One of the big perks of being a Star Alliance Gold member is lounge access! As these lounges are all run or contracted by different airlines, the services and quality levels are all over the place. Over the past year I have been to Star Gold lounges all over the world, and I think the best lounge might not be where most would expect. Most would assume one of the world’s five star airlines would have the best lounges. Star Alliance has Singapore and Asiana and both have very nice ...

I’m going to miss bmi! I knew it was coming but it was very sad to see the Star Alliance logo taken off the bmi webpage. I moved to the UK a little under a year ago, and bmi was my UK airline, connecting me to the rest of the Star Alliance network. My home airport is Manchester and Lufthansa had bmi operating some of their flights to FRA and MUC, these were true LH flights but on BD aircraft with BD crews. LH had flights to/from Berlin to London, and FRA to Birmingham also op’ed ...

The second European airline in less then a week shutdown. Malev Hungarian Airlines part of One World grounded all aircraft and stoped all operations. Directions for passingers has been posted on the company webpage. Spanair shutdown just a week before.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on state radio that two Malev planes were still overseas, one in Tel Aviv, the other in the Irish Republic. The premier said those planes were not allowed to take off because of Malev's ...

Could 2012 be a sad year for the Star Alliance? Well looks like it, Star has lost some of it’s shine and could be more on the way?

The hard times for star started when Lufthansa sold off British Midland International (bmi) to their european rival IAG, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia; One World Member airlines. It looks like this sale will go thru, but there is a chance that the UK government might rule this would be a monopoly. Star really wanted Lufthansa to ...

Well this was a first for me, an airport Doctor fighting with an airline captain. With a nice and orderly on time boarding in Munich I took my seat 4D on a Lufthansa Flight operated by bmi for Lufthansa. (LH has BD operating flights for them from MUC and FRA to Manchester and Birmingham). The crew is a bmi crew with one German speaker. Most everyone was in their seats when 3 bright orange vest escort 3 passengers on board. It was a Doctor and some other EMS type people who worked for MUC ...

The other night I wanted to book a Star Alliance reward with my UNITED miles, so I called the 1K desk, I found the flights I wanted to get me from Manchester, UK (MAN) to Terceira, Azores (TER). I wanted to book MAN-FRA-LIS-TER and return, a reward within Europe for 25K miles. I wanted to route via FRA as my friend is going with me and he is based in FRA.

The UNITED agent told me routing via FRA would not work as I was “going to far out of the way” She added the ...