Over the last few days, German media has been reporting a new concept being considered by Lufthansa to further enhance cost savings when it comes to flight operations out of the hubs in Europe.
Lufthansa’s Harry Hohmeister has unveiled plans that will create a potentially new ‘Flexible Routing’ fare that will allow Lufthansa to change already issued tickets for passengers willing to be more flexible in their trip routing.
The reasoning behind this concept will allow Lufthansa to self-direct passenger flow through hubs based on demand and pricing. For example, Frankfurt Airport charges Lufthansa up to 20% more for handling long haul LH flights and passengers than Munich, Zurich, or Vienna charge. Having passengers reroute through lower cost hubs obviously would net a positive impact on LH’s bottom line. In their planning, LH would be able to determine in advance if other hubs and flights have capacity to handle last minute changes. If not, the flex fare passenger would fly their original ticket.
An example could look like:
A passenger books a flight from Chicago to Berlin. The original booking would have the passenger transit through Frankfurt enroute to Berlin. Under a flex routing fare, Lufthansa could re-ticket the passenger a few days before the flight to have them fly Chicago – Munich – Berlin, Chicago – Vienna – Berlin, or Chicago – Zurich – Berlin and thus avoid the extra costs associated with routing a passenger through the more pricey Frankfurt.
Passengers flying under a flex routing fare would be informed days or weeks ahead of their trip, letting them know if their original routing has changed.
Please understand that only a ‘flex routing’ fare class would subject a passenger to a last minute rerouting. Passengers flying on traditional fare classes would not be subject to these kind of changes.
Lufthansa has already sent a ‘shot across the bow’ to Frankfurt by announcing a transfer of 5 A380 aircraft to Munich, thus already reducing capacity at Frankfurt and potentially preparing for the roll out of the new flex-routing fares and increasing capacity in Munich.
In his comments, Hohmeister indicated that passengers agreeing to a flex routing fare would be well rewarded for their willingness to be flexible.
Plans are in place to unveil the new program for Lufthansa and Austrian operated flights at the beginning of 2018.
Why not offer the more attractive fares at the time of booking? I for one would positively choose not to route through Frankfurt!
That’s exactly what will happen. There will be a new fare class dedicated to this flex concept. So you’ll know it’s a flex fare and pay for a flex fare at time of booking. There will not be a repricing or reticketing based on changes that happen to the routing later, after the ticket is issued. You just don’t know if you’ll see FRA, MUC, ZRH, or VIE as a transit point.
Sounds ok until you consider loss of your pre-allocated seats and the changes to arrival and departure times by changing connection….
it won’t be a perfect system, but as long as LH makes it worth the hassle, I think it could be successful. It would be nice if it awarded more miles than typical eco fares, or gave something like lounge access, extra bag, something as an incentive.
Well rewarded? Yeah, right. If the spin is already on cost savings (which amount to maybe 10 EUR tops in airport charges per passenger) rather then network optimization then I highly doubt that.
Probably going to be the same way as OPC and HBO fares, all about “giving passengers a choice” == death by a thousand unbundling cuts.
Unique concept. Northwest used to offer extra miles for make a connection vs. non-stop flights years ago.