Lufthansa City Airlines: Yet Another Cost-Saving Subsidiary

I doubt that City Airlines will be operating under their own VL code, just like Lufthansa CityLine never operated under their CL code. It does say “operated by CityLine” in the booking, but no CL-flight number to be seen anywhere.
I did a test booking for September and there is one flight from MUC to BER shown as “operated by Lufthansa City” which should be VL, but definitely only a LH flight number.
So you can exhale, as I am pretty sure *A FF benefits will be honoured. No need to stir something up here…

that’s all that company do is create more airlines to move employees to pay them low wages

This just says how weak LH labor groups are in negotiating real scope clauses to prevent scope creep and how the company settled the latest round of strikes knowing full well that they would extract a pound of flesh for the pay raises they agreed to .

They won't. There's extensive discussion about this on Flyertalk. Lufthansa have said that their intention is for VL to join the Alliance, but unless and until that happens it'll be an Air Dolomiti type situation- no miles or *G perks whatsoever.

Some BHX-MUC is filed as VL with an LH codeshare for sure - CL flying is LH operated by CL. So it is different. I cannot see any *A availability on VL flights for example.

All of the Lufthansa Group subsidiaries are:

Austrian Airlines
Brussels Airlines
Lufthansa City Airlines
Discover Airlines
Eurowings (plus Eurowings Europe)
Lufthansa Cargo
Lufthansa Regional (Air Dolomiti and Lufthansa CityLine)
Swiss International Air Lines (plus Edelweiss Air)

I think Lufthansa pilots should strike until pay scales are unified among the entire group. Then there wouldn't be any benefit for the airline to act so unscrupulously.

It is unbelievable how European regulators continue to allow Lufthansa to circumvent collective bargaining agreements and stricter labor laws by using these sham subsidiaries, not to mention how Lufthansa seems to be virtually exempt from antitrust laws when it comes to merger control.

Between VL and EN, it's now quite easy to buy a ticket from Lufthansa for travel on 4 LH-coded segments via MUC and receive no *A benefits whatsoever. I wonder whether, on addition to miles and lounge access, they will have the temerity to deny *G members additional baggage. They have also made SN flights to BHX seasonal [for the time being] and cut their route to NCL, clearly doing their best to hand the UK regional market over to KLM.

The difference is that EN actually operates their flights under EN flight number (plus LH codeshare), so I cannot see that happening.

OMG you’re absolutely right. That changes the situation of course. Very bad move by them.

As a *A flyer I avoid LH as much as possible. Add this to the list of reasons why.

I never fly with them intercontinentally, but for trips within Europe they aren't easy to avoid. Unless you are flying to/from a major hub, the alternatives to them typically are restricted to KLM with their diabolical hub airport and lounge mice and LCC flights with erratic schedules and/or inconvenient timing.

I don’t understand how LH Group is so so convoluted and continues to do so whereas AF-KL has eliminated Joon and focused on core operations and Transavia. And LH Group’s fleet planning is such a mess, even before Covid, where an A330 or A340 went from Lufthansa then Swiss then Brussels then Edelweiss (just a random fictional example).

Their name has been changed before they even started flying, from "City Airlines" to "Lufthansa City Airlines".

Most of those subsidiaries' on behalf of their parent company airline. Even in Japan, both JAL and ANA's regional airlines have their own IATA codes, but all except Japan Transocean Air just fly as a normal flight of their respective parent airline.

With the price of LH stock going down and down, shareholders made their judgement call about LH‘s pathetic management.

I expect that Iberia Express (I2) is a similar entity which has been expanding of late (I2 now operates MAD-TLV which used to be a classic IB route)

AFKL works well for me. Are AMS and CDG great? No, but neither is FRA. And for central European itineraries there are some really nice smaller carriers like LOT.

LHG isn't always totally easy to avoid but when it is possible, the alternatives are significantly better.

and Airlines wonder why their employees are furious.

So, it looks like the Allegris seat variety onboard A350 was modelled on the LH Group subsidiary chart...
Also, dyslexics may read it as Allergies, which travellers would risk to acquire when flying LH

Why do people keep flying with them? Germans are spoilt for choice, particularly if they live in Munich or Frankfurt, and it's not as if they're hard-up for a quid.

I guess it's the same reason Brits keep flying BA, Kiwis choose NZ, Australians fly Qantas, and Americans keep flying American - a captive audience, embedded in the frequent flyer program, and beholden to products that just don't compete with the best.

Their European network is second to none, people generally don't like taking overnight connections or ending up at an airport 200km from their actual destination.

It's not just FFP. LH dominates central Europe in a way that you often simply don't have a choice. Sure, there are some smaller carriers like LO, which is excellent, but their network is limited. More often than not, your only alternative is AFKL, but that can be a major detour due to the eccentric position of their hubs.

I'm currently in DEB. Luckily I didn't have to fly, but if I would, my only option would be Lufthansa.

AF also operates a domestic subsidiary called Hop! And KL operates a local subsidiary called KLM City hopper. And they have Transavia for leisure short. So they have 3 subsidiaries for short haul feeder to their two hubs and domestic flights and a low cost price fighter.

Vs LH which also has 2 hubs the only difference is they don't have a long haul leisure subsidiary like Discover (or Edelweiss for Swiss) and they don't have an even lower cost feeder airline not integrated in their loyalty program

I get that but to the everyday consumer who perhaps travels a few times a year or even just once know that AF-KL has Hop! and CityHopper (and Transavia is a total different entity) exists.

But with LH Group, it’s like a new subsidiary every other year.

I just happened to got rebooked for a domestic feeder. The flight number is changing from LH to VL. The actual number remained the same.