Miles & More (Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, and other partners) - Anyone been invited to a HON activity by OS recently?

Last invitation was in 2011 at Esterhazy estate. Did not join as I was in Asia. Since then, very quiet except a ridiculous birthday gift with the world map and routes I flew in the last 2 years...

Someone at LH headquarters must have realized that LH can save money by not organizing HON events...

The birthday presents will come next. By sending out ridiculous presents long after the actual birthday, they can soon anounce that "our customers have told us that they do not want birthday presents".

:D

HTB.

Someone at LH headquarters must have realized that LH can safe money by not organizing HON events...

The birthday presents will come next. By sending out ridiculous presents long after the actual birthday, they can soon anounce that "our customers have told us that they do not want birthday presents".

:D

HTB.

There were both LX and LH HON events in NE Italy in the last 2 weeks.

I actually quite liked the phone wallet.

Are you flying enough with OS to get invited to the HON events? It actually seems from what I know that they look at how much you spend with the particular airline (at least that is how it works in Italy).

They run reports by revenue (and estimated yield) to generate the invite lists... ;)

I know this but from what I heard from other OS-HON's was that OS did not invite OS-HON for a while now. I just wanted to hear from Austrian based HON's

They run reports by revenue (and estimated yield) to generate the invite lists... ;)
They must be desperate to find enough of them in some countries. :D

I suppose the make a list for 3-4x the amount of people they need and then start inviting. The process was interesting to observe for the LH Hautnah Event last May. Some SENs got invited only a few days before...

They run reports by revenue (and estimated yield) to generate the invite lists... ;)

might be, but i know for a fact that one/two very well known FT/VFTers definitely have way less revenue than me and constantly get invited, while i never got a single invitation in my 5+ years as a hon... not that i care, just saying...

Thats because they ask, same was the case when I was based in DTW... if you ask the local sales director often enough they will invite you :)

They should kill all those activities and use the money to uphold a good cabin/service product.

It depends a lot on the local sales director.
Be in touch with them from time to time and you'll jump the 'upgrade' queue ;)

They should kill all those activities and use the money to uphold a good cabin/service product.

Actually mamb0 this is the only time you can actually give feedback to management. I value that more than any event. You can talk to someone in a decision making role which is very valuable.

Actually mamb0 this is the only time you can actually give feedback to management. I value that more than any event. You can talk to someone in a decision making role which is very valuable.

Indeed, very valuable -- if he's willing to listen. YMMV but in my experience more senior levels of LH management do not show a willingness either to listen or forcefully to pass the message up the line.

Indeed, very valuable -- if he's willing to listen. YMMV but in my experience more senior levels of LH management do not show a willingness either to listen or forcefully to pass the message up the line.

Fortunately I have had different experiences. The people in senior management I have met in Lufthansa have all been really excellent. Of course I have never met the CEO.....

Last invitation was in 2011 at Esterhazy estate. Did not join as I was in Asia. Since then, very quiet except a ridiculous birthday gift with the world map and routes I flew in the last 2 years...last invitation in 2008...

Of course I have never met the CEO.....

I met Mr. Franz once when he was the CEO of LX. I sat next to him on the early morning flight from ZRH to FRA in the C class cabin. He looks to me as an attentive listener.

He took a note of all the things I mentioned to him about LX especially the FCL location and how it is hard for connecting passengers through ZRH to visit it. However, still nothing has changed :(

I met Mr. Franz once when he was the CEO of LX. I sat next to him on the early morning flight from ZRH to FRA in the C class cabin. He looks to me as an attentive listener.

He took a note of all the things I mentioned to him about LX especially the FCL location and how it is hard for connecting passengers through ZRH to visit it. However, still nothing has changed :(

Interesting information- thanks for sharing!

Fortunately I have had different experiences. The people in senior management I have met in Lufthansa have all been really excellent. Of course I have never met the CEO.....

I was at the LH Event in Stuttgart last week and the sales director was listening, although he didn't like what I was telling him :) But at least I got him to agree that giving HON miles to at least Y and B would make sense... not that he agreed to do anything about it...

I was at the LH Event in Stuttgart last week and the sales director was listening, although he didn't like what I was telling him :) But at least I got him to agree that giving HON miles to at least Y and B would make sense... not that he agreed to do anything about it...

Nice work alfahund. Even more than HON miles in Y I would really like them to restore 200% to Z class- I can understand P class- however given where Z fares are now to devalue the miles seems a bit too punitive. Good luck however.

Nice work alfahund. Even more than HON miles in Y I would really like them to restore 200% to Z class- I can understand P class- however given where Z fares are now to devalue the miles seems a bit too punitive. Good luck however.

+1 to both of you.

Given the past several years' pattern of devaluation of HON and the neglect toward SEN, however, one has legitimate reasons to question whether any reality-check news from below can pierce the ego bubble around the CEO (a corporate management syndrome not limited to LH, by any means).

In a larger sense one wonders what impact any parallel messages from North American HONs can have on enhancements that will most affect HON renewals from here (e.g., restoring Z fares to 200% mileage credit, HON credit for Y and B fares).

Certainly LH hasn't given up on the TATL market: LH still flies to a score of North American cities and is willing to use the newest equipment on some routes. Yes, we still have an exemplary, fully-staffed HON service center (now under the LH Private Jet rubric).

However, contrary to previous FT'er estimates of HON numbers, one wonders if we in North America have a critical mass to get top management to pay attention to similarly-expressed concerns from this side of the Atlantic. Canadian HONs on this forum may have a sense of how many they are. Ditto for MEX. Are there even 300 HONs resident in the U.S. (including European HONs registered -- legitimately under M&M terms -- at their U.S. business addresses)? I may be missing something but as far as I can tell from various LH-staff comments the New York region has ~100, L.A. area ~70, Washington, DC and Southeast ~30, Chicagoland ~20. SFO, IAH, DTW? The regional sales director in our area does an excellent job of inviting area HONs and SENs to functions two-three times a year. Yet it's not clear that any constructively critical feedback makes it to the top or has had any effect.

Thanks for all answers. From what I can see, either there are no Austrian HON's on this website or none of them has been invited in the last year!

There are about 5 OS HONs here...

Indeed, very valuable -- if he's willing to listen. YMMV but in my experience more senior levels of LH management do not show a willingness either to listen or forcefully to pass the message up the line.

I think they're currently not doing any events because they already know exactly what they're going to hear... Doing ego events like those only make sense if the sun is shining, no?

I think they're currently not doing any events because they already know exactly what they're going to hear...

There were two events in Italy in the last two weeks (one LX and one LH) so I am not sure this is the case.

LH UK also has various events throughout the year. The next one is during the Olympics in London.

I think they're currently not doing any events because they already know exactly what they're going to hear... Doing ego events like those only make sense if the sun is shining, no?

On May 31 they invited more than a thousand German customers to FRA. When I joked with the two M&M heads on how they made it to the lions den in the midst of the changes that will hurt those present the most, both said that they have no problems talking/listening to customers to explain their reasons. ;)

When I joked with the two M&M heads on how they made it to the lions den in the midst of the changes that will hurt those present the most, both said that they have no problems talking/listening to customers to explain their reasons. ;)

Yeah, it's easy to listen and ignore :)