by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 11, 2012 | Uncategorized |
Austrian Airlines has received a vote of confidence from Lufthansa to help with updating a portion of its fleet, but not without preconditions.
Lufthansa, 100% stakeholder in Austrian, has indicated its willingness to help Austria’s national carrier as it struggles through challenges in it’s business. Austrian has plans to potentially replace a portion of it’s 737 fleet with new Airbus A319’s and A320’s but can not finance the transaction without outside assistance. Austrian has indicated that Lufthansa would be willing to help, so long as it can demonstrate its ability to improve its operating costs structure.
Jaan Albrecht, the new head of the airline since November 1, 2011 (previously the CEO of Star Alliance Services) indicated that Austrian’s objective is to reduce costs by Euro 200 million in 2012. This should translate into profitability for the year. They hope accomplish this by staff cuts and route reductions.
Austrian no doubt faces substantial headwinds in the environment they operate within. With the ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) adding to pricing pressure on tickets and with continued stress that Europe is under with its economic challenges while at the same time battling increasing fuel prices, this will be no easy task for the Airline.
What IS encouraging here is Lufthansa’s commitment. Recently, Lufthansa had decided to close it’s Italian subsidiary and has reached an agreement to sell it’s British Midland (BMI) unit to IAG, parent company of British Airways and Iberia. By extending this vote of confidence to Austrian, its a clear sign that Lufthansa wants the struggling carrier to succeed and is willing to help, but only if Austrian can demonstrate it has earned the right to have this support.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 17, 2018 | 747-8i, Featured, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience |
Lufthansa has announced that it will unveil an updated livery sometime during the second week of February. But before you get too excited or worried about what the new look might be, it will not be a radical departure from what is already in place. They key word is enhancement, not reinvention.
Some blogs and websites were panic-stricken at the thought of the new look, with some sites going as far as importing color schemes and drawings straight from fantasy land. I’m here to dispel that notion and the fake news and help bring some clarity to what will most likely be the final product.
Prevailing information suggests that ‘yellow’ will no longer have a major place in the Lufthansa color palette. Expect the new colors to be focused on the existing Blue, White, and add some Silver. For the cabin color schemes, expect much of the same, including the blues and browns (Business and Prem Eco cabin accents) currently found on most aircraft. What will be a new change will be the addition of lighter blues into the color mix. You can see now with their new A350s that light and medium blues are the primary colors throughout the Economy cabin.
As far as the exterior goes, I suspect that the yellow will be gone from the tail logo, and I fully expect it to be replaced with a white Crane inside the familiar circle. Expect the tail of the aircraft to remain blue, and the fuselage to stay white, though we might see the belly lose its grey color. It wouldn’t surprise me if the engine nacelles didn’t get dipped in blue paint to give the center of the aircraft a bit of contrast.
The font is also not expected to be changed dramatically if at all.
Remember, we are dealing with one of commercial aviation’s richest histories as well as logos and designs that have transcended nearly 100 years. Lufthansa is not about to throw it all out the door and come out with some new radical monstrosity of a look.
This might very well be the new color scheme that graces the vertical stabilizer on LH aircraft in the future (see, it’s not some radical reinvention):
In fact, visit this Lufthansa webpage, and click on the video which is full of hints as to what the new look will be. Though I can’t guarantee it, I think what I’ve mentioned in this post is a safer bet at this point than your Bitcoin account.
As it stands today, Lufthansa’s first 747-8i (D-ABYA) is parked in a hangar in Rome going through her facelift to reflect the change and will be the aircraft that debuts the new look. If things go to plan, we’ll see the new look during the week of February 12. Keep in mind with such things that changes in the timeline are highly possible.
H/T: FlyerTalk’s Oliver2002 & the Miles & More Thread for some of the images and links in this post.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Dec 12, 2017 | Austrian, Brussels, Featured, Lufthansa, Miles & More, Star Alliance, Swiss |
As has been widely anticipated, Lufthansa has announced that Miles & More will convert to a revenue based program beginning with flights booked on March 12, 2018 and afterward.
As is typical for a revenue-based model, the more you spend on airfare, the more award miles you will earn for your account. Obviously, this favors passengers that book higher level Economy class tickets, Business, and First Class tickets.
The way Lufthansa is going to do it is by assigning ‘multiples’ based on the airline operating your flight. You then multiply the ‘eligible’ part of your fare (including surcharges) by the ‘multiple’ to calculate how many miles you’ll receive.
For flights operated by Lufthansa Group airlines (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Eurowings, Brussels), a base ‘multiple’ of 4 will be used to determine your award miles credit. For example, if your fare has $400 basis (inclusive of surcharges), you’ll earn 1600 miles for the booking.
According to the somewhat poor details in their press release, it appears that the 4 ‘multiple’ will apply to other Miles & More member airlines such as (LOT, Croatia, etc.).
For passengers holding status with Miles and More (Frequent Traveler, Senator, Hon Circle), the multiple will be higher. For these passengers, the ‘multiple’ will be 6 for flights operated by Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada, LOT Polish Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Adria Airlines and Air Dolomiti. A multiple of 5 will be used for flights operated by Eurowings, Brussels Airlines, and other Miles & More airlines not mentioned in the previous sentence. There will no longer be a separate ‘Executive Bonus’ calculation. This has been factored into the higher multiples being awarded to members with elite status levels.
According to the release, the determining factor for how miles are credited will be based on your ticket number. For example if you book your Lufthansa-operated flights through a travel agent and that travel agent assigns a ‘Eurowings’ ticket number to it, you will earn your miles based on the ‘multiple’ in place for Eurowings. So be careful when using a travel agent when booking a ticket and make sure they ticket it to the airline that you are actually flying in order to ensure the full mileage credit that you paid for!
With this announcement, no changes are being made as far as how you earn elite status within Miles & More. The same terms and conditions stay in place for status qualifications.
As far as the currency calculation being used to calculate your fare and award miles, all ticket sales will be converted to Euros for the basis of determining the amount spent on your ticket. For example, lets say you spend $720USD to buy your ticket, at the time of sale the $720 will be converted to Euros at current ‘FX’ rates. This Euro amount is what will be multiplied by the earnings multiple to determine how many miles you’ll earn. So if the $720USD translates into €611, the €611 will be multiplied by the multiple to determine award miles earned. A bit unfair if your currency is worth less than the Euro, but it is what it is. It probably would take too many abacuses to keep track of all of the different currencies for the purpose of calculating miles.
ALSO, and a big ALSO:
If your ticket is issued by any other carrier within Star Alliance not mentioned above, and you have the miles from that ticket being credited to your Miles & More account, NOTHING CHANGES. Those tickets will continue earning under the existing terms and conditions and are not subject to this revenue based models. For example, you book a ticket issued by Singapore Airlines, and credit your miles to MM, you’ll continue earning your award and status qualifying miles under the ‘old’ system.
Lufthansa has created a dedicated webpage to help communicate the details of these changes, you can find it here.
