by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 31, 2014 | Airlines |
In planning a Safari trip for later this year, I came across what I would consider very attractive Business Class fares from several of Lufthansa’s USA gateways to Johannesburg, South Africa.
Typically, Business Class fares from just the USA to most of Europe on LH will run in the $5000 range from the East Coast to over $7000 from the West Coast when there is no fare sale.
What I have found however are several windows of opportunity in 2014 where travelers can enjoy Lufthansa’s Business Class from several US gateways to Johannesburg (via Germany) for ONLY $5000-5200. In addition, these are NOT deep discount ‘P’ fares but are the more attractive Z fare. I say attractive because ‘Z’ fares usually credit more elite qualifying miles towards most Star Alliance Frequent Flyer programs.
After I expanded my search I discovered that these attractive fares are available from Chicago, Boston, New York (JFK/EWR), Houston and Los Angeles. Yes, you can fly LH Business from LAX to JNB which will yield 33580 ‘Elite Qualifying Miles’ for $5030. Thats 1/3rd of the way to Miles & More Senator status in just one trip! Additionally, current Miles&More members will earn an additional 25% Executive Bonus and walk away with 39122 miles.
The advanced rationalizer will see these fares as paying for Business Class between the USA and Frankfurt or Munich and getting the roundtrip flights from Germany to South Africa for free when you consider the fares. It was a no brainer for me to book our tickets today!
The dates that these fares are available vary considerably. The bulk of these fares are available for Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday departures between now and mid-May. The fares move up to the $7000-$9000 ($10,000-$12,000 in some cases) range during the summer months and come back down to the $5000 range in mid-August and stay that low through the end of the year. The best pricing for August-December fares is found when departing early in a given week.
Just to illustrate how attractive this fare is, if you book a departure early in a week you would pay the aforementioned low fares. If you were to depart on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday the fare nearly doubles in some cases.
The icing on the cake for these fares is that it gives you the opportunity to fly in 2 of Lufthansa’s best aircraft if you plan appropriately. If done ‘correctly’ you can experience Lufthansa’s A380 and 747-8i between the US and South Africa.
Please be aware that some fare options that you’ll find include flights operated by United or South African. I suggest being aware because the miles you earn may vary based on the airline operating your flights. Check with your FF program ahead time so you know what you’ll earn with a given carrier. The credit you will earn for Z fares can vary widely based on the FF program. For example if you fly on a South African operated flight and are a United Mileage Plus member, you would only earn the actual mile flow towards status. There are no bonus elite miles for Z fares on South African operated flights if you credit your miles to Mileage Plus. On the other hand, Lufthansa operated flights will credit 150% of miles flow towards elite status with Mileage Plus.
If you need any help with finding these fares please leave a comment or send me an e-mail!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 21, 2014 | Airlines |
For those of you not familiar with the Lufthansa and Community Buzz threads on FlyerTalk, an event has been arranged by Oliver2002 in coordination with the Hamburg Port Festival from May 10 to May 11 to satisfy the “AVGEEK” in all of us.
The event is set up in an A-La-Carte style so you can pick and choose which events you attend.
Here are the details of the event:
SATURDAY MAY 10:
Attendees will have have the opportunity to join an EXCLUSIVE 2.5 hour tour of AIRBUS in Finkenwerder (XFW). The tour will include an up-close look at the A320 assembly area as well as the A380’s finish line. The tour will take place in the morning.
Please note that this booking is limited to the first 40 people who sign up. The cost of this tour is expected to be in the €25-33 range. Final cost will be determined according to how many people sign up.
In the afternoon, you can of course enjoy the Hamburg Port Fest and take in all that Hamburg has to offer. Many of us will be heading over to the Miniatur Wunderland to see the world’s ‘biggest smallest’ airport.
