Thank you for your excellent and very insightful observations,
aidanc. It was for me very instructive to see the new 4U through the eyes of a long-time LH mainline customer.
Originally Posted by
aidanc
I'm going to do two posts, the first about DUB-CGN-HAM last week, where I took 4U (booked on 4U instead of LH - was €40 cheaper), and I managed to avoid the LH 05:20 DUB-FRA flight.
DUB is not likely to be a huge 4U station, so I should not have been surprised by the check-in, which had no bag drop, or a priority lane. I arrived about T-90, and it took the best part of a half hour to get to the front of the check-in queue. It's been years since I had to queue that long for check-in. My home printed boarding pass was replaced with one printed out by the Serviceair check-in agent - only the first sector, not the second.
In the end, was the experience worth the 40€ you "saved"?
On the second sector, I didn't bother with the same snack-box, and nearly got charged €2.50 for my coffee. My seat mate volunteered that I'd refused the snack-box, and the coffee arrived. I'd not be too happy to pay €2.50 for it.
On the A319 flights, I found the service levels nicer and softer than LH mainline - and at least I didn't have them try and hand me a Corny nut bar.
There is a big difference between a bad cup of coffee (and Corny nut bar) that comes at no extra charge, and a bad cup of coffee that costs an extra 2,50€ at point-of-service. If you want to sell something on-board, it better be really good quality, or the result will be a disaster (the airlines in N. America found this out very early on when they started selling food on-board).
Originally Posted by
aidanc
So I also had the pleasure of HAM-ARN this morning, operated by Eurowings for 4U. I booked this one on LH 220 ticket stock, and I hate think how much I paid for the outbound seat. I'm sure I paid either full Y or B. I was still regarded as being in a Select seat. I fly this route quite often. Sometimes with a LH ticket, sometimes with SK (on LH metal).
Anyway things did not start well last night, as I tried to re-print my boarding pass at the 4U machines in HAM, it was no dice. I ended up in the "Best" queue this morning to get it reprinted. The gentleman two people ahead of me wandered away from the desk muttering darkly about some service issue.
Flight boarded OK, and while I was getting seated, I overheard one of the FAs telling a passenger that today they were just starting with the 4U concept. The captain even came on and made some comments about new paperwork.
Then about T+5, the captain came into the cabin, and asked 8 people from rows 3 to 5 to move to the back of the aircraft, mentioning a balance problem. He suggested it was related to something done at the gate.
We take off about 15 minutes later. As the service proceeds, the FAs use a 7 inch table to identify which passengers were on what fare. I avoided the same snack-box again. Someone on the other side of the cabin (CRJ-900) declined a €2.50 coffee. I'm not sure they sold anything at all.
I suppose one can maybe assume with time that the bugs in the check-in process will be fixed, but one might wonder why it was not better thought-out initially. Repeat observation that on-board food/drink for sale must be top quality.
Previously the LH operated by EW flight from HAM to ARN arrived in ARN Terminal 5, and I was pretty surprised to be dumped out in ARN Terminal 2 this morning.
It means that there is no LH lounge on departure later in the week. To be honest, the move from LH to 4U for many of these routes removes them from the *A timetable. I'm not sure if that's been talked about here much, buy I'd say the *A has lost a load of direct connections within Central Europe and domestic Germany with the 4U concept.
For the Nordic routes from HAM, I think that 4U might not be the best solution....
These are details I suspect were either not carefully considered or if considered were ignored/downplayed (e.g., different arrival terminal, no lounge access, difficulty integrating with the rest of the *A network, etc.).
Changes in service change customer behavior sometimes in a big way.
Furthermore, the change is not only dynamic, it is not linear.
Faced with a change anyway, customers will start to look around and check out the alternatives. Some will find they are better served elsewhere. Competitors will notice that customers are looking around, and they will respond. When LH changes their environment, the whole surrounding environment will change as well. Based on my observations to-date, LH has not well analyzed the significant variations in outcome that are possible.
Whether this all works out to the advantage or disadvantage of Lufthansa in the end, I suppose remains to be seen. However, based on this post, which was a very illustrative example, tells me the risk LH is taking with what I have taken to calling the "4U Gambit" is messing around big time with the customer relationship, and LH is "playing with fire" to a degree I am not sure they understand.