Lufthansa

[TheLocalYokel]

Mobile Phone Boarding Pass Available For Lufthansa Passengers From Bristol

Online check-in and boarding via mobile phone available alongside Home Print boarding cards and self service check-in.

Lufthansa has selected Bristol as a key launch market outside Germany for its pioneering mobile phone boarding pass.

Lufthansa passengers flying from Bristol are now able to use mobile boarding passes on all Lufthansa non-stop flights to Germany as well as to most onward destinations in Europe.

The mobile boarding pass is sent to the passenger’s Internet-enabled mobile phone by email or SMS. In addition to the relevant flight data such as the passenger’s name, flight number and departure time, the boarding pass contains a 2D barcode. This enables passengers to pass through the security checkpoints and board the aircraft without a printed paper document.

This innovative system is being introduced as part of a package of new check-in options for Lufthansa’s South West customers. People travelling to destinations not currently available for the mobile boarding system, or who do not have the mobile technology, can now check-in from their home or office using Lufthansa’s ‘Home Print’ boarding card option. Any passengers who arrive at the airport to check-in will also be able to speed up the process by using the Self-Service check-in machines.

Lufthansa passengers can request an electronic boarding pass via the mobile portal by using an Internet-enabled mobile device or they can check in online via the Internet. All they need in order to identify themselves online or via the Lufthansa mobile portal is their booking code combined with the passenger name. Alternatively, passengers also have the option of collecting a printed boarding pass at a self-service check-in terminal or at a Check-in counter if they are unable to display their electronic boarding pass on their mobile (for example, if their phone needs recharging).

The Bristol launch follows the successful introduction of mobile boarding passes on all domestic German routes last summer and then on about 1,000 daily flights out of Germany to almost 400 European destinations in September.

The innovative service has already gained widespread acceptance amongst Lufthansa customers with more than 50,000 passengers per month using electronic boarding passes. The service will be gradually introduced from even more European departure points over the coming months.

link: http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/news_an ... ck_in.aspx

 

[Aviador]

It sounds a good idea but what if your phone battery goes dead? I have noticed on a few occasions that the self printed paper boarding passes are easily damaged by the elements. Sometimes they don't scan particularly when the passenger has used the low ink setting on their printer. Technology is great but sometimes there's nothing better than a good old fashioned boarding card!

 

[lbaspotter]

Hi

Not comfirmed yet but I,m sorry to report that Lufthansa are to drop there 3 times daily Bristol - Frankfurt service as from May 1st 2009.

No direct flights are bookable after this date on the lufthansa website.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It is confirmed.

LH believe Bristol is too close to Heathrow to make their business services viable.

Some truth in this although I thought from the beginning that three times daily on a 100-seat aircraft was too ambitious. A 50-seater would have been more realistic in my view and Eurowings, the operator, do possess CRJs of this size.

Bristol business people still use LHR as their long-haul airport of choice. Theye have become accustomed over the years and many multi-national companies in the Bristol area routinely book their employees via LHR, instead of from BRS either via a European hub or direct via CO to the US.

Furthermore, LH's fares have been very high and particularly in these straitened times it makes sense for companies to watch their pennies even more closely.

LH's public utterances make it unlikely that we shall see a return to Bristol in the forseeable future.

My worry now is that Ryanair will step in with a route to their version of Frankfurt at Hahn.

I hope I am wrong but I believe that CO will be the next major airline to pull out.

 

[Aviador]

I hope your wrong on your last comment. CO first genuine stab at the regions, it has to work! I wonder how many folk have actually been using London airports from the Bristol area for flights to Frankfurt (or Newark for that matter?) :shout:

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Anecdotal evidence suggests that transcontinental fares from Bristol via either AMS (KLM) or CDG (AF) are invariably cheaper than those via FRA with LH, as are direct route fares from LHR.

More than one regular traveller on the Bristol forum in the Dried Plum, including a business traveller who flies regularly around the world and is always keen to use BRS when viable, have lamented on the high fares that are often thrown up.

This was the case from the word go and people have commented on it on other forums, as I did on the predecessor forum to this one.

It was not uncommon to be quoted four figure fares for economy returns on the LH website.

Shortly after the route commenced a year ago, a senior figure at BRS who occasionally posts via an anonymous user name to the Dried Plum said the airport was tackling LH about this apparent anomaly, or possible glitch, in their booking systems.

It seems it was never entirely overcome. Either that or LH believed that Bristol could sustain high fares - apparently an incorrect assumption.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

According to a poster on the DP the LH management has told a travel publication that there are no plans to reinstate the BRS-FRA link.

When the route was stopped in April 2009 the LH UK chief said the reason was the recession and it was not likely to re-appear in 2010.

The impression was given that the route was being suspended rather than axed and this led to hopes that it would come back as the recession eased, perhaps in 2011. That now doesn't appear to be the case.

I don't know if the quote means it will never come back or just that the airline has no current plans.

