by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 2, 2016 | Corporate, Featured, Frankfurt, Industry News, Lufthansa |
Apparently Venezuela is not the only country who doesn’t understand how to play well with others……
According to reliable sources within Lufthansa, it appears that Nigeria is another country where LH is having trouble repatriating ticket revenue due to unreasonable currency regulations. In Nigeria’s, $20 million is held captive there and Lufthansa has no way to bring the revenue out of Nigeria.
It may not be as dramatic as the $100+ million held by Venezuela, but it’s certainly a serious amount. So much so, that according to LH, if the number approaches $30 million over the coming months, LH will be forced to suspend operations to their 3 destinations in Nigeria. Currently LH services Lagos, Abuja (as technical stop), and Port Harcourt daily from Frankfurt.
Based on the information that I’ve read, it looks as though the airline industry as a whole has nearly $600 million stuck in Nigeria with no way to bring the money home to their balance sheets.
Related: Lufthansa Cancels Venezuela Service
Lufthansa owed over $100mm by Venezuela
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 25, 2016 | Featured, Industry News, Lufthansa, Miles & More |
Miles & More has begun to unveil what some of the changes will be to the program beginning later this year. So far, it’s nothing to panic about and actually may be acceptable to most.
In the first phase, M&M is focusing on Intra-Europe award travel. Specifically, it appears that ticket surcharges will decrease substantially and the amount of miles required to redeem a ticket will go up modestly.
Beginning with bookings made on September 15, 2016 or later, ‘Intra-Europe’ redemption surcharges will decrease from €40 to only €5 for Economy Class and for Business Class the fee will go down from €43 to €20. This will apply to flights operated by LH Group Airlines. As far as miles are concerned, Economy and Business Class ticket redemptions will increase by 5000 miles (roundtrip booking).
In reality this is a fairly ‘passenger friendly’ deal. I’m sure most of us would be willing to spend 5k more miles instead of €20 to €35 more in fees. For you dissenters, keep in mind it could have been much worse!
Expect changes to be announced for Intercontinental travel in the near future.
H/T: VFT’s Miles & More Forum
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 24, 2016 | Featured, Industry News, Lufthansa, Strike, Vereinigung Cockpit |
Late last week, Lufthansa and Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) ‘quietly’ agreed to work towards an agreement that would finally put an end to strikes by Lufthansa pilots.
Over the last few months you’ve noticed relative peace between LH and VC as both sides have been negotiating on several levels to reach an agreement that would protect pilot benefits as well as the Airline’s interest. To that end, there have been several separate groups negotiation a variety of issues. Going forward, both sides agreed to consolidate their efforts into one major push and have committed to having issues resolved and new agreements in place by the end of July.
What does this mean?
As long as both sides agree to work together and not pull any surprises, I suspect that we will have little to no risk of service disruptions due to striking pilots this summer. Odds for a deal have improved dramatically once the union provided concessions to the compensation structure for pilots, while LH committed to expanded career opportunities for pilots.
The only time strikes would be called would be when the union had a temper tantrum and wanted to send a message to the airline and its passengers. It appears that they are well past this, and are finally realizing that the best outcome is to get a deal done.
Hopefully the peace lasts……
