Flying Lawyer

We have plenty of these, too, however surprisingly LH shows no flexibility when it comes to domestic routes. On domestic routes I get 99 Euro Flex tickets (all in) on all Air Berlin routes (however, no miles) and this is really a big challenge for LH.

For EU routes, it was pretty funny how flexible Lufti can be. I had a sales rep sitting in my office and I told the poor girl that I changed all my London flights to BA (better planes, better service, better lounges and much better fares on this particular route). There was even no need to talk about a certain number of tickets, she was instantly happy to offer a special D Class deal on LH.

Felixberlin

Can you tell me anything about the volume of tickets you are buying?

We are a company with about 40 consultants, with probably 15 of them traveling intra-German and 10 intra-European every week, but usually end up paying 1200 to 1700 EUR for the flexible tickets.

Do you think it might be worth contacting Lufthansa or are we "under their radar"?

Thanks for any input,

Felix

Flying Lawyer

I do not believe that you have a chance for domestic tickets. We bought around 13.000 domestic tickets in 2007, not even a chance even to discuss about.

It was/is much easier for intra Europe flights. We have certain "racetracks" and get very good deals for these (FRA-NYC, FRA-LHR, FRA-PAR), with certainly 500 flights on each route a year. However, once you ask they are very free to give you special deals on other routes too. I experienced that for DUS-LON and for FRA-HKG. For HKG I just needed two tickets, asked and got what I wanted, a nice D class deal. I believe, as soon as you hit a certain volume they provide you more or less with whatever you ask for - as long as it is not domestic.

oliver2002

Hmm... our company is a MDax listed multi billion EUR corp with a own travel office linked/JVed to HRG and access to AmadeusNegofares, so its easy to get on LH's radar.

In your case I do hope you have signed up for PPB. Also it is wise to contract one corporate TA like HRG or BCD to do all your ticketing and FareNegotiations if you want to piggyback on the negotiated fares they get by sheer volume.

Another option would be to use a LH city centre or airport ticket team to do your ticketing. They also sell other airlines tix, so you are not bound to *A or LH.

Sure enough, a few months down the road you will be on your local LH sales office radar

Rambuster

Last year I had two ticket for an earlier and a later flight. About 24 hours before the flight I got a call from LH asking me which one I wanted as they were going to cancel one of them !

I am not sure what would have happened if I had refused ? IDB ? Anyway I made a choice as I could not risk being denied boarding (I needed to get to the Wolrd Cup Final in Berlin..)

Flying Lawyer

Interesting issue. My advise: Call your lawyer. They certainly can to that with unticketed reservations, but certainly not with a ticketed reservation. You have bought the ticket, paid for it and it is your choice what to do with the ticket.

Kiwi Flyer

That's why return flight is booked under more flexible booking class than the outbound flight.

tomekp

... and how many of them you have actually flown and how many were just bought for "flexibility" purposes and taxes were refunded

Happy New Year !!!

SJPaul

So I understand from this thread that standby (at least as we in the States know it) is not allowed on LH. However, if you have a flexible ticket, you can make changes without penalty. Therefore, you can in effect, stand by for an earlier flight.

My question is; when is it too late to change your ticket to fly on an earlier flight?

My situation is this: I intent to book a D fare ex-USA transiting through Frankfurt. There are two connecting flights leaving FRA, one 2.5 hours after my arrival and one 40 minutes after my arrival. Although a 40 minute connection in FRA is (IMO) do-able, it is illegal and I cannot book it. If I book the 2.5 hour connection and we arrive on time, can I walk up to the gate of the earlier flight as it is boarding and say "I wish to fly on this flight" (assuming there is space)? I will have only hand luggage.

Thanks for the help.

oliver2002

If there is space they will take you on a D fare.

SJPaul

Up until they close the door? Something like 10 minutes before departure?

And thanks for the quick response ^

oliver2002

Checkin usually closes 25min before departure and the door closes something like 10 before. If they have all pax, they might close earlier as slots in FRA are better taken when you can. Look at the flightstats for both this and you your incoming flight to check how it has been performing the last two months (use the history function)

muc_flyer

My experience: it never works if you ask at checkin / at Ticket desk. But it works if you kindly ask at the gate, have a status, be patient and mostly last minute they let you on. But they can always claim that your ticket does not allow it, so the nicer you are and the better the day of the gate folks has been, the higher your chances are.

sentom

thats absolutely my experience as well. i usually walk up to the gate, tell them that i'm earlier than expected and ask if there is anyway to put me on the earlier flight. most of the time this works. some sent me back to the transfer/ticket desk, but even those worked out mostly, as they just called the gate and told them that if they have space they should take me...

supermasterphil

Thanks for the advice. I will try the next time I am in that kind of situation ^