This may be perhaps the most rare of all the Lufthansa Ducks since it will only be available for 2 months as the First Class Terminal undergoes a mild renovation through November.
If your travels will involve Lufthansa First Class flights in or out of Frankfurt, be sure to go the First Class Terminal and claim the newest addition to the First Class Duck family.
At the risk of becoming the ‘Purveyor of Misinformation’, I wanted to provide the latest update from United as far as electronic processing of upgrades on Lufthansa is concerned.
A couple of weeks ago I stated that based upon my conversations with United’s Mileage Plus and Star Alliance Award teams, United and Lufthansa were moving to an electronic process for applying Global Premier Upgrades to qualifying Lufthansa flights. The information that they confirmed for me was that the launch date was set to be September 3 for the new process that allowed passengers to request the upgrade electronically (Click here for more details on how the process will ultimately work).
Well, September 3 has come and gone and we still do not have the electronic process in place. I had called UA a few times in that time span as I have been helping readers with their LH reservations/upgrades. Each time that I asked, the reply was that no new date has been announced.
Today, I called UA Mileage Plus to specifically ask about the program and Premier 1K line agent was nice enough to arrange a conversation with a Service Director who could provide more answers.
After a pleasant conversation that did not include any sugar coating, here is the latest information that has been provided by those directly dealing with the issue (loosely paraphrased from the United Service Director’s comments):
The problem apparently involves compatibility between United’s and Lufthansa’s ticketing systems. The original plan called for the airlines to use the existing upgrade platform designed for those upgrading with their United miles for travel on other Star Alliance partners. This was thought to be the path of least resistance and efficient since it’s already in place. However, the technology incompatibility comes with the software/server/platform not being able to recognize the GPU (Global Premier Upgrades) on credit to a given Mileage Plus account. The thought was that the platform could debit the GPU in the same manner as it would debit miles. This is the major bottleneck in the process as it stands now since they can’t seem to figure out how to using existing tools for the new process.
All of the Mileage Plus customer service reps have already received training and are ready to go. Unfortunately, all of us are just waiting on the IT departments to sort out their issues and flip the switch on this fantastic enhancement for LH passengers who utilize Mileage Plus.
As more info becomes available, I’ll pass it along. At this point there is no current target date for the process to be available.
Lufthansa today shared details of their most recent aircraft order that is geared to improve SWISS’ and Eurowings’ fleet. In all, Lufthansa placed an order for 25 Airbus A320 aircraft, comprised of 15 NEOs and 10 CEOs.
For those of you unfamiliar with the A320NEO, it is Airbus’ latest version of the A320 ‘enhanced’ series of aircraft. This aircraft has been under development since 2010 and features substantial improvements over previous A320 models. Specifically, the ‘NEO’ comes with sweeping ‘Sharklets’ instead of traditional wingtips as well as a new air purification system and cabin interior designed for greater luggage capacity.
Wondering what the NEO stands for? It is short hand for ‘New Engine Option‘ which is basically the descriptor being used by airbus to advertise the fact that the new engines will 15% more fuel efficient and reduce operating expenses by 8%. Operators will have the choice between the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G or CFM International LEAP-1A engine to power their NEOs. This new-found efficiency will increase range by 500 miles and allow for 20 more passengers to be stowed on board. Test flights of the NEO should be starting shortly.
The Lufthansa Group has ordered 15 of these A320s that will enter service with SWISS beginning in 2019.
Airbus’ newest A320 is set to enter service in late 2015
The other half of the order involves the purchase of 10 A320CEO aircraft that will be used to replace the Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft currently in use by Eurowings. The CEO, or Current Engine Option, version of the A320 is currently being delivered to airlines. Some of the newer CEO aircraft feature large sharklets instead of traditional wing tips to help improve stability and fuel economy. The CEO version is powered by the CFM International CFM56 engine. Eurowings will take delivery of these aircraft in 2016 and 2017.
At list prices, this order comes at a cost of 2.5 billion Euro and is in addition to the 240 aircraft that the Lufthansa Group currently has on order at a cost of 30 billion Euro that will be delivered by 2025.
