moeve

Does thie fee also apply to their OWN CC??

YuropFlyer

Yes, it does.. (the current fee already is charged even when paying with your LH/LX CC)

clifford79

From the slide deck: "By introducing the Optional Payment Charge (OPC) the customer will contribute to cover Credit Card Costs"

So the credit card costs that arise from the ticketing transaction differ depending on if you fly domestic/european/intercontinental? I thought it was a fixed fee and/or a pct.

fivesixseven

Indeed, that shouldn't matter at all.

San Gottardo

I don't get it... how are we meant to pay then?? Cash? Not an option other than at airports, i.e. in 99.9999999% of cases. Cheque? Takes ages. Bank transfer? Takes ages, and is more expensive for LH. "Euroscheckkarte"? Only the Germans have that thing (=their way to show disapproval of the common currency. As a retaliation for losing their own currency they now have their own plastic card that noone wants and noone else has ). Not an option.

What is next? LH is really going down the flush.

And what is worse: why don't they just tell the world "look we want to be a bit more LCCey, here's all the bad that we do to you". Instead they release one thing after the other, within days. Do they really think people don't notice?

I still find them better than most airlines that serve my routes so I'll continue using them, but the difference is getting smaller by the day.

moeve

That does make you wonder what is OPTIONAL about Optional LH you are only confusing yourselves we already know you need to nickle and Dime your paying passengers some more.

NewbieRunner

Can someone explain a couple of notes on p.5 of the pdf?

It looks like OPC starts in those three countries on 5 September 2011 but what does the above sentence mean? What happens after 2 November?

Does it mean GBP 4.50 OPC for flights originating in the UK is only charged on Economy Class tickets? It looks like a flat rate is charged for tickets originating in Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and the UK regardless of the class of travel but this note is not clear to me.

Economy classes?

P.S. German texts of the above:

* Bis 2.11.11: OPC wird für Reiseantritt Finnland, Niederlande und Großbritannien angewendet, wenn das Ticket in diesen Ländern ausgestellt wird.

** Nur Economy Buchungsklassen

So at least the second note should read "Economy booking classes only"

Flying Lawyer

Beside the fact that I do not appreciate their fee, this statement is simple incorrect (and I was tempted to write BS). We do not only "now" have our own plastic card but had this secure and cheap payment system for ages - the "Euroscheckkarte" as it was called in the past guaranteed a cheque for the amount or the equivalent of up to 400 DM.

oliver2002

Plus the EC system described above was sold to Maestro and now is nothing but the Mastercard Debit Card system with a German touch.

Optional in the sense that paypal and paying by direct debit (works fine in Germany) will attract less or no fees.

Since I only either book via LH-USA or german POS with $/€ off coupons that LH seems to hand out like candy I'm safe so far. Worse case we have the TA of our choice to go to. They just negotiated a rebate in TSC ^

DaniD

So the paypal option will stay without a fee?

oliver2002

Paypal is without fee, TAs will not charge the OPC if you go the cash/invoice route.

Roger

The summary suggests that LH-Group airlines including BD currently have no payment surcharge: (page 2). As anybody who has bought tickets from BD online knows, we have had payment surcharges for years, including with BD's own credit cards.

Page 1, trying to justify the word 'optional' (which they fail completely to do) includes a list of the presumed advantages to the passenger of paying by credit card. One such is said to be: Which LH/LX/BD/etc lounges can I use purely on the basis of having paid for my ticket by credit card?

sinus

Of course not, you can book on LH.com with any card. Same with Expedia.

fivesixseven

But you need a US address for it, right?

NewbieRunner

The pdf file has already been amended and the note referred to on p.5 now reads: "OPC applies only for Economy classes" (for flights originating in the UK). ^