by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 16, 2015 | Austrian, Cargo, Corporate, Featured, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience |
As part of their ongoing ‘7:1: Our Way Forward’ campaign, Lufthansa has announced plans to streamline its operation, eliminate redundancies among the group’ airlines and reorganize into 3 operating units.
Plans call for Lufthansa Group to organize itself into 3 operating divisions:
Lufthansa Group Mainline: This unit will be comprised of the airline’s mainline carriers including SWISS, Austrian and Lufthansa.
Eurowings Group: This unit will focus on all of LH Group’s low cost carrier (LCC) operations including JUMP, Germanwings and Eurowings.
Aviation Companies: This unit will include Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo and Skychefs and other subsidiaries.
The objective with this reorganization is to better align business units so that they can benefit from mutual operating efficiencies and to provide their respect customers with a simplified way in working with Lufthansa.
As it stands now, each of the mainline carriers has their own policies and procedures, fare structures, etc. With the revamped units, we’ll see a better consistency across the airlines which should help improve the passenger experience.
With the change in structure, we should see a much more efficient and responsive airline. For example, LH currently has over ‘700 decision making units’ and 47 Human Resources units. Overlap and excess such as this are the key focus of the initiative.
As far as the bottom line is concerned, Lufthansa expects a savings of over 500 million Euros annually once the transition is complete in 2019.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 15, 2015 | Airports, Featured, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience, Rimowa |
LUFTHANSA and Rimowa have recently introduced a new innovation that seeks to make it easier than ever to manage your checked luggage. Rather than having to deal with checking bags at the airport and needing check-in agents to affix luggage tags (which means standing in lines), you’ll be able to download your baggage tag from your smart phone and transmit it directly to a display on your suitcase.
The Rimowa Electronic Tag is a small display screen that is embedded near the handle of a suitcase and will display the same information as a conventional bag tag. Included in the display will be things such as priority designation for your luggage (if applicable), along with any customs requirements such as the ‘Green Strip’ that is printed on bag tags for luggage on flights leaving the EU.
The display screen will show all of the data that a conventional paper tag would contain. Courtesy: Rimowa
The really slick feature of the tag will be how information is transmitted to the luggage. When you check in to your Lufthansa flight via the website or the app, you’ll receive your mobile boarding passes which will also include your baggage data. Then, by using Bluetooth feature on your smartphone, you’ll be able to transmit the bag tag info to the suitcase which will then display the tag. The display itself is about the same size as a paper bag tag, so what you will see will be nearly identical to a paper tag, except it will be on a digital screen. According to Rimowa, the display is from E Ink Mobius and is weather, temperature, moisture and shock resistant.
Now before you start asking too many questions, I only have a few answers.
As far as security is concerned, your phone will be paired to the suitcase, so only your phone will be able to communicate with the bag. No one else’s phone will be able to connect to your electronic tag.
Battery Life? I don’t know. Of the several releases that I’ve read from LH and Rimowa, nothing suggested what the battery life would be. I would assume it would be a very long battery life and hopefully with easy recharging ability. If some one knows the answer, please leave a comment!
The bag will work when connecting to flights operated by non-Lufthansa airlines since the bar codes will be on display and scannable. However, the baggage tag must originate from Lufthansa. The only issue that could exist is how individual airports handle baggage drops for luggage that has already been ‘tagged’. Lufthansa in Germany already has baggage drop kiosks in airports so it should not be a problem for bags being checked in from Germany. Your experiences may vary based on the airports you transit.
The Rimowa Electronic Tag will only work with Lufthansa Group data. Though other airlines are working with similar technology, the Rimowa E-tag will only be compatible with Lufthansa issued data.
What I also don’t know is what the contingency plan would be if all of a sudden the battery died, or if the display was damaged to a point that it was not readable. I have my doubts that baggage handlers would have any way to pull the data on the tag.
For the next 3 months, LUFTHANSA has asked 50 of their most frequent travelers to test the baggage tag and provide feedback to Rimowa to fine tune the final product. If all goes to plan, we should see the Electronic Tags on RIMOWA luggage beginning in the first quarter of 2016.
Looks like my 747-8i Rimowa is at risk of an early retirement….
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 13, 2015 | 777, Business Class, Featured, First Class Terminal, Lounges, Lufthansa, Swiss |
Last week during an awards ceremony in Sardinia, Lufthansa and SWISS were acknowledged for providing ‘best in class’ passenger experiences.
SWISS was recognized for having the best Business Class product of any European airline. This included both SWISS’ European business class as well as long-haul service.
Lufthansa took home awards for ‘Europe’s Leading Airline’ as well as ‘Europe’s Leading Airport Lounges’. The lounge award was specific to their lounges in Frankfurt. Hard to compete against them when you have the First Class Terminal and First Class Lounges providing outstanding passenger experiences.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 11, 2015 | 777, Cargo, Delivery Flight, Featured, Lufthansa |
Earlier this year, Lufthansa Cargo received the last of their 5 777 Freighters (D-ALFE) and to mark the special occasion, LH commissioned PilotsEYE.tv to create a documentary that would capture the experience.
PilotsEYE.tv is an awarding winning team that specializes in capturing rare, behind the scenes footage of airlines in a way most of can only imagine. Their access to all of the ‘good stuff’ is truly impressive and it reflects in their documentaries!
The PilotsEYE.tv crew at work at Boeing
The 100 minute documentary takes us behind the scenes at Boeing, showing D-ALFE in her various stages of final assembly as well as fantastic footage from aboard her delivery flight to Frankfurt and interviews with the pilots. The video also gives us a rare front row seat to the delivery meeting where Lufthansa pays for the aircraft. Amazing how quickly hundreds of millions of dollars can change bank accounts! 🙂
As an additional ‘bonus’ they included some of my personal footage from my ‘secret spotting spot’ capturing D-ALFE being moved from one part of the factory to another in preparation for final assembly. Don’t believe me? Check the credits at the end! 🙂
To learn more about the video, including additional footage that is included, please visit the PilotsEYE.tv webpage for this documentary.
Now for the special offer……
Normally the video is available for purchase for online viewing or DVD and costs €29.95 on Amazon.de, Amazon.uk and various bookstores and video retailers in Germany.
However, PilotsEYE.tv has offered LufthansaFlyer readers a coupon code good for 50% off of the video when ‘renting’ it through Vimeo. Normally, the cost would be $18.90, but by using code ‘LHF50’ you’ll save 50% off of the published rate. The rental period through Vimeo lasts for 1 week and you can use this link to take you to the Vimeo webpage for this video.
Please note that the coupon code is limited to the first 30 purchases, so hurry before the coupon code disappears!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 8, 2015 | Featured, Lufthansa, Strike |
So much for a weekend full of negotiations……
Talks broke off between Lufthansa and their Pilots union and as a result the Union called for immediate strikes that are set to begin Tuesday, September 8 and continue through Midnight on Wednesday September 9.
Tuesday’s strike action will cover Long Haul Flights and will impact flights scheduled to take off or land between 8:00a and 12:00a Midnight. Lufthansa still expects to operate a bit more than half of their long haul flights (90+ are scheduled to take place thus far).
Wednesday’s strike is aimed at all short and medium haul flights, including those operated by Germanwings. Lufthansa currently has not published an updated timetable for the strike on Wednesday however the strike is set to run all day from 12:01a through 11:59p.
To see if your particular flight is impacted, please visit this dedicated strike webpage on Lufthansa.com. You’ll be able to look up your flights as well as choose alternative routing should your flight be affected by the strike.
I probably shouldn’t mention when I’m flying to and from Jo’berg……but lets call it November 😉
