Will the Star Alliance credit card come to the UK? I chat with CEO Theo Panagiotoulias

On Thursday I was in Paris for the opening of the new Star Alliance non-Schengen lounge in Charles de Gaulle Airport. It is the seventh Star Alliance-branded lounge to open and all of the senior team were present, including Star Alliance CEO Theo Panagiotoulias.

I was able to get time with Theo to ask him about the new Star Alliance credit card which is coming up to its first birthday in its launch market, Australia.

The Star Alliance credit card in Australia is the first airline alliance co-brand credit card to be issued worldwide. It is of particular interest to us in the UK because both United Airlines and Lufthansa have pulled out of the UK card market in the past five years (and earlier, of course, BMI was acquired by British Airways) leaving a major gap in the market.

It is no longer possible to earn points with a Star Alliance airline directly from UK credit card spend. The only options ‘open to all’ are transferring Amex Membership Rewards points to Singapore Airlines (SAS has already announced it will be leaving Star Alliance and joining SkyTeam) or via a transfer from the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard holders can, oddly, transfer points to TAP Portugal but their reward chart is not attractive.

We have long argued that the UK is the perfect market for such a card, with virtually all Star Alliance airlines operating flights here. With no ‘home’ airline, such a card would also avoid competing against its own airline members – no doubt one of the reasons it launched in Australia, too.

Under a partnership with HSBC and Visa, the Australian card comes with a A$450/£250 annual fee (waived in the first year) and the ability to earn Star Alliance points which you can convert to one of seven different Star Alliance loyalty programmes. The big carrot, however, is the ability to fast-track yourself to top-tier Gold status if you spend A$4,000 within 90 days.

I asked Theo how the card is going and whether they had plans to roll it out in more countries. Whilst he wouldn’t be drawn on any future roll out, he did say:

“We’re really pleased with what’s going on in Australia so far. We are definitely looking at other markets, but I can’t share any further information on which ones they are. Based on what we’ve experienced in Australia, it’s been a very worthwhile investment. We’ll continue watching that and determining when the right time is to introduce it into other countries. But we are certainly looking at it very seriously.”

Australia has similar interchange fee caps to the UK and Europe, making it an excellent test bed to stress-test the financial model of the card. I asked him if he saw the Australian card as the model for future rollout or whether they would customise the offer to individual countries:

“By and large, I think it would be similar. We want to look at it a little bit more, because different markets have got different intricacies: you don’t want to apply something generally. From what I’ve seen, it’s worked pretty well so far. So I think it will stay intact and we will just fine tune it, but it will depend on the market.”

What’s the value in launching a Star Alliance card in the first place?

“It’s largely driven around marketing and making sure the travelling public understands how significant Star Alliance is in that market. We’ve got some very important carriers that serve Australia. So it’s really an awareness driver, as well as recognition and incentivising passengers to take advantage of this.”

At the moment, only seven Star Alliance airlines have joined the Australian card programme: Air Canada, Air New Zealand, EVA Air, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Thai Airways and United Airlines. There are many more airlines in the alliance, including many smaller ones, but at least for now Lufthansa and the other Miles & More airlines are notably absent.

“I would love to see more and more airlines join, but I think we’re all realistic and practical. We should be introducing products and services that benefit a specific market that sometimes don’t require all 26 members. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. If we if we restrict ourselves to only doing products for all 26 members we’d be missing out on important opportunities.

It’s not a bad thing. Different markets have got different focus points for various carriers and I think the carriers that are part of that in Australia are pretty relevant and important carriers with a presence in the Australian market.”

Should a similar card launch in the UK, it would be paramount to get Miles & More onboard. Across the group (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian etc) they fly more frequencies to the UK than any other Star Alliance airline, including to more regional destinations. Such a card would be hugely beneficial to those beyond London who fly from one of Lufthansa’s 13 UK airports and connect onwards via Frankfurt or Munich.

Those who had the (now closed) UK Miles & More card will know that Lufthansa keeps extending the expiry date of the miles that were accrued on the card …. a sign that it wants to keep the goodwill of previous cardholders for a future launch. We will see.

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