Seems a shame because just under 100,000 people used it in the year it operated and LH said that within the first six months passengers starting from BRS had used every one of LH's worldwide connections. Furthermore, fares were generally high from BRS, a source of ongoing complaint in such places as the DP at the time.

It may simply be that the airline believes there is no place for routes to FRA from LHR, BHX and BRS and the latter, being the smallest, was given the elbow.

I wonder how many of the 100,000 still travel with LH from another airport, travel with someone else or don't travel at all.

Ironically, I was hoping to use the LH connection from BRS to travel to Australia. Because I couldn't I found an excellent deal with another airline from another airport. So that was several thousand pounds lost to LH from my wife and me alone because on very long-haul we travel in a premium cabin.

 

[Aviador]

I've never understood the way LH operate. In the North of England they only operate into MAN, so no LPL, LBA, DSA or HUY services to Germany. They seem to think that people will drive up to two hours to MAN to fly to Germany. In reality they must loose thousands of potential passengers who just re-route through AMS with KLM who do offer regional departures.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I certainly take your point re the ideal parts of the world for onward transit from the likes of FRA.

I've heard the argument before that even AMS is a backtrack from the UK to North America.

In terms of time relative to AMS so too is LHR from the West Country.

We used to use AMS quite a bit for North America (USA and Canada) from Bristol. Even though we began our journey flying in the 'wrong' direction the overall time was very competitive with LHR because it's fifteen minutes to BRS for us, no more than sixty in the air and perhaps 2-3 hours on the ground at AMS.

Because of problems often encountered on the M4 plus the need to allow good time to check in at LHR we would allow at least five hours from leaving home to fly from Heathrow. Even getting to BRS an hour or so before departure plus transit to and waiting for onward connection at AMS would not take much longer than this.

We also avoid the ghastly LHR and don't have to face a two-hour road journey after an overnight flight from North America on the way home.

The only problems we had were temporary luggage loss (on three separate occasions but fortunately each time on the homeward journey - the notorious AMS luggage black hole, though on one occasion it was the fault of the check-in clerk at Phoenix Az who showed BRU instead of BRS as final destination on our lugagge labels. I suppose I should have spotted it at the time but how many passengers who have no interest in aviation would have done so?

It certainly looks as though the LH link is lost from BRS. It would have been very handy for us to fly much further east.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

No sign of the LH Group coming back on BRS-FRA yet.

When the BRS management team mentioned some months that they were confident of more legacy carriers coming on board next year many believed one route would be BRS-FRA operated by bmiRegional. This theory was given support by LH saying they were looking to use bmiRegional on more reoutes between UK airports and Germany.

The LH Group has recently announced a 3 x daily EMA-FRA using bmiRegional ERJ145s. I seem to remember that ABZ is also getting a German route from the LH Group so it may be that BRS will have to wait a while longer for someone to increase its meagre German offering.

When bmiRegional took over the BRS-BRU route on behalf of Brussels Airlines in January 2010 passenger numbers increased by 23% that year with a 3 x daily ERJ145 as opposed to 2 x daily SN ARJ85, and numbers are up again substantially so far this year.

Eurowings operated BRS-FRA for LH for 13 months from April 2008 using the 94-seat Bae 146 21 x weekly (3 x daily) until the end of summer 2008 when the schedule was reduced. In excess of 98,000 passengers were carried in the 13 months giving an overall average of around 45-50 passengers per flight throughout the year.

Fares were often high (there was a 'campaign' against this on the Dried Plum at one stage) and within six months LH announced that BRS-emanating passengers had used every onward route from FRA in the LH network.

The route was pulled when the recession began to bite in order not to dilute the routes to FRA from BHX and LHR (so I was told by a senior figure at BRS).

LH has a BHX-FRA route so it might be thought they are no longer worried about dilution if they are happy to commence an EMA-FRA route.

A 50-seat aircraft might well be more suitable (many were surprised when LH went into the route 21 x weekly with a near 100-seat aircraft) which is what BACx and then BACon used in the early 2000s.

[offtopic]Reading back in this thread I see I forecast the demise of the CO BRS-EWR route 18 months before it ceased to operate. Not a happy prediction!![/offtopic]

 

[Aviador]

The lead in time for the EMA service is only a few weeks, Talk about leaving it until last minute.

If you ask me, I personally think they should have chosen LBA or BRS. LBA has a good track record so far as business schedules flights go, where as BRS has a proven ability to attract loads sufficient to maintain the route. Lufthansa withdrew it's Bristol flight in very bizarre circumstances so far as I can tell. Lets just hope the EMA flight to FRA is the beginning of a new era of flights between Frankfurt and the UK.

 

[jason1-11]

For those of you with longer memories, British Mid did operate EMA-FRA in the past using F-100.

I'm sure this route will only dilute existing Lufthansa BHX-FRA traffic, so lets see what happens to Leeds and Bristol.

 

[alphagolf]

I have spent some time this morning searching flights on the Lufthansa flight booking page and for the destinations I can find prices for they all route through the bmiregional/Brussels Airlines codeshare.

