by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 17, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa |
20 Years ago today, Lufthansa celebrated two “FIRSTs” for the airline.
On March 18,1994 the first Airbus A321 entered service when ‘D-AIRA’ took to the skies for Lufthansa who was the launch Airline for the new type of aircraft. Thats ‘First’ #1.
The second ‘First’ to take place was that this A321 was the first Airbus that was fully assembled in Germany. A major accomplishment for a country just barely coming out of reunification in 1990.
The A321 model compliments the A320 family (A318/A319/A320/A321) by being an aircraft with 30% more capacity than the A320 while at the same time being 43% more efficient when it comes to carbon emissions and 10% more efficient in terms of fuel consumption. According to ‘Wikipedia’ there are 891 A321s in active service today around the world. For Lufthansa it represents the largest part of its fleet with 62 A321s in operation.
D-AIRA is still in service today. The photo at the top of this post was taken when I was plane spotting in Munich last year in the Fall.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 15, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa |
The fare sale for travel between the USA and India is set to expire on March 17 and fares will be poised to increase $200-400 from their current rate. In looking through all the flight options, the best deal is for travel between Washington DC (IAD) and Mumbai where you can find fares for under $900.
In fact, Washington DC is the lowest priced US gateway for travel to all of Lufthansa’s India destinations during this promotion. Looking at competitor pricing, its apparent there is a minor ‘fare-war’ from Washington to India.
Other US gateways offer competitive pricing with East Coast departures running in the very low $1000 area while West Coast departures start in the mid $1300 range.
The details of the fare sale are as follows:
- Departures must take place between March 29 and May 12, 2014.
- Return travel must take place between March 30 and May 13, 2014.
- Tickets must be purchased 14 days prior to departure.
Please be mindful of 2 things when booking this fare. One, this is a discount economy fare so you may not earn full mileage credit towards your Frequent Flyer Program. Please check for those details with your program! If in doubt, send me an email and I can help you sort it out. Second, some of the flight options may involve flights operated by United or SWISS. If you want to experience LH’s hospitality, make sure you pay attention to your flight options when booking.
My 2 cents?? I would fly from Washington DC not only because of the low fare, but also because you’ll have an opportunity to experience the Boeing 747-8i that serves on the route. In addition to ‘IAD’, you can also find the 747-8i flying from Chicago and Los Angeles.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 12, 2014 | Contests, Featured |
Lufthansa has started a new contest based on their #inspiredby advertising campaign. The #inspiredby campaign is a series of interesting travel related stories told by a diverse group of individuals from around the world. The premise around the campaign is to share what it is that motivates us to travel and see the world. LH has publised several of these ‘vignettes’ that you may have seen on television and online marketing. If you look on the right hand side of this page, you’ll see a video link to the #inspiredby YouTube channel. There are a lot of great stories there, I recommend you take a look!
Back to the contest.
To enter for a chance to go to Istanbul and be featured in a future #inspired video, you’ll need to submit a short video (45sec – 1 minute) telling everyone what it is about Istanbul that has you wanting to visit. Use your imagination and creativity to create a video that will stand out!
Videos can be submitted between now and March 24th. A Lufthansa ‘jury’ will select their 3 favorite videos and post them to the Lufthansa Facebook page on the afternoon of March 25. At that point, the 3 finalists will have their videos voted upon by visitors to the LH Facebook page between March 25 and March 31, 2014. The results of the voting will be announced between March 31 and April 4, 2014 with the top vote getter winning the Grand Prize.
The Grand Prize Package includes:
Roundtrip Economy Class travel on Lufthansa from the winner’s nearest LH gateway city.
3 nights accommodation in Istanbul.
€500 in spending money.
The contest is being conducted solely through Lufthansa’s Facebook page. To learn more about the contest, including additional terms and conditions, please visit their dedicated Facebook page for this contest.
