In 2021, Lufthansa eliminated free drinks and snacks in short haul economy, in a move that reportedly saved the airline $0.66 per passenger. Obviously passengers haven’t been happy about this change, and several months ago, the airline ran a trial, whereby it reinstated free coffee and tea in short haul economy.
Continue reading: Lufthansa CEO Not Sure Airline Can Afford To Bring Back “Free” Coffee
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
@ JPP — Yes, using miles, when it’s the best value. Not sure what’s wrong with that/what your point is?
So the free stuff for everyone isn’t fun anymore ? The price of arabica coffee beans went up 72% this year. Wah wah wahhhh
We offer complementary beverages. Additional alcohol and coffee drinks may be purchased.
@ D3kingg — To be clear, soft drinks aren’t free either. The idea was that coffee and tea would be the lowest cost thing to bring back, since you can use water from the plane’s tanks.
this is why I like Ben
"My thoughts on Spohr are no secret — I think he’s one of the least competent senior leaders in the industry, and I don’t understand how he has been in his role for so long. Let me be clear, I’m no Lufthansa hater. Quite to the contrary, I want Lufthansa to be successful and competitive."
we all have our heroes and villains.
LH is the flagship of the group and it is in the biggest mess and seems least able to get itself out of said mess even while its competitors outstrategize LH.
“an average profit of around seven EUR per passenger”. I unfortunately have to book incredibly expensive last minute economy tickets for my clients. 3K for Y FRA - US is not uncommon or 1K intra-EU flights in eco these days.
How is that €7 profit measured? I really don’t get it, even booking early, intra-EU flights are easily €250+ nowadays on legacy carriers. Double from pre-covid.
If a cup of coffee is too expensive for the airline, perhaps cut the CEO’s salary, you can get millions of cup of coffee’s for that.
For that flight to Zurich, you'll probably spend at least 2 hours getting to and from the airport/going through security, flying the flight, etc. You could spend 4 hours and a fraction of the cost to simply take the train from Munich to Germany.
Writing from North America, we ave a different view of “short haul.” Seattle to Vancouver is booked as one hour, with 42 minutes flying time. On a recent flight, in first we got a choice from 2 or 3 drinks before take off, no service in the air. But flying 2 hours in business on LH from Helsinki to Frankfurt this year, I got a very nice 3-course meal with drinks offered 3 times. When I expressed my astonishment at the level of service on such a short flight, the FA laughed and told me that was a long flight for them. Their short haul is really short, and Alaska, at least, offers nothing in economy on flights like that.
I can't afford to pay LHG's ridiculous fares for a low-cost service when AFKL offers full service product (for now) at a lower price. Such is life.
Nice meal on Lufthansa? That would be first 🙂 Surely a three course meal is a bare minimum on a two hours flight? There's not much they can cut at that point, unless they want to go the US way of serving peanuts in premium cabins.
Indeed, Ben is a Lufthansa LOVER. Perhaps that's not even strong enough of a word. Yet, Ben calls a spade a spade (which is an ancient Roman expression, unrelated to race).
It's calculated as profit divided by number of passengers. The result used to be 15€ per pax before Carsten blew 350 million on strikes. Lufthansa could serve 22 coffees to each passenger if they hired a competent person to run the airline.
Lufthansa has consistently been embarassing and disappointing on a national as well as international stage.
From being bailed out by the government during covid to then cutting and outsourcing thousands of jobs; to now wanting to buy a stake in ITA to then stating they can't afford "free coffee" (is it free when you paid for the damn ticket?) and lastly the terrible performance, they just keep getting worse.
The constantly try to get out of payments according to EU passenger rights (can attest to that myself), making up ridiculous stories for being late. Their business class product is dated and way overpriced and the whole hullaballoo around their new (already dated) business class is just the icing on the turd cake.
As a German I miss Air Berlin everyday.
Well he is talking profit, not revenue. But I still find it strange as well. Then he aslo says business class doesn't make much profit. If you follow his logic, lufthansa should opperate as a not for profit...
It's interesting to hear that they can't afford black coffee or tea for passengers but they can afford flying a entire section of a plane (with probably many more on the horizon) without actual seats (and without paying passengers, of course) 😀
Spohr is so tight, he squeaks when he walks. And when he talks.
Kudos to him for turning a once world-class airline into a parody of corporate culture.
@Ben, it'd be nice to read your thoughts on Spohr's comments about LH not making that much profit from business class. As an average flyer, I have frequently encountered the idea that a flight is profitable thanks to passengers in premium cabins. Also, considering that LH's F is sort of the "affordable" F cabin out there (relative to other airlines and award availability), I can't help but think that this cabin doesn't bring a more substantial profit either. So, if profits from business class are "meh" and coffee for passengers "unaffordable", how does LH make a profit and where does it come from?
Relax Fred. Anyone who is offended by your example is ignorant and deserves to be ridiculed, not feared.
Funny, when I read the article in Spiegel about the disaster of the business class seats for the 13 (and counting) B787 which are sitting in Charleston a few hours ago, I wondered how Spohr managed to still have his job. The whole Allegris disaster really is beyond ridiculous. The product of LH is completely outdated and all Spohr does, is to complain - about employees, about the Middle East Carriers and it goes on and on and on..... It's always someone else's fault.
I believe (and hope) he must be in a hot seat. LHs largest shareholder recently made a clear remark that he is not happy about how the company is run. And that guy is known to be unpleasant or rather quite brutal when things don't go the way he appreciates.