Even though the press release clearly stated that the bmiregional codeshare flights through Frankfurt/Munich would be available from Friday 4th April, it is obvious the LH website has not been updated to process these.

I have emailed Lufthansa to pose the question as to why this has not been done.

alphagolf

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I have spent some time this morning searching flights on the Lufthansa flight booking page and for the destinations I can find prices for they all route through the bmiregional/Brussels Airlines codeshare.

Even though the press release clearly stated that the bmiregional codeshare flights through Frankfurt/Munich would be available from Friday 4th April, it is obvious the LH website has not been updated to process these.

I have emailed Lufthansa to pose the question as to why this has not been done.

Looking back through this thread I'm reminded that LH did not make it easy for people to obtain the best fares when they operated BRS-FRA themselves. One poster who is a regular contributor to the BRS forum on the DP (and still is), and is a regular from BRS via Star Alliance around the world, was always complaining that you had to know your way around the various booking engines to find the best fares.

At one point I seem to remember that a BRS spokesman said the airport was taking up the issue with LH.

It maybe that the LH 'systems' are still not particularly user-friendly so far as the 'out stations' are concerned and need some pressure applied - your email is certainly a step in the right direction because the LH management may not even be aware of the lack of booking availability.

 

[tpm]

As of today the codeshares seem to be in the system and bookable on the Lufthansa website.

One thing I noticed though: for short-haul connections, they do not ever offer the 'basic economy' fare, only 'economy flex', which is rather pricey. So even when booking in advance for September/October, going to, say, Athens or Sofia will be around £1300-£1500 for a return trip!

On the other hand they offer train connections as well, at least in Germany. So going to Stuttgart would be a flight to FRA and then an ICE train from FRA airport to Stuttgart central station. Which makes sense (apart from the 2 hour layover at FRA, which doesn't make sense).

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As of today the codeshares seem to be in the system and bookable on the Lufthansa website.

One thing I noticed though: for short-haul connections, they do not ever offer the 'basic economy' fare, only 'economy flex', which is rather pricey. So even when booking in advance for September/October, going to, say, Athens or Sofia will be around £1300-£1500 for a return trip!

On the other hand they offer train connections as well, at least in Germany. So going to Stuttgart would be a flight to FRA and then an ICE train from FRA airport to Stuttgart central station. Which makes sense (apart from the 2 hour layover at FRA, which doesn't make sense).

Many thanks for that.

The word needs to be put around about this code share. The local press splashed the airport/airline press release quite widely headlining it that Lufthansa was returning to BRS after five years absence. Not strictly true of course but to have the name Lufthansa in an eye-catching position in local press headlines can only be a help.

The BRS management traditionally is first class at publicising its services and not just in the immediate Greater Bristol area.

When Lufthansa operated the route themselves in 2008-2009 they announced that within the first six months passengers from BRS had used every LH long haul route out of FRA. With the smaller aircraft that bmi regional uses (LH used the 100-seat Eurowings Bae 146-300 at 3 x daily, 21 x weekly for the first summer of operations and averaged 50-60 passengers per flight each month) there is every reason to believe that the E145s could be well filled with interlining passengers - so long as enough people are aware of the service.

 

[ljm104]

I've had a quick look at the long haul connections via FRA using the LH website and Skyscanner. The connection times look excellent to the Far East, which makes for an appealing proposition compared with LHR. The pricing, however, is quite disappointing with LH flights being very poor value. BRS to Singapore for a September return trip is over £900. This compares to £650ish with KLM, and £500 with Emirates out of LHR.

Personally I'm willing to pay a small premium to avoid the time and hassle of London, but clearly you'd be mad to choose LH in this scenario. As tpm has said, the European destinations are hardly a bargain either.

One can only hope that the pricing structures have yet to be fully decided and will become competitive in time.

 

[tpm]

It appears Basic Economy fares are now also available for short-haul, thanks to whoever poked the right people.

I wonder if bmi regional are planning to adjust their flight times to better match the airports' flight banks, assuming slots are available of course, or if they're planning to add more daily flights. Layover times are not great for most things I tried, other than flights to Asia.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It appears Basic Economy fares are now also available for short-haul, thanks to whoever poked the right people.

I wonder if bmi regional are planning to adjust their flight times to better match the airports' flight banks, assuming slots are available of course, or if they're planning to add more daily flights. Layover times are not great for most things I tried, other than flights to Asia.

Good news about the basic economy fares.

Probably the reason that LH went 3 x daily when they started the FRA route (or re-started it after BACon were pulled out following nearly ten years on it in the various BA incarnations) was the intention to cover all the long haul flight banks. It was perhaps unfortunate that the 100-seat Bae 146-300 was a bit too large; maybe nothing smaller was available.

Slot availability and price will doubtless play a part as you point out. I suspect that bmi r and LH will want to see how this year goes before considering any increase.

 

[alphagolf]

Twice daily except Saturdays to FRA using an E190 from March 30

reported by Travel Weekly this morning

Lufthansa launches new route from Bristol Airport