Good Luck! 🙂 BTW, Istanbul is a FANTASTIC city to visit – incredible history, fantastic food and very friendly people!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 12, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa, Miles & More |
Lufthansa today announced plans to spin off its Frequent Flyer program and have it operate as an individual entity within the Lufthansa Group. Currently the program is part of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and has 25 million members. The proposal comes from the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa Group.
After move, the program will be known within the Lufthansa Group as Miles & More International GmbH. As part of this internal restructuuring, Lufthansa’s WorldShop will also be merged into the new Miles & More company.
According to Lufthansa, the expectation is that additional program partners will be added to further increase the value proposition to current Miles & More members as a result of this move.
Shareholders will need to approve this restructuring proposal. The vote will take place at the Annual General Meeting scheduled for April 29, 2014 at the Congress Center in Hamburg, Germany.
There has been no mention of any changes to the actual program itself as far as frequent flyer benefits are concerned and I don’t expect there to be significant changes to the program as a result of this restructure.
Visit Lufthansa.com to see their latest Fare Deals!
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by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 11, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa, Route Announcements |
Lufthansa has recently announced changes to their Summer 2014 flight operations which primarily updates the kind of aircraft that will fly on a given route. Additionally, this update provides information on any changes that involve adding or removing First Class cabins from certain flights or routes. Please pay special attention to some of these changes if you are looking to travel in First Class. Some destinations, like Philadelphia for example, will have a mix of 2-class and 3-class cabins depending on the day of the week.
BOSTON – FRANKFURT:
Lufthansa will operate a 747 on each of their 2 daily flights. The first 747 will begin flying the route on March 30 for flights LH422 & LH533. The second 747 will begin serving Boston on May 19 for flights LH420 & LH 421. Both of these 747s replace Airbus A340 aircraft.
BOSTON – MUNICH:
Beginning March 30, an Airbus A340-400 will fly the route until April 27 at which point an A330-300 will take over until June 5. On June 5, an a340-600 will begin to fly the route.
DALLAS – FRANKFURT:
Beginning on July 28, a 2-class A340 will replace a 3-Class A330 on the route thus eliminating First Class service on the route.
DETROIT – FRANKFURT:
Between May 5 and May 31 a 3-class A340 will replace a 2-Class A340 thus creating First Class capacity from DTW for most of May.
DUBAI – FRANKFURT:
Beginning March 30, a 3-class Airbus A340 will replace the 747 on the route. Beginning on June 1, First Class will no longer be available when a 2-class A340 is expected to begin flying the route.
DUBAI – MUNICH:
Beginning March 30, service will be reduced from 7x/week to 6x/week.
MONTREAL – FRANKFURT:
Beginning May 15, service resumes with 5x/week service. The route will be flown by an A330 on Tuesdays and an A340 on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
NARITA – OSAKA – FRANKFURT:
Until July 19, Lufthansa will continue to fly to Narita and Osaka as one continuous flight. Beginning on July 20, Narita and Osaka will receive their own dedicated non-stop flight from Frankfurt. Frankfurt – Narita will operated as LH710 and LH711 and flown by a 747-400. Frankfurt – Osaka will be operated as LH740 and LH 741, also flown by a 747-400.
PHILADELPHIA – FRANKFURT:
Between June 1 and August 1, the 3-class A340-300 will be replaced by a 3-class A340-600 on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. A 2-Class A340-300 will operate on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Between August 2 and August 21, a 2-class A340 will operate each daily flight (No First Class cabin during this period).
Beginning August 22, a 2-class A340-300 will operate everyday except Thursday. On Thursdays, a 3-class A330 will fly the route.
SEATTLE – FRANKFURT:
Beginning April 25, an Airbus A340 will replace the A330-300 for each daily flight (3-Cabin).
Beginning July 1, a 2-class A340 will replace the 3-class A330,eliminating First Class on the route.
WASHINGTON (IAD) – FRANKFURT:
Beginning August 2 for LH416 and 417, a 3 class A340-600 will operate on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A 2-class A340 will fly the route on Wednesday and Thursday.
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