RE: star alliance

I normally take the train between Paris and Brussels. As you say, it’s the fastest way from city centre to city centre. However in this case I had to take the plain since I had started off at BRU (to go to Vienna and from there to CDG) so my car was there. If I had taken the train from Paris to Brussels I would have ended up at the wrong side of the city and it would have taken me an extra hour to get to the airport.
You’re lucky if you can avoid flying short trips in Europe. For us Europeans, we’re getting used to delays that are longer than the flight time. It’s getting worser day by day. But still, the airplane is (even with the delays) the quickest way to travel especially since the roads are even more blocked than the sky. Anyway, we seem a bit a drift from what this topic is all about.
Just wanted to explain why I covered the enormmous leg CDG-BRU by flight, just for practical reasons. And practical reasons are most of the time what make us decide on the kind of transport and the kind of company. Which brings us to STAR again. I haven’t had any bad experience with them (yet) and I’ll hope to keep it that way.