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 | Jan 10, 2018 | Fare Sale, Featured, Lufthansa |
For whatever reason, Lufthansa thought it made sense to advertise a fare sale for travel between the USA and Europe but the offer only has one attractive route.
For the terms of this sale that ends January 15, you can book travel between New York and Frankfurt for $2700 for departures taking place in February.
Want to fly anywhere else in Europe? Then prepare to ante up as much as $9300 to get you from Charlotte to Milan or $8800 to get you from Denver to Frankfurt. Boston to Brussels? $8000.
Here’s a screen shot of some other ‘sale’ fares:
I’m convinced that at this point Lufthansa has lost the plot when it comes to reasonable fares for Business and First Class. Ever since the German Government handed Air Berlin to Lufthansa on a Silver Platter, LH has gone off the rails in many of their markets as far as fare pricing is concerned. You’ll recall that during the Christmas Season, LH kept business class prices at levels 2 to 3 times higher than in previous years and it seems they are content on continuing the trend.
In fact, the ridiculous rise in fares has caught the eye of regulators in Europe who have figured that Lufthansa on average has raised fares by at least 30% to most markets. Lufthansa claims that this was an algorithm programming issue, but I doubt that some snowflake intern is responsible for punching in the wrong code to create this fare gouge that has been in place for several months. If it was a programming error, it would have been caught within hours or days and not by a regulator. In the past week or so, LH has walked back some of the high economy class fares they were charging, but it took the ‘threat’ of a regulator.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a socialist and don’t expect airlines to make it so that everyone can afford a premium class fare. If they can sell these fares at these prices, then good for them, and good for my Lufthansa dividend. But at the same time, when competitors are charging a third or less than what Lufthansa is, at some point Lufthansa will start to see loyal customers defect. Customers will stop shopping with their loyalty and start shopping with their wallets.
I’ll give you a personal example…..Each year one of our trips include my wife and I going to South Africa for a couple of weeks to visit Safari camps. Each year we default to LH group since that what we’ve ‘always’ flown so regardless of price we’d always book an LH Group option.
This year? It may come as a surprise to some of you, but my top 3 choices for our Africa flights include: 1. Emirates 2. Qatar 3. KLM. My wife is liking all the things she has read about the Emirates’ First Class cabin ( thanks for nothing ‘PointsGuy’ 🙂 ) so I suspect that our flight to JNB will funnel through Dubai and that I should bring a shower cap for the A380 flights.
Later this year I will also be going to Le Mans, France to photograph the ’24 Hours of Le Mans’ for a company/team involved with the race. My flights? SAS Business on the flights from the US to Paris, and LOT Polish Business for the flights home. A combination of factors led to those decisions. Loyalty was not one of them.
And this coming from someone who has been loyal to LH Group for the last 10 years. I’ve woke up to the fact that status has little impact on my travel experiences and that by shopping for the best value, I come up with other options that literally put thousands of dollars back into my pocket. My bitcoins simply can’t keep up with some of the LH fare hikes! 🙂
Anyway, if you are looking for that flight between NYC and FRA during February you at least get a reasonable price there. If you need to travel beyond FRA, your best bet would be to book the NYC-FRA ticket and then buy another ticket to get you to where you really want to go once you get to Frankfurt.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 5, 2018 | Fare Sale, Featured, Frankfurt, Lufthansa, Munich |
Lufthansa has launched a fare sale for Economy Class travel to the USA. The sale is in place through this Sunday, January 7, and covers travel through July 2018.
It has been a while since fares have been attractive but that changes with this promo. For example, Frankfurt – New York can be booked for only €449. Fares from Munich to most of the East Coast range between €449 and €529. Otherwise, most fares to the USA from Frankfurt or Munich range between €550 and €700.
The terms of the sale are as follow:
- Sale ends January 7.
- You must book your ticket at least 14 days prior to departure.
- You must depart between January 19 and June 28, 2018.
- You must return by July 28, 2018.
- A minimum stay of 6 nights is required (Maximum stay is 30 days).
by Lufthansa Flyer | Dec 20, 2017 | Featured, Frankfurt, Lufthansa, Route Announcements |
In the last 2 days, Lufthansa announced two updates to their timetable….
First, beginning on April 28, 2018, Lufthansa will begin service to their fifth destination in Croatia: Zadar. The flights will operate on Saturday and Sundays from Frankfurt and will be flown by A319 aircraft. Here are the flight details:
LH1476 will depart Frankfurt on Saturdays at 10:15a, arriving in Zadar (ZAD) at 11:50a.
LH1477 will depart Zadar on Saturdays at 12:35p, arriving in Frankfurt at 2:15p.
LH1476 will depart Frankfurt on Sundays at 4:30p, arriving in Zadar at 6:05p.
LH1477 will depart Zadar on Sundays at 6:50p, arriving in Frankfurt at 8:30p.
Additionally, Lufthansa has updated their timetable to reflect the A340-600 replacing the A330-300 on flights from Frankfurt to Dammam (Via Riyadh). This change in aircraft will take place on March 28, 2018.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Dec 14, 2017 | Featured, Lufthansa, Strike, Vereinigung Cockpit |
Earlier today, Lufthansa Pilots ratified a proposal that will put to end a long running labor dispute between Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) and the Airline.
The new deal, approved by 80% of LH’s pilots, is in place through June 2022 and addresses most issues that led to the myriad of strikes that affected passengers over the last couple of years. Most of the discord between pilots and Lufthansa had been pension plans for pilots before they reach full retirement age and job security for existing pilots.
Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, and Eurowing pilots will receive a 10.2 percent raise in increments between now and June 2022 as well as an immediate bonus of 1.8 months worth of salary.
The deal also includes guarantees that Lufthansa will operate a minimum of aircraft between now and the deal’s expiration in 2022, along with an agreement for collective bargaining for future negotiations. Specifically, 325 aircraft need to be in service that are piloted by LH, LH Cargo, or Germanwings pilots.
For pilots, they also agreed to migrate their retirement plan from a defined benefit program to a defined contribution program, which reduces the stress on Lufthansa as far as funding retirement plans is concerned.
So it looks like we can fly the crane for the next 4.5 years without worrying about any flights being cancelled due to strike actions by the pilots.
