Following the official accession of US carrier Continental Airlines to Star Alliance, Lufthansa and Continental Airlines will now be able to offer their mutual customers a range of new benefits. From 31 October, for example, all Continental flights between the United States and Germany will also be bookable under a Lufthansa flight number.

This applies to the services operated daily between Newark (New York) and Hamburg, Berlin Tegel and Frankfurt, as well as to the new route between Houston and Frankfurt, which Continental launched on 2 November. In addition, Lufthansa customers will have a choice of convenient connections to 37 destinations in the United States via Continental’s hubs at Newark and Houston.

Likewise, Lufthansa flights to Newark that are operated daily from Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf will from now on also be offered under a Continental flight number. In addition, customers will be able to book flights from Frankfurt to a further 56 destinations in Germany and elsewhere in Europe under a Continental flight number. Today, Continental has relocated to Terminal 1 so as to be under one roof with Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners, thereby ensuring faster and smoother transfers for passengers.

In the next step, starting on 17 December, Lufthansa will offer flights to a further 33 destinations on a codeshare basis with Continental. These include long-haul flights to Asia, the Middle East and Africa as well as other connecting flights to European destinations. From that date, Continental customers will also be able to transfer to Lufthansa or Lufthansa Italia at the following airports: Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin Tegel, Paris Charles de Gaulle, London Heathrow and Milan Malpensa.

Now that Continental is a full member of Star Alliance, all Lufthansa passengers will also have access on Continental flights to products and benefits offered by the world's largest airline alliance such as lounge access for status customers. Additionally, members of Lufthansa's frequent flyer programme Miles & More and Continental’s loyalty programme One Pass will be able to earn and redeem miles on all the partner airlines flights.