by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 16, 2015 | Austrian, Cargo, Corporate, Featured, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience |
As part of their ongoing ‘7:1: Our Way Forward’ campaign, Lufthansa has announced plans to streamline its operation, eliminate redundancies among the group’ airlines and reorganize into 3 operating units.
Plans call for Lufthansa Group to organize itself into 3 operating divisions:
Lufthansa Group Mainline: This unit will be comprised of the airline’s mainline carriers including SWISS, Austrian and Lufthansa.
Eurowings Group: This unit will focus on all of LH Group’s low cost carrier (LCC) operations including JUMP, Germanwings and Eurowings.
Aviation Companies: This unit will include Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo and Skychefs and other subsidiaries.
The objective with this reorganization is to better align business units so that they can benefit from mutual operating efficiencies and to provide their respect customers with a simplified way in working with Lufthansa.
As it stands now, each of the mainline carriers has their own policies and procedures, fare structures, etc. With the revamped units, we’ll see a better consistency across the airlines which should help improve the passenger experience.
With the change in structure, we should see a much more efficient and responsive airline. For example, LH currently has over ‘700 decision making units’ and 47 Human Resources units. Overlap and excess such as this are the key focus of the initiative.
As far as the bottom line is concerned, Lufthansa expects a savings of over 500 million Euros annually once the transition is complete in 2019.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 15, 2015 | Airports, Featured, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience, Rimowa |
LUFTHANSA and Rimowa have recently introduced a new innovation that seeks to make it easier than ever to manage your checked luggage. Rather than having to deal with checking bags at the airport and needing check-in agents to affix luggage tags (which means standing in lines), you’ll be able to download your baggage tag from your smart phone and transmit it directly to a display on your suitcase.
The Rimowa Electronic Tag is a small display screen that is embedded near the handle of a suitcase and will display the same information as a conventional bag tag. Included in the display will be things such as priority designation for your luggage (if applicable), along with any customs requirements such as the ‘Green Strip’ that is printed on bag tags for luggage on flights leaving the EU.
The display screen will show all of the data that a conventional paper tag would contain. Courtesy: Rimowa
The really slick feature of the tag will be how information is transmitted to the luggage. When you check in to your Lufthansa flight via the website or the app, you’ll receive your mobile boarding passes which will also include your baggage data. Then, by using Bluetooth feature on your smartphone, you’ll be able to transmit the bag tag info to the suitcase which will then display the tag. The display itself is about the same size as a paper bag tag, so what you will see will be nearly identical to a paper tag, except it will be on a digital screen. According to Rimowa, the display is from E Ink Mobius and is weather, temperature, moisture and shock resistant.
Now before you start asking too many questions, I only have a few answers.
As far as security is concerned, your phone will be paired to the suitcase, so only your phone will be able to communicate with the bag. No one else’s phone will be able to connect to your electronic tag.
Battery Life? I don’t know. Of the several releases that I’ve read from LH and Rimowa, nothing suggested what the battery life would be. I would assume it would be a very long battery life and hopefully with easy recharging ability. If some one knows the answer, please leave a comment!
The bag will work when connecting to flights operated by non-Lufthansa airlines since the bar codes will be on display and scannable. However, the baggage tag must originate from Lufthansa. The only issue that could exist is how individual airports handle baggage drops for luggage that has already been ‘tagged’. Lufthansa in Germany already has baggage drop kiosks in airports so it should not be a problem for bags being checked in from Germany. Your experiences may vary based on the airports you transit.
The Rimowa Electronic Tag will only work with Lufthansa Group data. Though other airlines are working with similar technology, the Rimowa E-tag will only be compatible with Lufthansa issued data.
What I also don’t know is what the contingency plan would be if all of a sudden the battery died, or if the display was damaged to a point that it was not readable. I have my doubts that baggage handlers would have any way to pull the data on the tag.
For the next 3 months, LUFTHANSA has asked 50 of their most frequent travelers to test the baggage tag and provide feedback to Rimowa to fine tune the final product. If all goes to plan, we should see the Electronic Tags on RIMOWA luggage beginning in the first quarter of 2016.
Looks like my 747-8i Rimowa is at risk of an early retirement….
by Lufthansa Flyer | Aug 2, 2015 | Business Class, Featured, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience |
Lufthansa has announced that it will take their ‘Business Class Signature Service’ from pilot program to standard product across most of their long-haul footprint.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, passengers who travel in Business Class will now experience a restaurant-like experience and have a dedicated flight attendant that will look after them. A flight attendant will be responsible for a group of 8-12 passengers instead of floating around the entire cabin. Lufthansa hopes that this focus will provide passengers a more personalized experience during their flight.
Most passengers can expect a different experience with ‘Business Class Signature Service’
The new program will roll out in 3 segments.
Beginning on August 1, passengers flying aboard A380 aircraft to New York (JFK), Miami, Houston, Delhi, Johannesburg, Beijing, Seoul, San Francisco, Shanghai and Los Angeles will see the ‘Signature Service’.
On October 1, ‘Signature Service’ will begin on 747-400 and 747-8i aircraft.
On October 25, the A340 fleet will see the new program. It appears that the A330 is not part of the rollout, perhaps due to the fact that it is a smaller aircraft.
Lufthansa has conducted 130 trial flights and has trained over 4,500 flight attendants in advance of this rollout.
