Rumour as great story doing the rounds...

LH CEO Juergen Weber on a F ticket SIN-CDG was *** downgraded *** by SQ to *Y*. The crew was supposedly so embarassed they sent him back a bottle of wine. Upon landing, Weber gave the wine to the LH Country Manager instructing them to give it to their SQ counterpartt to be shipped back to _his_ counterpart at SQ. He was not amused.

Proof that SQ gives nobody, but _nobody_ comp premium class travel.

(yes, their own employee class == Y)

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UA 1K MEL
Wannabe UA MELKA !

Come on...F to Y???

Dorian

I find this very, very hard to believe. I cant see how LH's CEO would travel on anything but a paid F ticket, and its sort of obvious his assistants get his air-travel reservations confirmed. Why on earth would SQ downgrade him...?????

One thing is a regular LH employee, since when is the head of the executive office treated as a regular employee...???


[This message has been edited by Gaucho100K (edited 02-08-2001).]

Also, even if he was faced with a downgrade to Y, does Mr. Weber have to travel on Star Alliance.... are there no other flights between Singapore and Paris? (lets not forget the cnx possibilities)

airline staff have 'sort of interline' agreement, that travel on network of each other are FREE. their tickets are not revenue tickets. eg he may hold a confirme F or confirmed Y upgradable to F if seats availabel ticket, depending on the relationship between the airlines. i guess mr weber miscalculated on SQ ;-)

I love it. Wonder if he got the boot when trying to get in their lounge too. Maybe that will help open up things for us regular customers.

My experience has been the exact reverse. That is, senior executives (not me, of course) at my Company, flying out of SIN on SQ get bumped up, from Y to C or C to F, almost always.

airline staff staff generally dont get lounge service (but many airline do grant the lounge access)...i think the the debate here is should the CEO be treated differently.

i bet for many airlines the CEO has a higher priority/previlege than others. if SQ's CEO himself gets the similar treatment, would it change our view? (i am not saying that it is the truth though. just hypothetically)

[This message has been edited by pegasus8228 (edited 02-08-2001).]

The Weber story comes from a very reliable source. Also, another source said that when Branson went to SQ to talk about them buying into VS, they gave him a C tix only, but aparently got subloaded into F.

Re business types and execs - it would seem as though SQ is just being smart - they know that high revenue people like this, and likely those who could then have sway over corporate travel budgets/departments/policy are good people to keep "on side" (these are the sorts of people that get invited to be "Ansett Pass" or Qantas "Chairman's Club"(or whatever it is) - which is a special VIP status *above* FF elite levels that the airline invites *you* to and you cannot obtain by any amount of flying or revenue. I am sure all airlines have a similar level and/or designation for top, top people... But you're talking a very small number of people, and prob from like Fortune 500 companies and whatnot.

Not that I have any inside info on this - just my thoughts.

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UA 1K MEL
Wannabe UA MELKA !

There is only one instance in which this could be true, and that is if Jurgen Weber turned up at the airport w/out confirmed res and wanted to travel F class, and there was no free seats in F or J class. (Not entirely unusual I'm sure). It would then not really matter who he is, because they will not bump a paying F pax just for the LH CEO (and why doesn't he take LH anyway?)

If that was not the case, I would find it very hard to believe the story. The top 10-15 execs of each Star Alliance airline carry a card called "STARID" which entitles them ( and their spouse if travelling together) to the highest class available on any Star flight at any time (for free!).

I'd say, it's a bit hard to believe too.

I presume he flew SQ and not LH because he was flying to Paris, not Frankfurt.. *shrug*

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UA 1K MEL
Wannabe UA MELKA !

Knowing how SQ treats their high level fliers, each day, every day, nothing would surprise me. The guy may have made a last minute schedule change, and as posted above if there were 14 paid, full fare F seats already spoken for, the Pope is not going to get SQ to dislodge one of those 14.

Seems odd that a C/J could not be found tho, but hey, this IS SQ. Jurgen should cop it on the chin, as ANY airline that can SELL 14 First seats is a role model to emulate.

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~ Glen ~