by Lufthansa Flyer | Nov 10, 2016 | Featured, Lufthansa, On Board Experience, Passenger Experience |
LUFTHANSA has announced that passengers will be able to purchase insurance to protect their electronic devices against damage and theft during an entire trip. The ability to purchase the coverage will be included during the booking process and can be added to an itinerary up until the day of departure.
The insurance covers most electronic devices such as tablets, phones, notebooks, etc. The protection provides coverage against damage due to spills, drops, glass breakage, and damage due to the ‘elements’. It also covers damage caused by overheating or fire. The coverage is pro-rated based on the age of the item. Passengers do not have to register their devices in order to receive coverage.
The cost of the insurance is €39.99 for individual travelers and €49.99 for a family ‘plan’. The coverage protects the traveler for the first 42 days of a trip. However the coverage resets for every trip for one year (from the date of original purchase of insurance). For example, if I take a 30-day trip starting today and buy the coverage, I’ll obviously be covered. When I take another trip in 3 months, the policy will still be in force, and it will start another 42 day period. There is no limit on the amount of trips that are covered within the policy year.
The coverage is pro-rated based on the age of the insured device. A device that is less than one year old is insured for full replacement (maximum of €3000). For devices between 1 and 2 years old, coverage will be capped at 80% of value, and for devices between 3 and 5 years old, coverage is capped at 60%. There is no coverage for devices that are older than 5 years.
I wish this coverage had been available 3 years ago when turbulence on a flight between Munich and Hong Kong decided to knock over a bottle of water and fried my MacBook Pro!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 27, 2016 | Featured, Lounges, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience |
Lufthansa has rolled out a new pilot program that will test the the ability of using smartphones and their bluetooth technology as a ‘key’ to gain entry into LH Lounges.
The trial began on October 27 specifically at the BUSINESS CLASS LOUNGE located near gate A26 in Frankfurt. Passengers who have downloaded the Easy Access app from their respective App Stores will now have the ability to simply tap their phone to a tablet next to the Lounge Entrance and have the doors automatically open.
No longer will passengers have to stay in line outside the lounge while passengers fumble to find their boarding passes or frequent flyer cards. Nor will they have to wait in that line while the Lounge Attendant explains time and time again to passengers in the line as to why their economy class ticket on Aeroflot doesn’t give them the ability to enter the Lounge.
Remember, the trial ONLY COVERS the Business Class Lounge near Gate A26 in Frankfurt. Nowhere else at this point. If the trials go well, I suspect this will be expanded to cover other lounges in the network.
In order for the process to work, you’ll have to install both the Lufthansa app as well as the Easy Access app. The 2 will coordinate their data and using the bluetooth function on your phone, allow you to communicate with the Tablet at the ‘A26 Lounge’. You can find both Apps in your App Store by searching for Lufthansa and Easy Access.
I’m not sure why they are going to all the trouble of a separate app and requiring bluetooth technology in order for everything to work. I would think it would have been a lot easier to use an existing Electronic Boarding Pass that contains the ‘QR Bar Code Square’ that is scanned when boarding a flight. It seems that it would be easier to have that kind of a scanner at Lounge Door and allow passengers simply to use their Electronic Boarding Pass as the key to the lounge. After all, it’s what the lounge attendants are currently using when checking in guests. But as they say in my neighbor, it’s not my circus and it’s not my monkey so I don’t have any insights to the decisions!
At the end of the day, it’s still a far better way to bypass the sometimes long lines when trying to get into a Lounge.
To learn more about this new initiative, please visit www.LH.com/easyaccess.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 16, 2016 | A330, A340, Featured, On Board Experience, Passenger Experience, Swiss |
SWISS has announced that over the next 2 years, it will roll out upgrades and enhancements to the long haul fleet, focusing on their A330 and A340 aircraft.
WiFi!
Beginning in December, SWISS will begin to retrofit their 14 Airbus A330 aircraft with Wifi connectivity. Obviously this will not happen overnight, but SWISS anticipates that all of their A330s will have the retrofit complete by the end of 2017. Math suggests that approximately one aircraft per month will be taken out of circulation for a few days to complete the work. WiFi is currently available only on SWISS 777 aircraft.
The A340….
SWISS has also stated that their A340s will receive the same First Class cabin as the Airbus A330. The big advantage of the newer F product is the increased size of the television screen and an enhanced IFE system. The fact that the seats will be brand new will also go a long way to refresh the cabins and give them a brand new look and feel. WiFi is also planned during this upgrade. SWISS expects that it will take through 2018 to complete this retrofit on their 10 A340 aircraft.
Related: First Class Aboard SWISS A330
