The remarkable thing about flying an alliance airline is the kind of reach it can render in concert with other carriers. Star Alliance is the largest aggregation, and its reach just keeps on growing.
Latest evidence is the acceptance as a future member of Shenzhen Airlines, China’s fifth-largest carrier.
When Shenzhen finally does come fully on board by the end of 2012, look for the liaison with other Star members such as Air China, United, Lufthansa, and Air Canada to result into a slew of so-called “seamless” connections – especially to the southern section of China’s sprawling expanse. Specifically, Shenzhen Airlines will add five new destinations to Star Alliance’s expanding menu: Juzhou (Zhejiang Province), Linyi, Qinhaungdao, Shijiazhuang and Zhoushan.
With Shenzhen’s membership, the Star Alliance will have corralled 32 carriers (27 present and five future members). Among them they’ll field 13,000 daily flights to some 1,315 destinations arrayed in 190 countries.
Reach is the name of the game. Aside form that what do alliance connections mean to you? For the most part they enable you to check your bags through to your final destination without having to re-check between flights, get through boarding passes, and enjoy a degree of reciprocity among frequent flyer programs.
When they work right, that’s how alliances benefit passengers.
Airlines benefit because they can, in effect, extend their route networks to far away places with strange sounding names – without having to shell out all the money that that entails. They let their partners do the flying in familiar territory.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: Martin Nikolaj)
