Lufthansa is continuing to modernize its fleet by opportunistically picking up planes when there’s a good deal. Back in October we first learned that Lufthansa would be acquiring some used Airbus A350s, which has some interesting implications for the passenger experience. These planes have now been scheduled for next summer, so they could be worth…
Continue reading: Lufthansa Picks Up Former Philippine Airlines A350s
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Gotta love how Philippine Airlines offers a better hard product in Business Class than Lufthansa does these days.
Why not wet lease these planes? Those great Filipino flight attendants can keep their jobs. Lufthansa would spend less than using its own flight attendants.A win-win.
It doesn't matter if the business model does not work out and the airline goes bankrupt.
I don't know why I would expect a racist to have good reading comprehension but since you seem particularly stupid - Lufthansa is taking the planes and nothing else from Philippines.
Hi Ben. Was wondering what website do you use to keep track of the airlines schedule changes and additions. You mentioned that Lufthansa has had many schedule additions in the last 24 hours. How do you find out?
Why get both A350s and 787s, isn't there a huge crossover between them in terms of capacity and range?
I think the business class configuration on these planes feel like premium economy. The "suites" with the doors and the 1-2-1 configuration the seats are much bigger and it seems that you get more space.
I find it interesting how all three of the destinations that the ex-PR A350s will fly to will be in Canada. I wonder what kind of justification they have for this. In my opinion, it doesn't make much sense. If I were Lufthansa management, it would have been almost a no-brainer to put the ex-PR A350s on MUC-LAX, MUC-SFO, and MUC-SIN right away. These are some of the longest routes in LH's network, and therefore, these are probably the routes in which passengers would least want to get LH's inferior 2-2-2 business class product. They are all also Star Alliance hubs and relatively prestigious destinations on their own for both business and leisure. At least, even including MUC-NYC (EWR or JFK) in the group of destinations would be a wiser use of those frames. The thing is that while YVR, YYZ, and YUL are also strong places and they are the primary hubs of Star and TATL JV partner Air Canada, YYZ and YUL especially are relatively short hops across the pond, to the point that I feel like they wouldn't really need the best J product LH can offer. I wouldn't be surprised if they revised their plan on where to fly the ex-PR A350s.
Additionally, I wonder what is the reason they don't just retrofit the 5 secondhand 787s to match the new product Lufthansa will be having on their new delivery 787s. And apparently, that product will be different from their new 777X business class. It seems like they are deliberately working on making their long-haul business class seat portfolio unnecessarily complex, almost to the level of how AA's used to be like until last year. Which is so strange, when for a while, LH was known for consistency by having the same exact F seat and subpar J seat throughout their entire long-haul fleet, and it was even apparently a major factor in making them a "Skytrax 5-star airline". Lol. I also want to see them retrofit the 747-8s and A330s (since realistically the 747-400s and A340s are on their way out) with the new business class seat, but apparently, they don't have any plans for that.
I flew LH´s business class countless times and yes, there are better ones out there but it´s not like the product would be any bad. I feel dinging them for not having direct aisle access on every seat is stupid. There are a lot of families enjoying this layout and if you dont, you can still have a direct aisle. Heck, I know reasonable people that - if they went with family - booked UA´s old 8 abreast business as it made herding kids easier. For normal people there´s nothing wrong with the layout for the love of god...
@Super
Where exactly do you see any racist remarks? Can we please stop with the race card for once?
haha actually you are giving the answer to your question yourself. SIN, SFO, LAX and also for example NYC are super strong business markets in which LH for sure doesn't want to loose 40% of their business seat capacity. I have insight into LH, LX and OS seat occupancy numbers and trust me, those destinations are always full in J, notwithstanding the mediocre business class. CAN Destinations however are very often overbooked in Y and not full in J, so their strategy is perfectly reasonable.
Booked miles n more award ticket DEL-MUC in June 2022 & was pleasantly surprised to find 1-2-1 configuration in business class while doing seat selection. hence they seem to operate Delhi- Munich sector with these new 350.