The Lufthansa Group’s Economy Light fares on long haul flights are getting even more punitive, so this is definitely something to be aware of if booking one of these tickets…
In this post:
Lufthansa’s Economy Light seat amendment fee
Lufthansa’s Economy Light fares don’t include seat assignments in advance. Up until mid-2022, it was possible to select a seat of your choice (from the remaining unoccupied ones) at the time of check-in when booking these fares. As Lufthansa described the policy at the time:
Of course, all the remaining seats can still be selected free of charge once check-in for the relevant flight begins, usually from 23 hours before departure. Please note that, in this case, the selection can in some circumstances be limited.
However, this policy has evolved considerably over time:
- As of June 1, 2022, Lufthansa began assigning seats at the time of check-in when traveling on Economy Light fares on short haul flights; if you don’t like the seat that you’re allocated, you have to pay a seat amendment fee that starts at EUR 25/CHF 35/USD
- Up until now, this same policy hasn’t applied to long haul flights, but that’s changing as of August 13, 2024; as of that date, you’ll have to pay to change your Economy Light seat assignment on long haul flights as well, as flagged by Travel Dealz
- This same policy will apply for other Lufthansa Group carriers, including Austrian and SWISS
So yeah, for those who value sitting together or being able to choose their seat, this is definitely something to keep in mind if you’re considering booking an Economy Light fare, since the cost of assigning seats could quickly add up.
What are Lufthansa’s Economy Light fares?
Economy Light is Lufthansa’s version of the basic economy fares that we have with the major legacy carriers in the United States. Lufthansa’s Economy Light fares:
- Do include a carry-on, the standard food & beverage offerings in economy, and the ability to earn miles and status credits
- Don’t include seat assignments in advance or refunds; for a fee you can book advance seat assignments and get a checked bag
Suffice it to say that many people may have been happy to book these fares when they could at least select a seat at check-in. However, I imagine the economics change if you have to spend a minimum of €50 for roundtrip seat assignments.
Bottom line
Lufthansa’s Economy Light fares are continuing to become more restrictive. As of August 13, 2024, Economy Light passengers on long haul flights will have to pay if they don’t like the seat that they’re assigned at check-in. This matches the policy that Lufthansa added on short haul flights roughly two years ago.
Obviously Lufthansa is doing everything it can to generate ancillary revenue, as airlines are dealing with yield issues, due to increases in capacity. For some, I’m sure this will change the value proposition of Lufthansa’s Economy Light fares.
What do you make of Lufthansa’s Economy Light seating policy change?
You all seem to forget one thing: you get what you pay for! Don't buy Economy Light and you won't face this problem. Lufthansa provides plenty of other fares.
And to those of you who cannot stop themselves bashing Lufthansa's Business Class: this post was about Economy Light. You all remind me of Pavlov's dogs!
except for the fact that what was Economy pricing before, became Economy Light, hence buying regular Economy again is a paid upgrade.
Lufthansa Business Class is so absolutely miserable, I can’t even fathom Economy Light.
After flying the A220 in Economy I decided to never again do this. Also on my last flight (in J) they announced there would be no service in economy as there were too many business passengers on board.
The A220 is one of the best planes to fly in coach, especially if you sit on the left side where it's only two seats side by side.
If I booked a ticket 2 months ago for travel in February 2025, will the rules that were in effect when I purchased my ticket apply or the rules in effect in the day I fly?
You made a contract with Lufthansa when they took your money and issued your ticket. Those conditions apply.
It has been mentionned (not in this article), that the change also impact new bookings, so you will have to pay if you want to select your seat!
Air Canada tried something similar a few months back but quickly retreated citing “operational issues” after a fast and fierce backlash. In the meantime the ability to see the specific seat selection prices on their seat map, visible in the early stage of an AC booking, has conveniently disappeared, so now even that minimal level of up-front price disclosure has gone. Now you only get to see that pricing once they have your credit card.
...Air Canada tried something similar a few months back but quickly retreated citing “operational issues” after a fast and fierce backlash. In the meantime the ability to see the specific seat selection prices on their seat map, visible in the early stage of an AC booking, has conveniently disappeared, so now even that minimal level of up-front price disclosure has gone. Now you only get to see that pricing once they have your credit card.
