As Official Alliance Partner of World Aviation Festival 2026, Star Alliance made a splash on the exhibition floor in Lisbon with a custom gold-themed booth.

We caught up with the alliance’s VP Corporate Strategy, Renato Ramos, to learn more about the inspiration behind this eye-catching design. Star Alliance came to the event to promote Gold Status, a programme that loyalty customers across the organisation’s 26 member airlines can access once they achieve a certain number of points. With Gold Status, passengers tap into a range of exclusive advantages, including fast-track through the airport, priority boarding, a generous luggage allowance, and lounge access.

Ramos explains that Gold status means customers can rest assured that they will receive the regular benefits that they get with their preferred carrier across the network. Even with loyalty becoming an increasingly competitive field within the aviation business, he thinks Star Alliance Gold offers a unique proposition:

Consistency and assurance are very important to frequent flyers. We want to show them that they will be recognised everywhere within the network. So, even traveling with an airline that they’ve never been with before, they can rest assured that they will have fast track, that they will have priority boarding, priority check-in, lounge access, and the baggage benefits as well.

Achieving greater consistency across member airlines is essential to delivering true Gold-standard service. Ramos’s team are working hard behind the scenes, negotiating with airport management teams so that the infrastructure is in place for these smooth journey pathways.

The airport is a very tense environment. Customers need to move fast, frictionless, and effortlessly through all the touchpoints.

Looking ahead to 2027, Gold Status will continue to support Star Alliance in its ongoing customer experience transformation. The mission: addressing friction points across the customer journey so loyalty members and regular passengers alike both reap the rewards of an airline alliance that connects to over 1,150 destinations.

Alongside this focus, Ramos says the alliance is also looking to expand its network of intermodal partners, following successful arrangements launched with Deutsch Barn in 2022 and ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) in 2025.

The intermodal programme is something that differentiate us from all the other competitors. And it also enhances our sustainability initiative.

🎥 Watch the video to get the full interview with Renato Ramos.

Questions asked include:

  • Loyalty is a big theme for Star at WAF this year, including a Gold-themed booth. What’s the story behind that?
  • With so many airline loyalty programmes out there, what makes Star Alliance Gold different?
  • Gold status and Gold Track are very visible to travellers. What is Star enabling behind the scenes to make loyalty work across multiple airlines?
  • What’s the big message from Star Alliance as you look ahead to 2027?

Star Alliance will also serve as the Official Alliance Partner of Aviation Festival Asia 2027, taking place in Bangkok.

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