[Anonymous]

[Hktbound]

This weekends news that Spanair have ceased to operate raises the following question if anyone has any thoughts.

Will Star Alliance have any interest or obligation in helping those clients who have earned and probably lost points for the Star Alliance as they were being held via Spanair?

As a Star Alliance Gold member through Spanair Star I have a large number of points which have been mostly obtained via other Star Alliance carriers due to the fact that Spanair have mostly short haul routes. Living in Spain I sent all my points to Spanair and used the points book long haul rewards on Star Alliance members.

Should Star Alliance points be held in a Star Alliance bank (like Avios) which would hopefully be a responsible organisation rather than with a partner airline who seems to have disappeared overnight along with all their responsibilities, or, is it just bad luck that I chose Spanair to bank my points?

Obviously many staff have lost jobs and livelihoods and this is a minor matter but many people, like me save for many months for a great flight, assuming the points are safe and I would be interested in any ideas.

[RichHI1]

I think the ffb balances are the responisbility of the carrier not the alliance. Further they have no commerical value so if they cease to exist you have little if any recourse. Your main hope is the airline is bought up by another carrier.
Avios is a BA initiative not One World. In the unlikely event of BA ceasing operations then Avios members would be in a similar position.

[IanFromHKG]

I had a peek at Malev’s website to see what they were doing, and they say “We regret to inform you that … Malév’s Duna Club frequent flyer program has been terminated. For Duna Club members the collection and redeeming of frequent flyer points on other airlines’ flights have also been terminated.” Although it isn’t crystal clear, it seems that unused points have disappeared into the ether along with the airline (I should add that there is more disclosure on the website for people who have redeemed points for tickets which haven’t been used yet).

My oneworld membership is through CX, so ‘points’ (as opposed to frequent flyer miles) accrue in Asia Miles, which has many participating organisations. Still run by CX, though, so I can’t help wondering what would happen if CX went under. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem likely!

[BusinessTraveller]

Star Alliance has confirmed that silver and gold members of Spainair’s loyalty programme will be offered status match with “several Star Alliance member carriers”, but will lose all accumulated miles.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/spanair-ffp-members-offered-status-match…-but

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