On a recent YYZ-MAD booking, the seat selection cost on a Basic Fare was still visible (ideal if only carry-on bag or free checked bag with credit card perk) and C$92.50 each way. That adds almost C$400 to a round trip booking for 2 people and more if connecting flights are involved. That’s $400 better spent on a nicer hotel or meals at the destination, considering that any AC seat will be just as cramped and uncomfortable as the the same seat they want you to pay C$92.50 for (while also insisting that it is not guaranteed anyway).
The motivation seems to be to have fares appearing more competitive in search engines such as Google Flights. In the past the seat selection fee was much lower but now it has become such an expensive add-on I imagine AC etc have noticed that too many people are booking Basic Fares with zero incremental revenue, hence the threat of punitive pricing by Lufthansa (and maybe AC too). That must present quite a dilemma as simply restricting the number of Basic Fare seats could lead to empty ones at departure.
The good news (as of a few months ago) was that on check-in for Swiss / AC flights the pre-selected seats were what we would have picked anyway or we were able to change at no cost.
Good article and valuable information for all air travelers.
I pity the people who must fly Lufthansa Group due to their monopoly (soon to be expanded, courtesy of European Commission). I'd rather fly United and that's something.
It used to be the following. Take BE if you weren't checking luggage, and if the plane wasn't too full, you'd get a seat as good as what you would have paid €28 (each way as seen on a LHR-FRA r/t) extra for. (The €28 would have given a checked bag, but assume you didn't need/want it.) My guess is they thought many were taking the gamble (more likely to pay off with emptier flights)....
It used to be the following. Take BE if you weren't checking luggage, and if the plane wasn't too full, you'd get a seat as good as what you would have paid €28 (each way as seen on a LHR-FRA r/t) extra for. (The €28 would have given a checked bag, but assume you didn't need/want it.) My guess is they thought many were taking the gamble (more likely to pay off with emptier flights). Price discrimination has been the hallmark of post-deregulation air travel. The hope may not be as much to see some BE customers pay the fee. The hope may be to get potential BE customers to buy regular Y.
It shouldn’t even be legal to make changes to existing bookings like this. Customers (me included) booked Economy Light fares knowing the terms of the booking, including seat selection, which are now changing. Sure, the Contract of Carriage probably permits this, but at a minimum this is false advertising for existing bookings. I’m surprised European consumer laws don’t protect against this “bait-and-switch”.
The laws protect against this and such court cases are almost universally won by customers. To be fair, I'm not sure LHG confirmed this will apply to existing reservations.
Don’t forget LH is an ULCC, so they best compare to Ryanair and Wizz. Their offering of F class on some intercontinental flights is a weird outlier.
Don't insult Ryanair. Ryanair operates on time and has an actual customer service which is easy to reach and can help you with the request, unlike Lufthansa where you have to call (to be fair, you probably can send a fax too) to be connected with someone on the other side of the planet who can't even comprehend any request beyond a simple rebooking.
Yet another sign that the regulators have been sleeping too much and in bed too much with the industry kingpins who have built up these cartels and created very customer-unfriendly oligopolies that fleece and fool consumers.
The airlines are doing everything they can to shake money out of already captive customers, and they are doing this for the same reason scamming hotels in the Americas have “resort/destination/amenity” and such fees: to advertise a lower price to consumers to bait them in and then hit them with the additional charges after the customers have already been hooked on the fishing line.
Not only the seat assignment. There is also extreme bag policy - if you buy the bag 8+ days in advance, the price for intra Europe flight is 30 eur. If you buy 7- days, it is dynamic pricing, last week I paid 190 euro per one-way.
Both seat assignment and bag policy is far more greedy than Ryanair.
And yes, *G will not help in this case, no benefits on Economy Light
Does star alliance gold member (from outside LH group) get 1 free luggage item on this fare?
No
In Star Alliance world with European carriers, the Star Gold additional bag benefit doesn’t always mean 0+ 1 = 1. More typically it means 0+1= 0. It’s ridiculous but that is how they have done it.
