What Does Lufthansa Think About United’s Devaluation & Member Redemptions?

Some interesting insights from part one of Today in the Sky’s four part interview series with Lufthansa CEO Chrishoph Franz.

“I think the frequent-flier program is a very important commercial tool … of each airline.” “In this respect, we have set certain standards of cooperation and on mutually accepting certain frequent-flier statuses inside Star Alliance.”

On the topic of frequent-fliers being able to redeem miles for tickets on other carriers within the Star Alliance group, Franz said “we have an interest in our company to have a balanced mix of redemption tickets from our customers and customers from Star partners on our aircraft.”

When asked about complaints United has received from customers who are upset that it will now be harder to book on partners like Lufthansa, Franz said: “This is obviously for us a compliment, with regard to the quality that we offer.””We like to hear that customers from other airlines like to fly on our airlines – not only Lufthansa, but also Austrian Airlines, Swiss and also Brussels flying nonstop here to the U.S.,” he added.

Too bad they don’t open up award space to partners earlier on so that more customers from other airlines can “pay them a compliment” as well.

Check out the full article on part one of the interview here.

Related

• Lucky’s post – How Many Lufthansa First Class Seats Did We Book? Discussing just how many seats were booked in First and Business when LH opened up seats to partner airlines for “virtually every single day”  on their new North American routes…timed perfectly after United’s devaluation announcement.
• Full Summary of United Devaluations & New Developments…plus my personal exposure