star alliance

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.

RE: star alliance

After the trip I described – and after the 2 German domestic flts were seriously delayed, I have decided that I will no longer fly short trips in Europe. Too much time & trouble.

As a non-European, it seems to me that for trips such as your CDG/BRU or vv., the train would be easier, more comfortable and (from city centre to city centre) faster than flying, by the time you travel to & from both airports, wait for the outbound flt., check-in and/or wait for your bags plus the actual time in the air. Is this not the case?

RE: star alliance

I’ve been a BD lover since a couple of years. I always use them when flying to LHR from BRU. Who can blame me? If I would use our national carrier Sabena I would be stuck in a Virgin Express 737, and that’s really bad.
Being a very frequent flyer, I tried to stick to airlines of the Qualiflyer group (except for the LHR flights). But recent months, the service on Sabena flights has been deteriorating. My last flight from CDG to BRU in business was the latest higlight. No food (not even a snack), and no newspaper. Jst an orange juice. So what I hear you say, its only a 35′ hop. True but so is the BRU-LHR sector and BD serves breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack depending on your flight.
So recently I changed from Qualiflyer to STAR for most of my travel. Flown with LH a couple of times and service was much better thatn what I was used to with SN. Flown SAS also and that was ok except for a flight from CPH to Aarhus. But that was only a 20′ flight so you can’t expect a lot of service. But the stewardess were not very friendly. ANA gives impacable service as I found during a flight from FRA to NRT. But best of all is Austrian Airlines. I recently flew them for the first time from BRU-VIE-CDG. And both flights were the summum of quality and service. Best I’ve ever had. Just one example, during the evening VIE-CDG flight, after an excellent three course dinner, I was offered cognac or whiskey with my coffee. Not bad hu!
I’ll be flying with UA within two weeks for the first time. I’m curious. It’ll be BRU-IAD-ATL. So for me it’ll be a double first. First time with UA and first time in a 727 (IAD-ATL). I’m looking forward to it.

RE: star alliance

thanks scandyboy for your e-mail but you never left your e-mail address for me to reply could you e-mail me back with this also regarding the star alliance I’m not that cued up about this alliance but I think that it is a very growing alliance and in the years to come it will keep growing it is one of the worlds biggest alliance if not the biggest I know some of the airlines in it but will have to find out more before I could give you my really opinion about your issue!!!!!

RE: star alliance

I have just completed a trip using 2 Star carriers – LH & SQ. This trip also involved flts. on Olympic Airways, but that’s another story in itself… (after Olympic, you don’t complain any more about any of the Star carriers !! Well…maybe Air NZ excepted. They make even Olympic look good).

It was my 1st time on LH in about 2 yrs. I found all 4 flts.(Y-class ATH/FRA/DUS/FRA/ATH) very pleasant. Friendly & polite service, good food to/from ATH & large helpings, to boot! No complaints. The same couldn’t be said of the SQ flts. I’ve always found SQ to be a mixed bag – extremely variable service & competence on the par of the cabin crew AND ground staff. Service-wise, SQ is a lottery, whereas I have never had a bad trip (in the air or on the ground) on Thai, for instance.

Further Star experiences … 4 long-haul flts on United earlier this year were some of the most enjoyable in recent memory. My first time on UA, and – given that they are the subject of an entire (and large) website dedicated to complaints about them – I was expecting the worst. I have always flown with Ansett domestically when possible. Generally good – better than Qantas (not hard…) – and service levels have not (as yet anyway) suffered due to the new joint Air NZ/ SQ ownership. Time will tell. All Nippon is fine too – although their style is very spartan. Its been a few years since I was on SK, and I’ve never flown with any of the others (OS, NG, RG etc).

Looking at the membership of other alliances, I think Star probably has some of the best carriers.

RE: star alliance

i agree the service standards have dropped on many star alliance carriers although lufhansa is by far the worst for inflight service. the crew are rude and very anti british, and the cheese or ham roll throw at you from a trolley is beyond human consumtion. being an employee of sas i have to agree that the 737-600 is a terrible aircraft with a very poor service record, its not a regular in the uk now a days but to be honest anthing is an improvement on the horrible dc9 -411s we seem to be saddled with!!

RE: star alliance

Yes, it is certainly growing very fast. I think that the standards of service of it’s founding members has fallen since the alliance was formed. For example, Lufthansa is not as good as they were, and SAS’s service has deteriorated.

For example a few weeks ago I flew from Hannover to Copenhagen then on to the UK with SAS, from Hannover on a lunchtime flight all we were given as a very very small roll with chesse and a drink, the aircraft may have been a new Q400 but it was certainly nothing special. I find the interior/seating cramped on SAS’s new 737-600’s as well. I think that the alliance is just an excuse to lower overall service.

British Midland’s service has always been terrible, I would not wish it on my worst enemy- but we all know why they got into star alliance. It was not for their service.