Originally Posted by
solomita
I think that the theory is that LH wants to sell F for real cash, and that they can do this by providing a superior product. Part of the superior product that they think they are providing is exclusivity. For the customer that they are targeting, I guess they believe that losing some revenue from mile redeemers will increase exclusivity for paying customers, and thus increase paying customers.
Or they just think that they can fill enough of the seats (only 8) through cash buyers that they don't need to give any out.
sillypainter: you mention making the change to LH F at 1 or 2 days notice. Are you booking a routing that has both a UA and LH flight, booking the UA seat, and then getting the discounted $75 change fee? Also, I thought that the tickets were unmodifiable after departure, so how can you change the return?
The UA system splits the trip in 2 parts for the round trip, so you can easily change the return even after the first segment has been completed.
The 75 dollar change applies to any change that occurs on your itinerary e.g. Class change or airline change in the 21 day window, outside of that window you can do unlimited changes (not sure about class change, but I think same applies for that) as long as the departure and return points are the same.
I usually book a carrier and class that I like, so like this I am at least guaranteed "something" and for $75 I change around, sometimes even 2 times, one for the dep. And one for the return, its still worth the $75 to fly LH F, even the old product, I mostly like for the peace of mind, you can sleep, eat, stand up, nobody tells you anything, seat belt signs may be ON, they don't bother you.....