by Lufthansa Flyer | Apr 11, 2012 | Airlines |
Lufthansa has officially announced their traditional summer Business Class Fare Sale for travel between the USA and Europe.
As usual the fares are attractively priced from the low $2200’s to the 2800’s for departures from the East Coast and from $2600’s to $3700’s from the West Coast to most European destinations.
Couple of tips for this fare promo:
1. Remember that the 747-8i will begin flying between Frankfurt (FRA) and Washington DC (IAD) sometime early this summer. If you want to be among the first to try their new business class seat (See pictures here), you may want to consider using Washingon DC as your US gateway. Though there are no guarantees that the new aircraft will be on every FRA-IAD-FRA flight when it starts to fly the route, it is still a bet worth making. Worst case is you still get to enjoy Lufthansa’s current business class seat. Still a very good option! 🙂
2. Lufthansa has recently launched a new “P” discount business fare which will mean less elite qualifying miles if you are a Miles&More member (you’ll will not earn any bonus elite miles). When you are searching for fares, try to find “Z” discount business fares since they’ll earn you more miles (Usually 1.5x to 2x miles traveled depending on Freq. Flyer program). “P” earning levels will vary among Star Alliance Frequent Flyer programs, so please check with your program to see what “P” earns for your account.
As is normal for any fare promotion there are terms and conditions that apply:
Purchase by: 05/31/2012
Departure period: 06/29/2012-09/03/2012
Return period: 07/01/2012-12/03/2012
Advance Purchase Period: 60 days
Fares are shown in U.S. dollars for travel on Air Canada, Austrian, Lufthansa, Swiss or United.
Fares are based on round-trip purchase (PUR).
Date changes before and after departure: permitted at $400 per change.
*Fares are based on round-trip purchase (PUR). Fares are subject to change without notice and are based on the most direct routing to each destination. Additional transfers will increase the fare. Fares include applicable fees, taxes and airport charges, including the September 11th Security Fee of a maximum of $10 per round-trip. Additional baggage fees may apply. Seats are limited and may not be available on all days/flights. Tickets are non-refundable, non-endorsable, non-transferable and other restrictions may apply.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Apr 10, 2012 | Airlines, Industry News |
According to an Airliner.de article today (In German), it appears that Austrian’s board will decide the fate of the carrier on April 19 during a scheduled board meeting.
As had been discussed in an earlier blog entry, Austrian (part of the Lufthansa Group) has been debating whether or not to move the airline to it’s Tyrolean subsidiary and apply Tyrolean’s business structure to Austrian.
Austrian has been operating at a loss for some time and a decision to save Austria’s national carrier needs to be made. Under the proposal submitted to the board, The Austrian logo and flight numbers would remain in tact, but the airline would change it’s name to Tyrolean Airways, to match the subsidiary name.
The primary driver for this move is to improve operational performance and reduce expenses. Tyrolean also has a far different structure in place in terms of employer/employee agreements. It is believed that adopting Austrian to the Tyrolean platform will help save Austrian and keep their planes flying. From the employee perspective, especially the pilots, it will require them to adapt to a compensation model that is not nearly as generous as Austrian’s current arrangement. This can lead to an exodus of pilots from Austrian, especially since they are eligible to receive special compensation based on triggering events such as a merger or “re-tooling” of the airline’s structure. Emirates has made it no secret that they would be interested in this outflow of Austrian pilots.
No doubt that there will be much more to this as the meeting date nears.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 18, 2012 | Airlines, Industry News |
In news from Vienna, Lufthansa has called on the Austrian government to waive the air ticket tax that Austria attaches to each ticket.
Lufthansa’s CEO Christop Franz has asked Austria to completely abolish the air ticket tax to help Austrian’s competitiveness but the request apparently fell on relatively deaf ears. Austria’s Ministry of Finance responded predictably by saying there’s no room in the budget for such a cut and went as far as to suggest that it is Lufthansa’s responsibility to manage it’s business model. I can see this becoming the proverbial political “hot potato” should Austrian continue to struggle to the point that Lufthansa one day decides to stop the subsidies. Right now it looks like the beginning of a “Game of Chicken” between carrier and government.
As part of the recently announced capital injection of 140 million Euros, Lufthansa expects to reorganize Austrian based on the existing arrangements that are in place for Austrian subsidiary Tyrolean unless Austrian’s worker council agrees to substantial austerity measures.
Reading through the comments of various German and Austrian media, it looks like Lufthansa expects upwards of 300 pilots to leave Austrian should the carrier need to reorganize. Apparently each pilot is entitled to severance that would range between 30 and 60 thousand Euro, costing Lufthansa up to 18 million Euro in pilot severance alone. Lufthansa also left open the possibility of layoffs at Austrian to help curb expenses.
Lufthansa has stood by Austrian and is committed to its success. It had said that the capital injection will allow for new long-haul aircraft, modernization of current cabins, new Airbus aircraft to help standardize their fleet and construction of Vienna’s new Skylink Terminal. Lufthansa has no desire to turn Austrian into a regional carrier, but I think that may not be a destiny that they can control. Without the support of labor and government, it becomes a difficult road for Lufthansa and Austrian to navigate.
source: Friedlnews.com
