Rambuster

Over the last couple of months there seems to have been a rapid deterioration of availability in awards, upgrades and now even on revenue tickets.

It all started when First class went from 16 seats to 8 fleet wide.
Upgrade became harder to get for First, as a natural consequence. Well, fair enough.

However, now even upgrade requests with eVouchers are becoming impossible to confirm.

I currently I have 4 flights on waiting list. Most of them still have plenty of availability in First, some don't even have a single seat assigned to date.
My flights are booked in 1xZ, 2xD, 1xC. It doesn't seem to make a difference.
The next flight would be next week.

However, what really bugs me is that I also now have two revenue tickets in A class which end up on waiting list. One flight is F6A0 without a single seat in First being assigned and the next flight was F8A0, also not a single seat assigned. My TA sent this to revenue management and the A class got denied.

If I had an F class ticket it would be ok, but not with A class? Seriously?

If they don't get confirmed by next week, I'll book these segments with EK F (again), at lower cost (but with layover in DXB).

I think LH have totally lost it now...!

...rant over...

8420PR

Well if LH does actually sell all the seats at full F fares they haven't lost the plot, and probably couldn't care less about you flying EK. I doubt this though.....

iainbhx

I have one confirmed evoucher request and two miles upgrade requests. The evoucher on a Z fare went through, the miles upgrades on a D-fare are sat waiting, both flights are F8, although there is a fair way to wait for one of them.

I'm also trying to find some F award availability to NYC via FRA or MUC, all I can see is occasional bits via ZRH.

weero

I did not succeed with a single Z->F upgrade on eVoucher last year. So my eVouchers are de facto worthless.

Not only did they not get confirmed while sitting on the WL for 3-6 months but on the day of departure, I also stood no chance.

I do like the cheap Z promos LH is hawking off these days. But if i choose not to get upgraded, I'd probably take any other *A carrier over LH's E++.

TRAVELSIG

Good rant.

I have seen similar positions to you.

I also had a case recently where an A fare was waitlisted and never cleared- then, and this is the best part- I was OP UPed to F. There were 7 OP UPS and 1 paying passenger in F. Nice work RM.

sentom

that's exactly why this is so irritating. on one hand they are complaining that they are loosing money, on the other hand they make it impossible (even for HONs) to stay flexible even on C/A fares. its completely random, and from what i keep hearing from LH staff, a LOT of people getting royally pissed off...

8420PR

so I retract my previous post. If LH are denying paid ticketholders/paid upgrades and then upgrading for free, it does seem like they have lost the plot!

volta

I was looking for a ticket from BOS to BLR and company TA sent back LH 11200USD in C, BA 5800USD. LH from US is always several thousand USD more expensive on the routes that I can travel C (TLV, India). Either LH is constantly selling out C cabin or revenue mgmt is bad.

DownUnderFlyer

LH yield management gone crazy is not my experience currently. I had several C awards cleared with no I inventory available. Several Z/D to F upgrades cleared as well, with eVouchers as well as paper SWUs and non LH miles.

Cheapest LH fare is USD 4328++ with cheapest fare for a business trip being USD 5173++ and USD 7486++. Nut sure what your TA is playing, maybe LH was really that full.

MumbaiDan

I have to fully agree with previous posters. it is becoming increasingly difficult to utilize miles or evouchers for upgrades or F Awards.
the same as described above now happened to me several times - a mileage upgrade does not confirm whatsoever, but they will upgarde eight people on op ups one hour before. LH is crazy! so far it usually went in my favour (saved plenty of vouchs and miles), but the agony of not getting seats confirmed is dreadful. buh LH.

Glenlivet

I fully agree with previous posters.
Having enjoyed fighting twice with HON line and LH revenue management until 5 minutes before the boarding time to get 2 F awards (Had 2 C awards and was on WL for F awards for more than 6 months) on flights which had respectively 4 and 6 free seats in F.
We finally got it, but why did we need to got through this. Without the help of a FCT PA and a local assistant station manager who both spent 2 hours getting it from the HON line and the revenue management, we would have flown with our C awards. Both flights took-off with respectively 1 and 4 empty F seats and far from full C.
Why does LH revenue management want us to save our miles? Do they want to have a higher amount of miles to devaluate at a later stage?

yneris

Well keep in mind, that LH as a luxury airline, is interested in keeping loyalty for their services and not for their free tickets.
In general terms i agree with you, that they prefer for you to keep the miles, and besides think that they focus mostly on hon members....(how many top elite members does delta or united have and how many hon circle members does LH have?)

matt in france

I thought LH were gettimg rid of BD, not importing their Revenue Management system?

rotanes

My supermarket doesn’t sell me anymore the „buy 2, get 5” Pepsi offer. And they don’t upgrade me any longer to Coke. Their revenue management lost the plot.

joorinainen

This must be a sarcastic comment? LH is nowhere near as good as it's best competitors on every class of flying(well, maybe with the new F and soft product) and the more i read Miles&More-forum the more obvious it get's that the whole program is going downhill bit by bit.