dj_jay_smith

According to an article in http://www.businesstraveller.com/new...s-airbus-fleet

Click on the link for the whole article.

Furnle

I'm questioning myself if this is the right path to follow...

LH4116

Some further enhancements to the NEK product coming up? Sure, if they keep offering their €99 fares I won't complain.

sw1x

There must be a way to explain how this is coherent with management's pursuit of becoming a 5* airline in all categories. There must.

oliver2002

This story got picked up by the media last week... They are looking at line fit options for the new A32S coming in the next year and the lavatory in the tail is attractive. Remember half of the A32S fleet does short hops inside Europe with no warm/hot catering to speak of. If you look at comparable A32S fleet operated by the competition you will see that there is nearly no galley upfront.

gum

"All mouth, but no trousers" would be the corresponding expression for this path. Lufthansa has seen that the cost reduction trend leads to an upset and increasingly migrating customer base.

They increase the velocity of SCORE although everyone knows this is leading to nowhere.

The right path would be to increase the quality and differentiate from the Low Cost carriers.

I am not accepting the view that e.g. for a long weekend in a Euopean city the air fare should be the deciding factor.

In other words: For the total cost of this weekend (TCW) it is completely irrelevant if you pay 99 Euro r/t or 139 Euro r/t. Add the overnight accommodation, some experiences/visits and some restaurants and then the air fare is only a fraction of TCW.

A slashing of the 99 Euro fares and a reintroduction of "There is no better way to fly" is mandatory.

Rant over.

Thank you for reading. I am feeling better now.

TRAVELSIG

If you come up with a rational explanation it would be great to hear.

ffI

The public feels the opposite. They look at 99 and not 139 as the factor in deciding whether to go.

irishguy28

An unusual viewpoint.

Personally, I'd view any savings made on the air fare as allowing for better/more experiences/meals/accomodation while actually on the trip.

When you are sitting on a plane for only a couple of hours going to somewhere in Europe, I really see no gain in paying more than you have to, unless there is a compelling reason (timing of flights, direct flight rather than transfer, etc). So to say that paying €40 "extra" per person for flights is meaningless in the context of the entire weekend trip is not a viewpoint that many would agree with, I think. Most people will have a budget and flying is one of the things that is easiest to do cheaply.

Otherwise, wouldn't we all be flying business class around Europe, and then staying in youth hostel dormitories and eating cornflakes for every meal while on our weekend break???

callum9999

You can choose to believe whatever you want, but I think the enormous growth of the LCCs at the expense of the likes of Lufthansa clearly prove that down in the real world, the price of air fares certainly does matter to ordinary people...

oliver2002

I recall Hubert Frach mentioning that people are ready to pay 40GBP to enter Madame Tussauds and stay at a 150+GBP/night hotel in London, but cringe at the thought of paying more for the flight to get there. If easyjet is cheaper, they don't mind LTN etc.

I'm currently looking to buy a rt to FAO for May29-Jun1 and seriously considering to fly back on X3 for aprox 75€/less per head. Never mind that I have to get up early to stand in line with the unwashed masses to get a BP on a charter flight etc

TRAVELSIG

Certainly there is some price flexibility with many customers. 40 EUR won't be enough per person to move me but 500 EUR will. The LCC entered markets that were previously very expensive to fly within and offered prices often at a discount of up to 90% which changed completely the situation and the possibility of flying around Europe for the weekend.

I clearly recall when a roundtrip economy ticket to London used to cost well over 500 GBP ex-VCE and now it is not uncommon to see the LCC advertising for 5 EUR each way (10 EUR roundtrip) and sometimes even less.

Unwashed masses can be found everywhere- the last time I needed to fly to DUS for a meeting however there was a package rate sold through a site affiliated with Air Berlin where the Hotel (4* very good quality close to where I was going) and the Air Fare together were less than half the economy air fare of the alternative. And this was during a major trade fair.

gum

@ ffi, irishguy28, callum999, oliver2002, TRAVELSIG

Thanks for your amendments made and taking me back to the real world of customer behaviour. Always thought of the customers as human beings and behaving like rational utility maximizers.

And for me a non-squeezed flight was/is a valuable asset. I can't put an exact price tag on that. But I *feel* that 99/109 Euro is too low for a travel experience with an adequate customer journey.

There seems to be an enormous backlog in communicating the value of air travel.......

So thanks again for reading and commenting.

callum9999

You seem like a rather arrogant person...

My, and millions of others, decision to place a large emphasis on flying cheaply is perfectly rational thank you very much...

Just because you can throw around extra money, doesn't mean everyone can. While the difference between €99 and €139 is "only €40" to you, to me out means that for every 2.5 flights I take at the higher rate, that's 1 flight thrown down the drain. Nor do I particularly care how comfortable it is - the time in the air is a miniscule proportion of the holiday, and I don't find even the worst LCCs any less comfortable than your average bus anyway.

dj_jay_smith

I agree, you would not purchase a TV for 40 euros more that a store down the road and lets face it for most journeys in europe the flight is so short that it doesn't matter if it is a LCC or not, the service of the mainline carriers are being eroded so that they do not differentiate themselves anyway so why pay more? Because you get 125 M&M miles, thats a hell of a lot of flights needed for a european reward ticket! And 40 euros for 4 people 3-4 times a year quickly adds up.

I always weigh up cost vs. convenience. With FRA being my home airport these days then LCC's are not an option for 99% of routes, but if they are then I will take a look (except Ryanair!). Yes I have a preference for LH, but my status is not renewed based on the 99 Euro weekend trip I take but the longhaul business flights.

My company policy for travel is cheapest option, hence 2 of my last 3 longhaul business flights have been with airlines other than LH because the price difference was between 2,000 and 3,000 euros per trip! So LH prices push me away from them, and the quality of the other airlines will keep me going back to them.


Coming back to the point of the original post, actually I have no issue with them removing the galleys and if they can get more seats in and keep prices down then I am all for it. Nothing against them making money and as most of the aircraft are used on 1-2 hour hops then this is OK in my eyes. My concern is for the cabin crew, they still need to be able to perform their job and we still expect a lot from them, so as long as they can do that and safety is not compromised on the aircraft then its fine with me.