FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Lufthansa to spin off Miles&More into a new independent company with WorldShop
Old Dec 9, 2013, 6:24 am
  #9  
oliver2002
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
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Back in the 90s when rebates were not allowed in Germany by law, LH/Weber set up M&M (MMI) in Bermuda. 10 years later it was moved back to Germany as the law was changed. Just before Franz came, Mayerhuber integrated into the Passage division and Franz made it a part of the marketing department. This caused a few issues with integrated partners that are not owned by LH (eg LOT, Luxair, etc) but they didn't have much choice.

Payback was supported by Weber (as part of an executive decision) because he thought it was a great idea and needed support.

The essence behind the current move is that Payback is essentially in every female consumers wallet in Germany. The upwardly mobile high income person has a M&M card in his wallet but doesn't use payback. The new structure will enable the M&M card to be used in more places to collect points, getting M&M a slice of the action Payback doesn't address at the moment. The co-operation will remain AFAIK. Payback has also moved on with their new owners (Amex) and is probably looking at more airline partners.... Amex MR is a model M&M is aiming for.
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