theKrafty1tar

wow, zwracam honor! You’re right, I haven’t booked any eco light fares recently, but this makes it even worse! So deceptive

and just to clarify- I said HON ground service is unrivaled, not the status in and of it itself….

hugolover

Welcome to Lufthansa.

Rather than bump the other thread, I thought you'd appreciate knowing that further to our discussion on the ban of guesting pax on another flight to the lounge in Star, I recently learned that Turkish Airlines chose not to enhance this for their own Elite and Elite Plus, who can continue to guest anyone on a Star flight to their lounges. Star Gold's do not retain the privilege.

I'd say it's another point to put into perspective how much LH truly hate their HON/SEN members.

theKrafty1tar

And this is life! Lufthansa Group has a monopoly on the DE/CH/BE/AT/PL(outside WAW) markets. They think they can do this because they offer some of the best connections to their biggest markets (US+Canada).

As I said in the other thread the guesting policy has no affect on me- I travel a lot for work but my partner doesn’t. When we’re traveling together it’s always on the same flights. And I’m not about to backtrack to Turkey on my way to the US or South America. Not to mention Turkish doesn’t offer F

Please don’t understand me wrong- I do agree that these “enhancements” on LH are utter .... and a cheap cash grab. There’s now almost NOTHING that differentiates Lufthansa on an eco light fare from Ryanair (except for a small chocolate and water at the expense of an extra connection in FRA/MUC ).

theKrafty1tar

Double post*

hugolover

Well its the life that the political class created through protectionism and lobbying by SIG's. The biggest losers are the D/A/CH consumers and taxpayers.

I wasn't suggesting you'd fly to TR in order to guest someone ... but to give you a sense of perspective inside of Star as my previous comparisons were OW and ST. LH have chosen not to differentiate between *G and HON/SEN even though it's clear they could derogate if they wished to. Even LO differentiate more than LH does: Free bag for HON/SEN/*G/FTL on Saver fares and free ASR for HON/SEN on Saver.

The delta between a once a year pax on LHG and a frequent flyer gets smaller. That makes little sense to me. It indicate a view that status pax are muppets in the eyes of LHG. Helga could serve up turd sandwiches in her lounges and you'd still get pax queuing up to get in.

There's a lot to differentiate between FR and LHG. On the whole I find FR crew quite friendly, smiling, and they seem to really like their job. Many Bordermama's on LH are officious and seem to hate their jobs, especially recently. They have nothing to be proud of in the product that they offer and they know it. The FR crew work incredibly hard. They really impress me. The LH crew scream "CBA".

The biggest issue is that a Ryanair fare can be just tens of Euros before you add on the extras (maybe even tens with the extras included) whereas the Lufthansa is in the hundreds before you add any.

FR received no state aid/loans during the pandemic.

TPJ

Very simple - fly FR And BTW, I am serious. They run very reliable operation this spring (all my FR flights were on time or almost on time - LH and LX not so much), cost of priority boarding (that allows you to take an extra piece of hand luggage) or emergency exit seat is fairly affordable. And fortunately I live in a place with very strong FR presence...

chris63

Yes, LH for a long time don’t expect their HON’s to travel whY let alone on light fares, since they stopped giving HON miles on Y fares.

pdeut

Which makes this move even more interesting, as if/when they start the new mileage rules, HONs would have an incentive to fly Y for the first time in years

IAN-UK

…. an ancillary question is whether airport staff at check-in, service desk or gate will be locked out of changing allocated seating.



This is an ugly move. I'm guessing LH rediscovered they carried more short-haul, hand-baggage status-holders than they expected; these passengers sensibly selected HBO fares and saved money. Maybe the fares pushed more passengers to travel bag-free.

The bean-counters noticed and in their soulless way hit on fear of a centre seat as the way to whip their frequent flyers into line.

The end result will be the balance of higher revenue from additional seating fees + higher fares versus lost revenue from passengers migrating to Ryanair and friends.

gojko88

Hard to imagine, although sadly not impossible. Sure adds an extra level of stress to front-line employees in any case.

Eagerly awaiting the next round of enhancements when SEN & *G lose access to fast track and contract lounges on Light fares.

more4less

I had the same in mind.

During the last two very difficult years LH showed some “love” but the romance is coming to the end.

yurtripper

It's an interesting comparison between LH and SQ. SQ treat their own *Gs like dirt but give decent treatment to PPS (the closest SQ equivalent to HON). Whereas LH is more equitable - they treat everyone like dirt

yurtripper

If there's one thing that LH has done a good job of it's suppressing competition from FR in its home territory. Compare that with how FR ate AZ's lunch in Italy.

That's the one metric that really matters to them (forget about all the BS metrics they publish and don't bother to hit) - killing off competition at home so they can mint it by milking a captive base of pax.

IAN-UK

Sure, but for many the position is different to that of LH's home market. I typically travel from UK provincial airports, and LH-group offers an alternative to BA and Heathrow, and (crucially) to direct services on easyJet, Ryanair et al. The comfort of seat selection and other frills on LHG carriers colours my decision making. This move shifts the decision in favour of low-cost carriers.

IAN-UK

sorry - duplicate