N1003U

WHEREAS, I have been honored with an invitation to attend the Dialog Event, and

WHILST I and the other attendees do not pretend to have enough insight to present all of the important, relevant, and well-thought-out questions that are important to the varied interests represented here on this Forum, I

THEREFORE, along with some of the other attendees, request that those of you with burning questions you would like to pose to Monsieurs Spohr and/or Huber during the 2013 Dialog Event submit them here on this thread.

We will use this thread as a collection point for questions to be directed toward LH management during the Dialog Event, for those who, due to time or space constraints, are unable to attend in person.

Since I expect we will get more questions than we are able to ask in the time allotted, we will develop some mechanism to prioritize/organize the questions in a quasi-democratic fashion so that we can cover as many topics as possible during the event.

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing your questions here.

Best, N1003U, and on behalf of the FT/VFT event attendees.

sw1x

Why do Lufthansa discriminate among their clients purely based on the route booked - as it appears due to certain Senator status perks not being available when having to fly germanwings?

Would Lufthansa consider reversing their decision to deprive their Senator Status customers who - by Lufthansa Company policy - are forced to travel on Lufthansa's germanwings subsidiary from Fast Lane Access at Security unless booked into the "Best Tariff" which normally implies expenditure comparable to Business Class tickets on Lufthansa itself?

Do Lufthansa no longer value their customers' loyalty as apparent from recent changes to the Miles & More programme whereby mileage credits will be reduced on intra European flights to a Level that will make it nigh impossible to qualify as Senator unless one flies approx. 200 (i.e. 4 per week!) intra-European segments a year?

How does Lufthansa justify the reduced mileage credits while at the same time prices on intra European flights appear to have increased by approx. 40% on frequencies attractive for business related travel?

rotanes

Actually I am one of the old-fashioned guys, who do not choose their airline by the latest developments in IFE-technology, lie-flat-seats, esoteric food or bargaining by means of 20 USD vouchers.

So my question would be:

How will Lufthansa in future honour the conservative flyer, who is not primarily interested in the above mentioned gadgets, not even in "how many miles will I get", but has a priority on transparent fares, trust, excellent service in case of irrops, professional staff in the on- and offline service centers and a safe and secure travel experience?

NA-Flyer

Honored

I think you are just wasting your time LH won't change any of its recent enhancements what ever happened at your meeting with Spohr.

N1003U

Yes, maybe there are some quotation marks missing in my preamble...

You are probably right...but given it is one evening of time and some nominal travel costs...the opportunity to glean impressions direct from key executives, and to get a more direct feel (if not in words, then at least in tone) for what LH is trying to achieve with their recent decisions (not just the FF program, but other operational decisions and service offerings as well), and what their thought processes are that takes them in the direction they are going, I think it is worth a few hours of my time. Motivating factors behind decisions are often more important than the decisions themselves. It one understands the decisoin process and the factors driving the decisions, one can better predict what will come in the future, and adjust expectations/travel purchase decisions accordingly.

While I am not willing to concede that LH management has made all or even mostly good strategic decisions lately, I do concede that they almost certainly are way better informed about the situation than I am, and I always enjoy the chance to hear an informed perspective. I don't have to agree with it, but I believe I can learn something from it (be it positive or negative).

verve

I really would love to understand how LH envisions to compete with(what they call their toughest) competition - EK and the like. It seems to me the Middle Eastern Carriers are way ahead of LH in both pricing and service (only talking premium cabins here). It seems almost impossible for LH to compete on price, given it's cost structure, taxes, etc. Unfortunately it also seems that they do not want to compete on service quality (seat, meals, lounges, loyalty programs, ...) and hence LH finds itself in a spot where prices are off and the quality is way below their benchmark.

Would be cool if you could get a feeling from Spohr et al if they understand this dilemma or if the still dream of being a quality airline.

IMH

On the other hand, LH's decision to participate in this session is a surprisingly good tactical decision, possibly more. They can't be so naïve as to believe they can convince this particular audience that everything's fine, so it makes sense to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they'll be listening carefully.

NYTA

I'd like to know why they have reduced the number of seats to TLV (formerly a 747 and A340 per day) down to 2 A320s when every other carrier except KL has increased capacity to TLV in the last couple of years. Also, why they insist on the short haul planes and seats to TLV where BA and LX fly planes with real J seats TLV to LHR and ZRH so that people connecting to Asia and the US from TLV get real business class seats.

Unterwegs

My questions:

LH group has some of the best F seats in the industry.
Why did they then select a new business class seat which is much smaller / shorter / denser than most of their competitors are installing now? Even US and AA are installing better seats in their new planes - not to mention SQ, CX and even TG or the middle eastern carriers.

Are there any plans to enhance (not in a flyertalk sense) the connecting experience in FRA, especially for premium passengers? Or can we expect that FRA will be the new LHR?

chff

TLV why from L/H to S/H.
Why no Direct aisle in J
No IFE/Wifi on S/H-M/H

gum

Thanks N1003U for the hint to this thread.

My question would be:
Why does Lufthansa miss the chances to honour the loyality of their (frequent) customers by offering a fair range of awards for travel in the next higher class?

Background:
In the past years many opportunities for travel one class better than originally paid have been "enhanced". This applies the full range of awards (one-way, intra-German, Y->C, 7.500 Miles) up to refraining the C->F upmoving awards for non status customers.

Motivation:
In order to keep customers loyal a full range of awards is needed. They pay the salary of the Top executives of LH every month and get nearly no opportunity to give their own families something back for their sacrificies.

Idea:
The new approach to awards for one class travel starts with a rephrasing and education of the employees. So people using this awards shouldn't be treated as freeloaders or upgraders by chance. Reason for that is that they have paid with virtual currency (Miles) for that travel one class better.

Suggestions for improvements:
1.) New award charts reflecting a broad opportunity to fly one class better even if a LH Miles & More member takes his family for a vacation. This means two upmoving awards: One from the full booking class and one from ANY reduced ticket.

2.) Renaming these Upgrading awards to something reflecting the payment made by the customer: Upselling, Upvaluing, Valorization or anything Revaluing the flight.

Benefits for LH
1.) The loyal customer base will increase their spend at LH (significant revenue stream instead of only cost-cutting)
2.) Lots of free space during weekends, holidays and similar off-peak demand in Business and First Class. The space which is freed by the upvaluers in Economy can be sold to new customers. The to some destinations in other cases empty First Class can be used for the once-in-a-lifetime-trip for a family of a customer.
3.) The whole l/h LH fleet can stay 3 (or from 2014 4) class.

Short version:
Miles and More needs a vast array of upmoving awards with a high availability and opportunity to fly one class higher. Why is this opportunity "enhanced" away step by step.

Hope you enjoy.

seat 1a

What are the plans to improve their service for HON members?

NYTA

How about why the earn/burn rates are so bad compared to UA that I am not an M&M member but am a UA member.

TRAVELSIG

And how would you phrase this question to a company executive in a way to ensure a meaningful answer?

NA-Flyer

Stripe them out of their HON membership and let them explore greater comfort by flying with other airlines