At 7:00 pm, the group will board a sailing yacht for a dinner cruise down the Elbe. The cruise will coincide with the Fireworks display scheduled for that evening. The yacht will return to port at 11:30p. The cost of the Dinner Cruise is €105 which includes a ‘welcome aboard’ drink and appetizers along with a full buffet-style dinner.
SUNDAY MAY 11:
Today, we go to Lufthansa Technik at 10:30a (time may need to be adjusted) for a 3 hour visit that will include tours of the VIP Hangar where private aircraft are retrofitted, the Overhaul Workshop and the Main Hangar. You will receive a nice souvenir for your ‘effort’! 🙂
This tour is limited to 20 participants and will cost €32 per person.
I expect that ‘Hamburg-DO’ will sell out within the next week or 2 due to the nature of the events and roster limits. If you are interested in signing up for any of these events, please send a ‘PM’ to Oliver2002 on FlyerTalk. If you are not a FT member you can sign up here and follow the thread for this event.
If you have any questions about the event, please ask!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 21, 2014 | Airlines |
Lufthansa announced that it has realized it best year ever as far as on-time departure performance is concerned.
For 2013, 85% of all Lufthansa operated flights departing Frankfurt and Munich departed on time. This inspite of many challenged faced by LH throughout the year including strike tactics, severe winter weather, night-flight departure bans in Frankfurt and construction in Munich.
In addition, LH also reported that approximately only 1% of passengers had their luggage delayed to their final destination during 2013.
News like this is great to see because so many times we get caught up in the various forums and threads that criticize an airlines performance. Usually it’s only those having issues who will complain and those who have no problems seldom will pay a compliment to an airline.
Nice to see a bit of good news when it comes to baggage handling and on-time performance!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 16, 2014 | Airlines |
Thanks to some great efforts and wonderful generosity, we’ve raised $4000 towards the Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund. A big thanks to FlyerTalk’s ‘iluv2fly’ whose Match Challenge doubled the $2000 that was initially raised.
Now we have another Match Challenge!
‘Shcooper1’, also of FT fame, has committed that once $5000 is raised, he will match that amount with his own contribution of $5000 which will bring the total amount raised to $10,000 and make this one of the most successful fundraisers that has been held by the Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund.
Thanks to everyone thus far who has donated and supported this great cause. Hopefully we can continue to get the word out, raise that additional $1000 to trigger Shcooper1’s match and REALLY make an impact towards someone’s education in an aviation related field!
For those of you hearing about this fundraiser for the first time, please visit my post post that announced the fundraiser and highlights the fantastic prize packages that will be awarded to a lucky Grand Prize and First Place Prize winner. That post also included instructions for donating towards the fundraiser. Additionally, you can join the conversation in the FlyerTalk Cares! thread on FlyerTalk.com.
The lucky winner will have the opportunity to put themselves into this position aboard the Junkers Ju52 and fly over the opening parade of the Hamburg Port Fest on May 9!:
Lufthansa’s Junkers Ju52 soars over the open parade of the Hamburg Port Festival. Photo courtesy of Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin-Stiftung
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 15, 2014 | Airlines |
In case you missed it on Twitter late this afternoon, LUFTHANSA’s First Class Terminal Twitter account got into the ‘Social Media’ swing of things and began offering to create ‘custom’ First Class Ducks for anyone that submitted a request.
‘Twitterers’ have the ability to select options towards the creation of their custom duck and within a few minutes @Lufthansa_FCT would Tweet your new duck to the world. It’s a great way to have a custom avatar created for your Twitter or Facebook account!
To have @Lufthansa_FCT create your custom ‘Ente’ all you need to do is to select the options for your duck from this menu:
……and then send a Tweet to @Lufthansa_FCT with the following Hashtag: #myfirstclassduck followed by a separate hashtag for each option from the menu. For example: @Lufthansa_FCT #myfirstclassduck #crown #monocle #scarf #lederhosen #halo and tweet it to them. They’ll tweet your creation to you for you to enjoy.
Here are a few examples of their masterpieces:
