Bear4Asian

Game of Thrones!

mbr

So lousy. Only idiots will pay CHF 200 for a seat where your legs are starred in a small box. But LX really seems to be desperate to get the last and final dollar out of its customers not keeping any perk for their elite members.

Calling to the hotline will not help much. Especially the guys at Core Customer line know exactly how embarassing all this is. They understand the complaints but cannot do much. I will write a personal letter (yes, paper coming along his way) to Mr Binkert, who signed the "nice E-Mail" with the information about the, once again, service downgrade for the elites.

By the way: How much is the pay-back for any single flyer who has to take a seat from the pairs at the window???

San Gottardo

Agreed. Here is another silly situation. Flying with wife in paid J, but on separate bookings. Me HON, she SEN. Availability showed several seats in A class available, so I asked for upgrade for her and me. Mine clears, hers is on waitlist, despite A being available and them linking our bookings and explaining to the capacity control team that we are traveling together. But no, still on waitlist, despite A being available.

But here it comes, showing the true "let's squeeze some CHF out of people wherever we can" on the website with her booking they give her the possibility to bid for an upgrade. Adding insult to injury

Kacee

I wouldn't pay what they're asking for a throne. I suspect they will stay mostly reserved for SEN/HON.

Do we have any intel on whether mere mortals will be able to select thrones for free at check-in?

djjaguar64

Whats the big deal, after you board if the seat is empty just swap seats! Now unless they place thorns on the throne seat then you're out of luck!

Wtravel

Sorry for being slightly off topic, but related to the above: space control being able to use some common sense with HONs went out the window some years ago, in my experience they just flatly always say no and apply the rules by the book. Just one of many examples: I had to rebook a European segment of a long-haul ticket on the day of the flight. Was in Z, with the flight wide open (contrary to the flight I was booked on originally, which was full; so they even got a seat there by me switching) in both classes but only bookable in J, C and D in business. Given that it was a long-haul, I would have had to retrospectively pay the fare diff on the entire outbound, so had them ask space if they would release Z. They said NO (with yield management probably assuming half of economy would purchase a comfort package upsell), and a few minutes later the flight went from Z0 to Z9... (the actual flight departed with the C cabin less than 1/3 occupied)

stephem

What a total own goal for Swiss here. They piss of their elites who are used to getting what i would call the only semi acceptable biz seats on this configuration and they put a fat exclamation point on my belief that the pairs of two at the window have no business being rolled out by a carrier like Swiss as a business product in this day and age. No worries about me buying one of these seats out from under an elite, even the thrones are one of my least favorite long haul products out there.

televisor

lolwut

Swiss crack me up again.

I've got 7A on an upcoming UA award booking (I certainly wouldn't pay cash for LX J), I guess I'll have to find a better carrier if I get booted out of there (FWIW UA J right now is pretty good, much better than LH J IMHO, as long as you can get an aicraft with the CO seating). If I look at seat reservations, all the other thrones are showing "Preferred Seat: Hon and Sen", so it certainly seems to apply to all bookings - but my seat hasn't been changed yet.

mbr

I think if you already have a booked seat they will not remove it. But knowing LX I would not swear on it.

Nic33

My booked throne seat is still shown as booked to me.


While I can understand the rational for paying for a few inches more of leg space in Y (especially long haul), I would not pay a dime more to have a throne in C.


This trend is maybe because there is more competition in C which gets more affordable and less profitable for airlines.

GVA

The prices LX gets away with in business ex-Switzerland are unrivalled. They literally have the best and highest yield in Europe.

LX has an average seat product, the fact that they charge for the throne seats when many of their competitors have all seats with direct aisle access is somewhat unbelievable.

What LX does have is a reliable product and crew, but that doesn't make an average seat any better...

airoli

Combined with the highest operating cost base, in that same country.

It's sad to say, but as long as LX manages to get 1 person to spend extra $ on buying a "throne" seat, they have grown their revenue base and the exercise will have been a success.

Long-term loyalty has long since given way to immediate cash concerns, and not just on LX. Almost all benefits that used to be "exclusive" to best customers have been monetized by now. The "Bid Upgrades" are the best example of that.

Viennafly

I booked my first flights since the new throne reservation fees. Here two examples, which seats are affected and what the charges are:

1. ZRH-BKK (B777): all single seats are declared private seats (4/7/9/11/14/16 A and 5/8/10/12/15/17K) and cost 199 CHF to advance reserve for non-SEN/HONs

2. GVA-JFK (A333): only the single seats on the left side are declared private seats (4/6/8/10/12 A), single seats on the right side (5/7/9/11/14 K) are reserved for SEN/HONs. Despite the much shorter flight and being on the older seats on the A333, LX is charging 149 CHF to advance reserve these seats!

Given these high prizes, as an LX SEN, I am not too concerned about the competition for throne seats with non-elite LX travellers.

Wtravel

Anyone know what happens if at the time of booking all seats other than throne seats have already been pre-allocated? Can you then select one of the throne seats for free, or bad luck and see what is left at check in? (This can happen even for elites, e.g., when travelling with family: until now they would release elite seats for co-traveling non-elite family members, but I assume since the charge has been introduced they would no longer do that for free)

JJBe

Hmm... was bumped out of the throne seats on an upcoming flight to HKG...

Message is clear from LX - enough options tough anywhere they fly

JJBe