That's not correct, TP, LO, A3 are all fine with 0+1=1, not sure about Croatia or the few THY fares without luggage. Once SAS are gone, the LH Group will be the 'outlier'!
Having said that, I do think LH allow *G one piece of luggage when on Eco Light intercontinental tickets... unless of course they're in the process of enhancing that away too!
Last year, LH @ ORD didn’t charge me for a checked-in bag on an “economy minus” ticket. I assume it was because of my A3*G status, but even otherwise it wouldn’t be the only times the LH business/first class check-in staff at US airports didn’t want to be bothered asking me to pay for bags.
The 0+1=0 only applies in Europe on LHG and SK (with SK leaving Star Alliance next month). All other European carriers in Star Alliance apply 0+1=1.
As for your ORD experience, that's not a case of agent not being bothered, there's a waiver for longhaul flights on LH and OS (but not on LX).
LHG+SK amount to more of the Star Alliance world with European carriers than TP, LO, A3, and OU together do. And TK I don’t really consider to be a European carrier.
Also, notice one thing about TP, LO, A3 and OU — they are basically at the peripheries of the EU/Schengen zone and thus about as practical given population distributions in the area as Aer Lingus is when going from say Paris to Berlin/Rome/Madrid/Vienna on...
LHG+SK amount to more of the Star Alliance world with European carriers than TP, LO, A3, and OU together do. And TK I don’t really consider to be a European carrier.
Also, notice one thing about TP, LO, A3 and OU — they are basically at the peripheries of the EU/Schengen zone and thus about as practical given population distributions in the area as Aer Lingus is when going from say Paris to Berlin/Rome/Madrid/Vienna on a carrier to get a 0+1 = 1 free bag benefit as Star Gold. And Aer Lingus obviously doesn’t provide any Star Gold benefits.
Never flown Lufthansa on a revenue long-haul, not planning on doing it anytime soon. Even award redemptions are unattractive, particularly if you have to pay the comical fuel surcharges.
However, there's no real alternative to the LH group for anyone who frequently travels within Europe. We really are stuck with them. AFKL have a lot fewer flights (which means they can be really expensive if you want to fly on a specific date), IAG...
Never flown Lufthansa on a revenue long-haul, not planning on doing it anytime soon. Even award redemptions are unattractive, particularly if you have to pay the comical fuel surcharges.
However, there's no real alternative to the LH group for anyone who frequently travels within Europe. We really are stuck with them. AFKL have a lot fewer flights (which means they can be really expensive if you want to fly on a specific date), IAG are completely irrelevant and might only be worthwhile for those based in London (not the UK in general) or Spain (they have great arrangements for intermodal travel). The likes of Ryanair don't really work because most of their routes don't even have daily frequencies.
Such an idiot statement. Plenty of non stop low cost/classic carriers within Europe. So no you don’t have to fly LH.
The LCC route networks and schedules from much of Europe don’t work very well for a lot of travelers. Often they have too few flights, flight times or route networks which don’t work all that well. And often they tend to be much worse for IRROPS handling than the legacy majors.
And given how punitive hotels have been getting with cancellation deadlines, there is also the increased expense to consider related to the risk of...
The LCC route networks and schedules from much of Europe don’t work very well for a lot of travelers. Often they have too few flights, flight times or route networks which don’t work all that well. And often they tend to be much worse for IRROPS handling than the legacy majors.
And given how punitive hotels have been getting with cancellation deadlines, there is also the increased expense to consider related to the risk of a schedule disruption or delay if going the LCC way even if the LCC has a non-stop route that competes directly with a legacy major airline for the airport pair.
And if a person books their flights way in advance on an LCC, don’t be surprised if the LCC eventually cuts the route and leave the person hanging with bad choices by saying they have given the person 14 days or whatever advanced notice so as to not have to offer much of anything but a refund.
This comment was unnecessarily rude. Ryanair, Easyjet and other ULCC do not fly daily routes to many of the destinations they serve. For daily service on a full network, LH Group dominates central Europe and the purchase of ITA further advances this central european monopoly. OK is gone. LOT is Star Alliance, and AFKL is a solid competitor but not on several routes. If you live in central europe it feels like you are stuck...
