Qualiflyer was a frequent-flyer program and, to some extent, an airline alliance created in April 1992 by Austrian Airlines, Crossair and Swissair. When Swissair began acquiring stakes in other European airlines in 1998, Qualiflyer was extended to become their frequent flyer programs as well. This spawned the alliance known as The Qualiflyer Group. With the failure of Swissair in 2002, the group dissolved along with the program and a company was formed to give each former member airline an individual frequent-flyer program.
History
The Qualiflyer logo.Basic account card. Other levels have similar but different coloured cards.
Qualiflyer was formed in April 1992, as Europe's first frequent-flyer program, for Swissair, Crossair and Austrian Airlines.[1] Originally, Swissair's partner airline Crossair and its high-end hotel chain Swissôtel also participated in the program. Qualiflyer's affiliation to one of the world-class airlines caused membership to grow quickly to 2 million members in the first eight years. After that, other airlines joined in the program, and the program received even larger amounts of membership.
In 1998, Swissair, one of the more conservative European airlines, decided to have a hand at expansion. Instead of doing this by joining one of the new airlines alliances Star Alliance and oneworld and SkyTeam, it decided to acquire minority stakes in several airlines. Among these were Sabena, TAP Air Portugal, Air Europe, and LOT Polish Airlines. These airlines all came to participate in the Qualiflyer program. The Qualiflyer Group would ultimately be a contributing factor in Swissair's demise.
The Qualiflyer Group logo resembled a blue globe surrounded by two swooping arms. The entire globe was encircled by ten stars symbolizing the ten member airlines. Airlines participating in the group were required to fly airplanes with a rather large Qualiflyer logo sticker applied. Swissair and Sabena principally had several airplanes painted with a blue underbelly with "The Qualiflyer Group" titles applied near the nose.
Club levels
The Qualiflyer program always made a distinction between genuine frequent flyers and other traveling members. That is why, when Qualiflyer launched in 1992, two account types were introduced: the Qualiflyer basic level, for everyone wishing to collect miles, and the Qualiflyer Travelclub, for more frequent travelers. To meet the needs of particular target groups better, further club levels were added. The Travelclub Gold, for very frequent travelers and Qualiflyer Circle for an exclusive group of selected members. The existence of the "Circle" was not actively communicated, to ensure optimum exclusivity. The Circle was introduced in 1994 and the Travelclub Gold membership only many years later in 2001. For every level, further benefits were offered.
Member airlines
The following airlines were at one point members of The Qualiflyer Group or partners of just the frequent flyer program:[2]
Founding member of the Qualiflyer frequent-flyer program. Joined the Miles & More frequent-flyer program and became a Star Alliance member since 26 March 2000. Became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa since 3 September 2009.
Not part of The Qualiflyer Group, just the frequent-flyer program. Became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air Berlin in 2001, joined Oneworld as an affiliate member on 20 March 2012, and exited on 28 October 2017 due to Air Berlin's collapse.
