Tag Archives for lufthansa.
Lufthansa – Germany’s national airline, the government is its largest shareholder – is continuing to do damage control after an incident where Jews were banned from travel on the carrier. Their first two statements on the issue were so bad they’re now trying to fix things putting their CEO into play.
The airline’s Airbus A350s, slated to arrive in late 2023, will offer a one row first class cabin that’s been described as suites.
However what those first class suites would be like has been unknown. From an internal Lufthansa event we know that these first class suites will be ‘fully-enclosed’ meaning doors.
Lufthansa “regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight” but nowhere in their statement do they say the word “Jews.” Instead they simply refer to “a large group” though they at least now acknowledge that this ‘group’ that shall not be named was banned whether or not any individual had acted improperly.
They apologize for “the offense caused and personal impact” while stating their ‘core values’ of ‘diversity and equal opportunity.’ They’re unwilling to simply say anti-semitism is unacceptable at Lufthansa. They felt the need to couch it in terms of their opposition to racism and to discrimination “of any type” though no other type was at issue here.
A large group of Jewish passengers were kept from traveling on a Lufthansa connecting flight to Budapest on Wednesday after some Jewish passengers – and some non-Jews – had mask compliance issues on board Lufthansa’s flight 401 from New York JFK to Frankfurt.
A Lufthansa representative explains that Jews caused the problems, so the airline approached this as collective guilt.
Lufthansa sees first class as crucial to their brand positioning, but they quite correctly don’t see a market for it on all of their flights. They’ve offered the cabin on more routes than where it made sense because they didn’t want multiple configurations of the same plane, and have wanted the flexibility to deploy an aircraft across different routes.
I wrote three years ago that I expected them to continue offering first class, just with fewer seats, and “could imagine offering just one row of first” on new Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s. The A350 is getting first class, will debut next year, and is expected to be just one row.
An inconsistent product may be dictated by market conditions with a connecting product – but airlines still need to take efforts to treat the customer seamlessly. The last thing you want to do is nickel and dime your most premium customers, simply because they connect onto a flight that operates with different service standards.
For several years Lufthansa has limited first class award availability to partner frequently flyer programs. Space has only been open within 14 days of travel. If you wanted to redeem miles for first class awards farther out, you’ve had to use Lufthansa’s own Miles & More miles (with the exception of a handful of brief glitches).
The Lufthansa business class lounge at Washington Dulles is now part of Priority Pass. That’s a great new option in the airport.
There are already other lounges on the B concourse that are part of the program, like the Turkish Airlines lounge, but in normal times that gets so crowded they cut off Priority Pass access. Another lounge should help equalize the traffic and make it possible to get into your preferred location.
Lufthansa will set up a Covid-19 vaccination site inside Moscow Domodedovo airport so that people can fly in, get the Sputnik V vaccine without clearing immigration or customs, and then fly back.
Ultimately we need more jabs in arms, the quicker the better, through whatever means necessary. Many governments have been more focused on who gets shots out of a limited supply than making sure people get shots, and increasing supply. That prolongs the pandemic and costs lives.
Germany approved new rules to require medical grade masks on public transportation. Lufthansa has followed suit, requiring masks but banning cloth masks from meeting that requirement effective February 1. France and Austria may add similar rules.
If you travel, you find yourself in airports and on jet bridges, if you’re in indoor congregant settings with groups of other people then you want to use an N95 mask.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
