LH: many changes on the ground
 

according to an article in the fvw, LH will introduce many new fetaures (about 100 changes) to speed up ground-handling for passengers. Some infos:
- check-in and print of boarding pass on your computer at home (starting Aug 15th on the TXL-FRA route)
- separate lanes (check-in,security, passport-controll and boarding) with the fastet ways for First-Class and high status customers and longer lanes for medium-tier customers and of course (although not spoken out) more hassles and delays for people travelling on cheap fares.
- Barcode check-in via handy (tests will start end of 2005)
-fast arrival and departures procedures with biometrical process
- more VIP-Lounges (new one in DUS and bigger ones elsewhere, also for arriving passengers)
- Economy passengers are pressed to use check-in machines so the staff has more time for premium passengers (who can choose between machine or check-in at the counter)
- sigificantly more first-class passengers (around 20 %) since the opening of the new First-Class Terminal in FRA
- Hon-Circle introduction helped to generate more revenue
- it has not been decided yet if MUC gets a First-Class Terminal.
- New boarding-procedure starting very shortly: either starting with the back-rows or boarding different zones. This will be strictly enforced by ground-staff (has not been before)
- more quick boarding gates (many more to be installed in MUC), soon also in FRA
- In September LH will start visual waitlist in FRA. At gate A13 the first letters of waitlisted and confirmed passengers will be displayed on a screen to avoid lanes and time consuming prcedures at the counter. These screens, that will also display other inormation like weather at the destination, reasons for delay etc will be installed all over FRA.

What's "fvw" standing for?

Well, I alway hated those paper slips...I'd rather get myself a "hard-copy at the quick-check-in!

Bring it on!

What's that good for? Does that mean you don't have to get a BP anymore? Checking in with SMS is just working fine for me ...

Well, hopefully LH is having good partners, since if you look at those dusty INSPASS machines at selected US stations it does not seem to have worked that well. At FRA, I almost always use the "manual" immigration line since its often quicker than the Iris-Scan. But, they started to improve it ... since a couple of weeks, the machines talk to you ;o)

Can't have enough of those.....

Just funny, if you remeber how many people in this forum believed LH was to undertake a great mistake in focusing on just a very small percentage of its customers .... still doesn't say if they earn money with it...

Wonder if that will ever work in Germany....

...will they install new software that recognizes boarding zones then?

It won't take long and some Datenschützer will scream that this is all unacceptable ;o) Well, travelling in the US I got used to it and I beleive it really is a nice info enhancement (especially when those calls from the agents at the desk can barely be understood due to surrounding noise and pronounciation)...

...my five cents
Cheers HON_Hunter

Are the machines now ask you to please take off your sun glasses? :D

That means good bye exit row and other extrawürste etc. for plain blue members! Chosing my favourite seat and having seats blocked next to me was the reason for me to use the counter. Hope they do not reduce C/cl checkin counters or also force silver people to the machines...
Thak you for all this information!

IMO it's absolutely normal to make a difference between status-customers and high-fare-paying pax on one side and people who just buy and use cheap tickets. The can't get the same service at all. Look how Ryanair or Easy Jet are treating their passengers: Cheap fare, low service.

You missed one big advantage of the machines. If you´re on the phone while passing trough immigration you do not need to terminate this phone call :cool:

Well, actually we are quoting a magazine..., imo hardly a reliable source.

On the other hand a 744 UD with 3 and now 3.6 pax loses money anyway, when you can get C class or premium economy in there....

Checked some loads on LH for the upcoming months and F was ridicously empty on basically all flights....

In addition it is always nice and naive, when airlines want el cheapo ( we fly once a year pax ) to use more advanced technologies, i.e. e check in maschines.

On my last flight from DUS to FRA the cabin cheered like crazy after touching down, those pax walk by those maschines or maybe stop thinking they are getting free coffee.

Nice idea, however pure theory, which will not work out.

There is only one thing you can do, simply decrease the number of employees at check in and let the people wait longer....and that is what airlines will do or have already done...

.... but then they have to educate the pax arriving earlier at the airport. Otherwise they get a problem taking off on time.

Something else:
As an italian leaving in Ancona in C-Class mostely, I don't feel any difference between status- or business-passengers and cheap flyers. All have queue up the same way, no lounge, no other benefits for SENs or HONs. It's a real basement-servive for everyone. I would be happy, finding check-in-machines there.
Cheers Luigi

and there we have the classic trade off the airlines face, can we risk that a plane misses its slot, cause we were too cheap hiring two more agents, which costs a few pennies in comparison to a plane on the ground and our ( financial ) responsibilities occuring because of that...

Agree a 100 % that airlines pampered their eco pax way too much in the last years and the LCC are showing right now what you can save by not doing so...

The baggage home delivery , as pointed out in the other thread , is also a prime example....

After the bottom line and as typical for LH in the last years, especially months....they were able to see the problem, but could not solve it so far and their strategies are questionnable...

The fly once a year eco pax checkin very early already IMHO. Just look at how crowded the gate get 40-45 min before departure. The regular FF is not even at the rental return at that point. I love to observe the checkin in MUC T2 when I have time to spare. Surprisingly, when coaxed and coached by the yellow floorwalking non-LH staff many fly-once-a-year pax use the machines and even are convinced to sign up for M&M.

It could be coming- VCE has a checkin machine- and it is actually working now after a year of "not in service"

No, there are in fact the reason why airliners depart too late, cause they are looking around, do duty free shopping, watch for some planes taking off etc.

Certainly they tend to check in earlier, but nervertheless cause a lot of delays...

Funny, that you have pointed out that a LH employee helps those guys using the check in maschines, which is the ultimate method of efficient handling, because LH has to pay the maschine and the employee... :o :D

Could not agree more suffering from the same set up you are describing leaving DUS on KLM a few dozen times each year.

While officially one counter is kind off reserved for KLM Elite card holders and now SKyTeam Elite Plus card holders, the monitors display it so badly that the plebs qeue at every counter, considering that a F 70 has close to 80 seats a considerable amount of people in front of premium pax who could enjoy a faster check in on their right ( BA or LH ) or on their left, where even Air Berlin manages to have a dedicated check in for their elite card holders...

So they should hold flight because a SEN has checked in 30 mins and went to the lounge instead of directly to the gate? I usually am the last to board because I don't want to stand in line to observe people stow their oversized handluggage and 90% of the time the flight needs to wait for some guy in lounge who left the place too late. The remaining 10% are the latecomers from connecting flights. The so called pleb are on the plane long before that.

As far as the checkin machine 'employees' go, most of them are temps from some service company and not full time LH ground staff. They hardly know more than use the touch screen on the machines. Very friendly and patient. :rolleyes: The moment they notice you know what to do they let go and catch/chase some other pax heading for the manual checkin desks. :)