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Star Alliance launched an Australian cross alliance credit card back in November 2022 which allowed you to earn points which can be transferred into seven Star frequent flyer schemes. HfP wrote up the details here: Star Alliance is finally launching its credit card …. in Australia
Has anyone heard whether this has been a success? Are Star likely to launch a similar product in any other markets (Europe or North America)?
Yes.
In Portugal we have the Lufthansa Basic & Gold CC issued by Caixa Geral bank, TAP has 3 credit cards with Millenium BCP (one of which im apllying soon)
In Italy, Lufthansa has a credit card with Unicredit Bank.
In Belgium & Luxembourg, AMEX has a cobranded Brussels Airlines Card
In Switzerland, Swiss has 3 Miles&More cards
And the list goes on. These are just a few M&M options in Europe
The Swiss cards are possible to get without Swiss residence; a current account in Switzerland is however required to pay the direct debit minimum.
And the list goes on. These are just a few M&M options in Europe
OP was talking about *A card issued by themselves, not a specific airline.
Star Alliance launched an Australian cross alliance credit card back in November 2022 which allowed you to earn points which can be transferred into seven Star frequent flyer schemes. HfP wrote up the details here: Star Alliance is finally launching its credit card …. in Australia
Has anyone heard whether this has been a success? Are Star likely to launch a similar product in any other markets (Europe or North America)?
I have the credit card, it’s issued by HSBC. It’s a good product, especially with no fee in year one, and 1x Star Alliance point per $1 (=0.8 SQ/other airline miles) isn’t bad for a Visa here now (you can get 1:1 with Qantas, but usually on cards with a $400+ annual fee).
I took it out, not to get the Star Alliance Gold (as I’m already SQ Gold) but because in lieu of this they’ll give you 40,000 Star Alliance points as a SUB, 32k SQ miles for $0 annual fee and only $4k spend. I left it a while because they don’t make this very obvious that it’s an option, it was only when I went digging through the terms that I found out about it.
Whether I’ll keep it in year two I don’t know. But I know of a few others who’ve taken the card out, and HSBC are pushing it pretty hard. A few points comparing the Aussie and UK markets though – interchange caps here are 0.8% I believe, rather than 0.3% in Europe; mileage earned at full rate is capped on this card ($3k per month), after the cap it goes down to 0.5 points per $1 – earning caps are common since the interchange cap, we lost cobranded Amex cards too when they came in and rewards dropped, much the same as in the UK, which brings me to the last point; annual fees are very common and generally tolerated here, more so than the UK. Even low tier FF cards might have a $99 annual fee, higher end $400-$500 isn’t uncommon, which generally makes them more viable for the banks to offer. It’s not uncommon to have reduced, rebated or waived annual fees in year one, however.
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