline alliance and firmly assert our lead in the e-services environment”, said Philip Saunders, VP Commercial, Star Alliance.

The traveller’s lobby allows easy access to all the necessary information and tools for this target group. In addition to obtaining the key information on core alliance benefits, frequent flyer programmes, lounges, fare products and booking contacts, users now have several innovative and unique alliance tools at their disposal.
Under “flight search”, travellers can obtain real time information for flights operated by any Star Alliance member carrier. By opting to receive this information by either SMS or email, business travellers can keep abreast of any changes and maximise time.
A further new feature allows users to access the most up to date visa and health information for their travel plans.
The website also offers real-time baggage tracing information.

The new enhanced “flight search” tool is the most authoritative source of Star Alliance schedule information and even enables customers to purchase airline tickets directly from our member carriers via deep-linking to the respective booking engine.
In addition to information on all the Star Alliance fare products, the new website features the Round-the-World Mileage Calculator as either a downloadable programme or as the recently launched on-line version. This tool allows customers to plan their individual Round-the-World itinerary using the Star Alliance Round-the-World fare. The completed routing can then be sent to one of the member carriers or a travel agency for booking and ticketing.
Last, but not least, the popular downloadable tools such as the pocket timetable for PDA’s or the Star Alliance Screensaver, can continue to be sourced from the new website.

The Business Solutions lobby features targeted information for corporate customers, meeting organisers and the travel trade. Corporate travellers will find further details on both Star Alliance Corporate Plus and Star Alliance Company Plus, while meeting organisers or conference delegates can access all the information pertaining to Star Alliance Conventions Plus.

Members of the media seeking further information on Star Alliance Press material will now be able to find this in a completely redesigned press section, which provides easier and faster access to information. The newly structured lobby provides direct links to all the information available on the Star Alliance network, be it press releases, presentations, images, video footage or biographies. Additionally, the new press area search function will enable journalists in finding the exact information which they are looking for.

“Star Alliance selected Sapient as its development partner due our common vision and shared commitment to innovation. The new website is testament to the energy of both our teams and clearly reflects these values”, commented Aman Khan, VP Information Technology, Star Alliance, on the successful launch of the new site.
   
About Star Alliance
The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer customers worldwide reach and a smooth travel experience. Star Alliance was voted Best Airline Alliance by Business Traveller Magazine in 2003 and 2006 and by Skytrax in 2003 and 2005. The members are Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, THAI, United, US Airways and VARIG Brazilian Airlines. Regional member carriers Adria Airways (Slovenia), Blue1 (Finland) and Croatia Airlines enhance the global network. Air China, Shanghai Airlines and Turkish Airlines have all been accepted as future members and are expected to join Star Alliance during the course of the next one to two years. Overall, the Star Alliance network offers more than 16,000 daily flights to 841 destinations in 157 countries.

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