Star Alliance Launches Digital Services Platform to Benefit Travelers

Photo Source: @Star Alliance (@aces_naokichi via Instagram)

Star Alliance recently launched a digital services platform (DSP) as a first step to an overall enhancement of digital and mobile services offered to travelers in its 28-airline member network. The platform was developed in cooperation with Accenture, a global professional services company.

The DSP can gather data provided by an individual member airline or third-party source and make it available to all Star Alliance members, enabling them to build it into their own customer-facing digital applications.

The longer-term aim is to allow customers to use any member airline’s website or mobile application to obtain all the information they need for travel on several Star Alliance member airlines.

“Most frequent travelers have a ‘home airline’ in our network and would prefer to control their entire travel experience through a single app or website,” said Star Alliance CEO Jeffrey Goh. “We are therefore working to create central capabilities that can be shared for use by our individual members,” he added.

Lufthansa and United are the first two carriers using the platform, while the new feature will be made available across the Alliance progressively.

In addition to helping develop and implement DSP, Accenture is helping Star Alliance with ongoing work to identify customer pain points and expectations. “Airlines need to embrace collaboration with their alliance member carriers and associated ecosystems to orchestrate a greater understanding of a traveler’s fast-changing requirements,” said Robert Zippel, who leads technology consulting within Accenture’s Travel industry practice.

Furthermore, improvements have been implemented in loyalty using IT hub technologies. This, for example, enables customers to claim all missing mileage from Star Alliance airline flights online, via the customer’s respective frequent flyer program (FFP). By the end of 2018, these member carrier FFP websites will allow customers to check flight availability and book redemption seats online for flights operated by all 28 Star Alliance member airlines.