Continental Airlines on Tuesday became a member of the Star Alliance following 16 months of preparation.
Within the last two days, Continental has entered into bilateral commercial agreements with all of the existing 24 Star Alliance members. It also has signed codeshare deals with United, Lufthansa, Air Canada and BMI.
"Since making the strategic decision 16 months ago to join Star Alliance, Continental has been intensely focused on making preparations for this change," said Continental CEO Larry Kellner. "For our customers, the change will be seamless and will deliver significantly improved travel opportunities."
Promptly after the decision to switch from SkyTeam to the Star Alliance, Continental said it created a detailed transition plan and pursued a checklist to facilitate the alliance change.
To facilitate connections to other Star Alliance carriers, by the end of this year Continental will have moved operations at 11 airports around the world.
On Oct. 27, Continental moves to Terminal 1 at Frankfurt. On Nov. 1, the airline will move to the south wing of Terminal 1 at Tokyo Narita. Continental already has made airport moves in Beijing, Chicago, Honolulu and Shanghai.
Continental also has removed all signage referring to SkyTeam and is in the process of deploying Star Alliance branding throughout its airport facilities and on its aircraft.
Continental will launch a broad advertising campaign coinciding with the airline's entry into the alliance. With international business travelers as its target audience, the campaign will deploy mainly in print and digital media, with a focus on Newark, its East Coast hub. Star Alliance will launch a parallel campaign to help attract new customers.
The airline's sales programs for corporate and retail customers have been reshaped to conform to Star Alliance programs.
In order to make its seat inventory controls compatible with Star Alliance airlines, Continental has changed the letter designations for various booking categories. This included a 72-hour process to revise the fare codes stored within more than 6 million passenger reservation records.
Other technology projects have been completed in order to facilitate the change to Star Alliance. These include updating customer information systems and booking records to ensure recognition of elite-level flyers across the Star Alliance network; implementing new frequent-flyer processes for mileage accrual and award redemptions; developing through check-in abilities with all Star Alliance members; and connecting to the Star Alliance data network for real-time flight information.