How Does Lufthansa Fill So Many First Class Seats?
Aug 16, 2018, 1:41 am
#1
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How Does Lufthansa Fill So Many First Class Seats?
Most of their longhaul fleet has 8-12 seats in First, including A330, A340-600, A380, and 747-8 aircraft. That’s hundreds of seats per day. Are there really enough wealthy Germans (or Europeans willing to transit in Frankfurt/Munich) to support this capacity?
Aug 16, 2018, 2:00 am
#2
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Number of aircraft with F-seats were reduced dramatically in the last years, as
- A330 and A340-300 lost F,
- Number of A340-600 was reduced,
- A350 have not got F.
Aug 16, 2018, 2:11 am
#4
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Also keep in mind that there are not many airlines with F. Their product is pretty good. Especially across the atlantic your choices are limited. LX, AF and SQ (one flight) are also good, BA F is more like business class. AA is subpar. LH does not upgrade freely and the cabin oftehn is sold out.
Aug 16, 2018, 7:14 am
#9
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On TATL routes, UA has or is eliminating its F product and replacing it with a single J cabin (Polaris). As a JV product, those who would have booked UA F are pushed to LH. In a JV revenue-sharing model, it does not matter to LH or UA, but the service is operated by UA.
Aug 16, 2018, 8:31 am
#10
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Aug 16, 2018, 10:01 am
#11
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Yes, especially coming from South Asia. Many of my friends from that part of the world prefer transiting in Europe over the ME3 as they have less concern of negative treatment, and because it breaks up the journey more equally.
Aug 16, 2018, 10:06 am
#12
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The marginal cost of Lufthansa F over J is relatively low. For example, on some dates in October, a SFO-FRA round trip is ~$7600 if F and ~$5900 in J.
My company allows us to purchase discount F as long as it is cheaper than full J. There are a non-negligible number of companies with similar policies, so Lufthansa's F cabins
My company allows us to purchase discount F as long as it is cheaper than full J. There are a non-negligible number of companies with similar policies, so Lufthansa's F cabins
Aug 16, 2018, 1:15 pm
#14
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And it has already been pointed out that LH planes feature 8 First Class seats -- if they are equipped with First Class seats in the first place.
HTB.
Aug 16, 2018, 2:19 pm
#15
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They have less than BA. BA has 14 seats in First on all B747, all A380, all B777 (except some at LGW), and 8 seats on all the B787-9. They also have 86J seats on half of the 747 with 52J on the others. They have a far more premium configuration than LH generally speaking. Also for both LH and BA some of them might be transferring from parts of Asia/Middle East to America or vice versa and not European at all.