Star Alliance updated its Conventions Plus meetings product to offer a wider range of discounted fares,

among other changes, the airline alliance announced Tuesday. The alliance now offers delegates discounted fares in more booking classes and eliminates fees for bookings through its dedicated online tool. Star Alliance also now offers a simplified event contracting system that streamlines the request-for-proposals process, and now allows event organizers to accrue credit for each delegate booked through Star's online platform, which then can be applied to their own travel costs, according to the alliance. "We have managed to achieve year-on-year growth, both in terms of contracted events and delegates traveled, ever since we introduced Conventions Plus in 2002," Star Alliance vice president of commercial and business development Horst Findeisen said in a statement. Conventions must include a minimum of 500 delegates attending from at least three countries and two continents to qualify for Conventions Plus.