This comment was unnecessarily rude. Ryanair, Easyjet and other ULCC do not fly daily routes to many of the destinations they serve. For daily service on a full network, LH Group dominates central Europe and the purchase of ITA further advances this central european monopoly. OK is gone. LOT is Star Alliance, and AFKL is a solid competitor but not on several routes. If you live in central europe it feels like you are stuck with LH and their associates and this is another move that their monopoly position has taken that is harmful to consumers. EU regulators should be really ashamed they found themselves here.
@Nb - Some people travel because they actually need to get somewhere at some time and can't wait for one of the Ryanair's three flights a week on a given route. If FR offered transfers, that would be very different, but they don't.
AFKL has enough flights but they're hubs are in the same area sort of at the edge of the continent so they're quite a detour on many routes and thus impractical. Sadly, EC is corrupted enough to approve extending LHG's monopoly area all the way to Italy so things are about to get even worse.
The EC has really been messing up by kissing up too much to Franco-German big business interests. They have allowed for the AF-KL behemoth to take over basically one region jointly while giving over another core region to the LHG monster along with its SN toehold in the midst of the AF-KL behemoth’s region. And then they throw LH another bone in letting them eat ITA. In this environment of reduced competition, it’s no surprise...
The EC has really been messing up by kissing up too much to Franco-German big business interests. They have allowed for the AF-KL behemoth to take over basically one region jointly while giving over another core region to the LHG monster along with its SN toehold in the midst of the AF-KL behemoth’s region. And then they throw LH another bone in letting them eat ITA. In this environment of reduced competition, it’s no surprise we end up with much worse devaluations in the frequent flyer program points. The people in the EU who should be protecting consumers with more competition are not doing so when it comes to the big European companies.
It has nothing to do with companies and everything to do with member states. Despite the picture right wing media like to paint, there is almost no power in "Brussels" (except EP to an extent, but it's intentionally made weak). EC is actually very good at standing up against big companies, European or not, but they can't stand up against member states as those hold the actual power over the Commission.
This is the camel that broke the straw. Am buying a business class from Europe to Asia and the two best options are LH A350 and TK. From LH nothing but customer-punishing news lately, including the bizarre and highly confusing 7 seat types business class with seat assignment fees they're going to charge extra for.
Contempt for customers usually permeates the organisation and the product suffer, so TK will be.
I don't think that's how you use camels.
I am 5’1 and 130lbs, not a linebacker and LH business class seats are still too narrow to lie flat. Unless you are smaller than me, don’t do it!
There are plenty Middle East Carriers that offer multiple connections to Asia, with topnotch planes, better service and ticket prices. We avoid LH with there superior attitude towards pax ..
even Senator members can't select a seat free of charge upon check-in when travelling economy light. Beyond crazy.
this and it is "surprising" how often even as a *Gold you placed in the middle seat when you don't agree to the absurd idea of paying the hefty seat selection charge.
This is why AFKLM is generally better - status easily outranks LH as silver members and up get free baggage on light fares and platinum members get free seat selection with AF/KLM. I believe BA allows it as well. Stopped flying LH years ago unless i absolutely have to, its really just a glorified Ryanair these days.
Even silvers get free selection on AFKL. Only the standard seats, true, but you won't end up in a middle seat.
Yeah, this really sucks. But i have to say that when I check in online as LH*G, i always get a front seat on LH, while OS doesnt seem to give a damm and seats me somewhere by row 28 the "no +1 bag" on light fare is ridiculous, not only in comparison with IB for example. IB*S already has prio boarding, prio checkin and +1 bag no matter what fare.
While this policy won’t affect me it does make me want to book away from LH group airlines because it’s a reflection of how they nickel and dime everything they can and how they have little respect for their customers if they think they can get away with it.
Maybe Lufthansa is struggling because they still operate such massively lackluster business class cabins. A massive part of the profits airlines makes come from their premium products, usually turns out to be even more than economy. Because Lufthansa took so much time to invest in a new product they know deal with financial consequences of less people in their premium cabins now they need to find other quick ways to compensate for that.
The most profitable cabin for the space on these long-haul flights is the “premium economy product” which I try to avoid like it’s the plague.