Eighteen years ago, five airline companies—Lufthansa, Air Canada, United Airlines, Thai Airways and Scandinavian Airlines—formed an alliance with a vision to offer better services to their customers. Under the banner of Star Alliance, these companies started sharing resources such as sales offices, maintenance facilities, operational staff, and seating capacity. As a consequence they could offer customers a broader set of destinations, options for collecting and using mileage points across partner airlines, and lower prices because of cost consolidation. Customers saw immediate value in this seamless enhancement in the scope of services. Even when dealing with any one airline, they could enjoy access to the resources of several airlines. Hailed as one of the most successful alliances in business history, Star Alliance, whose number of partners ultimately grew to 27, soon inspired the formation of rival airline alliances such as One World and Sky Team.