moebod

Have a LH F ticket from HKG to FRA for next week, booked with my miles and more miles. I wanted to change the date to a few days earlier. Called miles and more and they said, there is a new rule for all F Class changes and bookings for FTL and basic customers

Tickets in F can only be requested and not booked, this on all flights, not only A380. They started this rule a few days ago. I was only able to request a change and not change it and have to call back if it gets confirmed. They said its not systemwide, but will be in a few days.

Is this another crazy enhancment?

TRAVELSIG

Is this for real?

moebod

I dont know, I dont think a agent could have made this up?! She double checked with her friend and said this is the new rule!

TRAVELSIG

Wow- seems a little bit unfair if accurate (perhaps one of the mods or others with access to Amadeus can dig something up to confirm)?

snic

Was there O availability for the flight you wanted?

moebod

Just called m and m again, next agent confirmed this rule. Said some flights can still be booked online, but thats going to change soon. All flights in F for FTL and basics have to be requested.

Thats crazy, if I want to change my flight, like right now, I have to wait for hours or days until someone looks at the ticket manually and decides if I can change?! They dont email, I have to call up and see if someone did that already or not.... I want to fly in 3 days and cant make any apointments, as I dont know if Mister X will allow me to fly. This is retarted

Starbucks

No Christmas without season greetings from LH...

snic

Can anyone speculate as to the problem that this rule is meant to solve? Were FTLs and below booking up F award space, resulting in angry SENs and HONs who couldn't get the awards they wanted?

Or does LH simply want to make its F cabin more exclusive, even if it means empty seats?

And: what does this mean for *A F bookings? Already LH F availability is much reduced. Is it to be eliminated, or nearly so, to levels similar to SQ's?

malinche

No more need for SEN/HON to hunt for a competent agent to be placed in the "correct" queue for 388 flights.
And obviously, more exclusivity as part of the new F concept.

snic

That's like driving a nail with a sledge hammer. If poor agent training were the issue, LH could have just... trained its agents! And the policy as reported by the OP applies to all flights, not just A380.

malinche

IT differentiation seems to be impossible for LH. Else it would be easy to for example allow SEN / HON Award guarantee awards booked online.

For SEN/HON it would indeed be a real enhancement to be able to book all awards including 388 online and not having to call an agent (be they poorly or properly trained) at all.

For the rest of course an enhancement in the usual sense of the word in LH world.

kacheng

IMHO conditions as of at time of booking should still apply.

SleepOverGreenland

LH told more than once that they want to make their F cabin more exclusive and rather fly with empty F seats than with pax on "cheapo" tickets.

As for the *A F booking future, LH management truely believes that they provide the best product in the world and why shouldn't they implement something that is similar or even better than the second best airline in the world does?

Lack

I think the main reason is to align M&M as closely as possible to AF Flying Blue and then do another status match campaign so transfering folks will feel right at home.

GBM.flights

Being true this rule disgusts me.
As usual this solves some hypothetical problem in the brilliant minds of the bean counters at M&M, and is only there to upset lower or no tiers in this case, and fulfill the quota of enhancements for 2011 just in time for the yearly employee appraisal.

As per the award chart the cheapest F is 125'000 miles.
That's 1000 cheapo revenue segments.

Just exactly how many blues and silvers will be able get to 125'000 to redeem in a given year?
The poor blue has his miles expire every 3 years.
If they don't it's because (s)he's got a CC sending money indirectly to M&M.

People save those miles (and it can take years) for the aspirational award (as gleff puts it) and not for a crappy business slanted seat.

GBM