[DE] Deutsche Bahn will join the Star Alliance

[jamesontheroad]

According to some informed interpretations of a press call for next Monday, Deutsche Bahn is going to join the Star Alliance.

Founded in 1997 by United Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai, Air Canada, and Lufthansa, the alliance now has 26 members and more than 1,200 destinations. It's still headquartered in Germany, and there are obviously some excellent inter-model connection opportunities at rail-integrated airports like Frankfurt-FRA.

Source, in German: https://www.aero.de/news-42937/Lufthansa-holt-Deutsche-Bahn-in-die-Star-Alliance.html

FRANKFURT - Als erstes Unternehmen außerhalb der Luftfahrt wird die Deutsche Bahn Partner eines internationalen Airline-Bündnisses. Das geht aus einer am Mittwoch verbreiteten Einladung hervor, nach der die DB und die Star Alliance am Montag in Frankfurt eine "neue intermodale Partnerschaft" vorstellen.

 

[raetiamann]

Not a surprising move, as they have run inter-airport trains in the past. The 'Donald Duck' EMUs and loco hauled have been bedecked in Lufthansa livery. Writhe growing numbers a high speed lines it makes sense to offer 'airline' through tickets and connections where trains can improve on time.

 

[Wolfie]

Presumably the likely result would be less Lufthansa internal flights.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

BR Intercity was briefly in the Delta Skymiles programme in the early 90s, but the deal was dropped on privatisation.
Virgin Trains was also part of the Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer programme for a spell.
Although you could earn flyer miles with certain VT ticket types, I'm not sure it was possible to redeem miles for tickets on the railway.

Air France and SNCF have joint deals on some French domestic routes, notably via the TGV station at Paris CDG airport.

 

[zuriblue]

Presumably the likely result would be less Lufthansa internal flights.

Quite a few ICE already carry Lufthansa flight numbers and appear on the PIS at Frankfurt Flughafen. it just shows "Bahn" instead of the gate number.

 

[Wolfie]

Quite a few ICE already carry Lufthansa flight numbers and appear on the PIS at Frankfurt Flughafen. it just shows "Bahn" instead of the gate number.

Interesting, TY. I assume that there is no through luggage etc though.

 

[jamesontheroad]

A number of railway stations located at or near major airports appear in the IATA-index with the same three-letter code as the airport itself. In addition to these, about 20 German railway stations already have IATA "airport" codes. IATA codes beginning with Q, X or Z are usually railway stations. These are the most obvious destinations that can start to be marketed as connecting destinations for intermodel passengers using DB and Star Alliance airlines.

QDU: Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof, Düsseldorf, Germany
QFB: Freiburg Hauptbahnhof, Freiburg Germany
QKL: Köln Hauptbahnhof, Cologne, Germany
QPP: Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin, Germany
XHJ: Aachen Hauptbahnhof, Aachen, Germany
XIT: Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, Leipzig, Germany
ZAQ: Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof, Nuremberg, Germany
ZEU: Göttingen railway station, Göttingen, Germany
ZMB: Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, Hamburg, Germany
ZMU: München Hauptbahnhof, Munich, Germany
ZPY: Siegburg/Bonn railway station, Siegburg, Germany
ZRB: Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, Frankfurt, Germany
ZVM: Hannover Messe Bahnhof, Germany
ZVR: Hannover Hauptbahnhof, Germany
ZWS: Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, Germany

 

[dutchflyer]

Being myself still member of STAR-alliance (once even twice on 2 airlines) and having had ´gold´ status on them for a few yrs-long ago, when they were much more generous with those freebees, and now holding only a basic BahnCard 25. Well, various airlines have started coöperation with some railways, but this case LH and DB must be the strongest of such and also quite long lasting. Lets see how this will work in DBś new style of app for its Bonusclients to gain access to lounges or maybe even ´free´ (except all the taxes) flights on LH-or reverse.
From my point of view most interesting to see how the eternal delays-and often far exceeding 1 hr-on DB/ICE will be worked with when they hit pax who transfer from Bahn to Air.
As an aside_at least from this week also daily bitter complaints about very long waits at security and missed fllghts in Germany-due to too few people working on airport security-same as I had to endure at MAN just around Easter and was big in the news in Nederland/Schiphol the last weeks-to the effect that many planned flights had to be cancelled. Which LH also announced today-due to serious staff shortages.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Star Alliance includes Swiss, Brussels Airlines and SAS, all of whom who have major airport hubs directly connected to national rail networks. It's unlikely (for now) but I would hope that DB set a precedent for other railway companies to join the alliance.

 

[Austriantrain]

From my point of view most interesting to see how the eternal delays-and often far exceeding 1 hr-on DB/ICE will be worked with when they hit pax who transfer from Bahn to Air.

I suppose you will be rebooked to the next available flight, just as if your connecting flight arrived late. That is how it works on those RJ services from Linz and Salzburg to Vienna Airport which carry an „OS“ flight number (obviously only if you have a through ticket).

 

[The_Bouncer]

This is an interesting move and one which I think makes a lot of sense, given the already existing arrangement where Lufthansa flight numbers are used on trains to and from major airports.

It will be interesting to see whether partner airlines' miles can be earned on DB services.