5 Starhansa campaign under Spohr was such a diaster, allegris flooping for 6 years.
Would you pay more money for the ticket if they offered free coffee? Most customers will still book if it's the most affordable or best schedule
How does he still have his job? A dividend yield of 3.7%, paying €0.30 per share. For an airline group that's rather impressive. The board aren't going to fire him if the stockholders are happy. Profit is why they're in business.
I currently live in Germany and like my friends and colleagues fly Lufthansa only if there are no alternatives. Within Europe Lufthansa is just a total embarrassment. Outdated seats, usually no power ports of any kind, almost every flight involves an "Aussenposition" (a bus ride to/from your plane) which is bad if your flight was delayed and you have a connection to make. I am willing to pay somewhere between 100 to 200 Euro more to not fly Lufthansa in European business because the food they serve vs Air France or even other Lufthansa group carriers is a joke. On a rare flight with them I had to ask the flight attendant why it seemed that the buy on board meals seemed to have larger and better quality portions than what they were offering to me in their European business class that day. In Economy I'd rather fly Vueling or other airlines that offer a direct flight. Spohr should be asking himself why Lufthansa needs to worry about 66 cents when people are willing to pay quite a bit more not to fly his airline. Charge a Euro more. That's not a reason why people fly or don't fly your airline. And spend 10 Euros more a business because that 10 Euro is not why people are willing to book or not book your business class. Why is that guy still CEO?
Lufthansa operates as if they have outright contempt for their passengers. The only way I'd book with Lufthansa again is if there was some kind of civilization ending catastrophe impending and the only way to escape to one of the last safe zones on earth was to take a Lufthansa flight.
Even then...I'd have to think about it.
With Star, you'll go far. With Sky, you'll probably die. With DL, you'll burn in hell.
In my opinion, its all about investors. In order to keep growing, LH need investors and their money to keep growing. And they will invest only in companies where they can make some profit, logically. If LH's profit goes down, they might lose the potential investors. And LH need money now that the 77x and the Allegris seats are delayed.
$Q0.66 for a cup of cheap instant coffee? That's the kind of Lufthansa-Maths that results in you having to fly 1.5 tonnes of ballast in every a330 because you can't use a calculator.
I can go without coffee for an hour or two.
However, whining about the cost of coffee against a €500 ticket is wild and it makes me wonder what else LH can't afford to do anymore.
If I'm not getting a Coke Zero for free nobody should be getting coffee or tea.
It’s a late 2024 spoof piece.
Why, Lufthansa enables fares to be so low, and thus competitive by providing light, and slightly less comfortable seats, catering in all classes that reflect shareholder value, and industrial relations with their unions that encourage turnover in the glamour jobs!
“If Once You Start Down The Dark Path, Forever Will It Dominate Your Destiny.”
$p0hr's statements could give some the impression that $p0hr and I$0m have some similarities in their philosophy.
Lufthansa has nothing more to offer. We stopped flying Lufthansa this year. Business class in Europe is a joke and long haul there are way better offers.
The train "from Munich to Germany"? In case you slept through the geography lessons: Munich is located in Germany.
If "0.66 per passenger" is correct, and say only 80% of passengers took it, the cost was presumably 0.83 per cup.
Of course it's actually made up of fixed and variable elements ... 🙂
There is a special place in Gehenna for cretins like Spohr and his Irish doppelganger, Joyce (and Dunn).
I’m not sure if they can afford employing him as a CEO. It’s not only about coffee. The fleet is dated and inefficient, the new Alergis Business Class a disaster compared to almost any other product and customer service in case of IRROPS is abysmal - sometimes even illegal. There are still some great employees at LH, but I’m feeling sorry for them.
we all know that, it’s a typo, but, behold!! taking the train out of Zurich is indeed much more practical and cosy than flying, BUT you might actually never ever arrive OT because after hitting german metal, delays are obligatory. Bahn and LH have so many things in common. Great staff, crappy management
If the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation can say that Cairo Airport has a "nearly 4-star" rating according to Skytrax, then I guess we can call Lufthansa Nearly Five-Starhansa.
Lufthansa has not had a good CEO in decades
They all missed trends in seating and service quality. The current disaster with the Allegris class comes at no surprise
Just look at the previous seat upgrade programs that took them also a decade to get under control and once it was introduced it was already 5 years behind the competition
Lufthansa is not a serious airline anymore
I paid €750 for a flight to Rome from Frankfurt. It’s unacceptable that they won’t serve coffee unless you pay even more. And the plane was 31 years old and the cabin was shabby. Now I’m switching to Ryan Air. I have always stuck to the main carriers because I liked the service and feeling that there was a bit more luxury. But LH has become worse than Ryan Air so what’s the point anymore? It’s been fun, LH, but I’m going to move on.
LH has lost it's way and it's best customers. I write as a soon-to-be-former Senator. The baggage mess at German airports and the inability to ever speak to a human being on the phone did it for me. And there is plenty else.
Leo Balk
Delta is the North Star of SkyTeam and Delta is lucky to have multiple top notch premium partners, Air France, Delta and Virgin Atlantic 🙂
Quality of food, drink and service are a differentiating factor for me absolutely.
Especially as miles earned by actually flying are far less useful.
I fly as little as possible now so the few times I fly I want it to be the best experience possible.