[Anonymous]

[LuganoPirate]

For those of us miffed when LH decided to increase the miles needed for a ticket, this will be of interest..

“A German court has ruled that it is unlawful for an airline to increase the amount of miles needed for a reward flight at short notice as this effectively devaluates a frequent flyer’s miles. In the case in question, a German professor with 800.000 miles in his account sued after Lufthansa had increased the miles required for award flights at short notice without a reasonable transition period. The frequent flyer argued that, based on his travelling habits, the change had devaluated his account by 40 per cent. The court held that the change was unlawful and that Lufthansa must guarantee a reasonable transition period that allows customers to spend miles already earned under the conditions applicable for reward flights when the miles were earned (effectively forcing Lufthansa to maintain two or more separate accounts for each customer).

German FTD has already calculated that the ruling could cost Lufthansa close to 1bn EUR if upheld at the appeals stage as the changes that came into effect in early 2011 saved Lufthansa the equivalent of 320.000 business-class TATL tickets.

Interesting development – apparently a law firm is already soliciting disgruntled frequent flyers. The funny thing is that the guy who won the case offered Lufthansa a settlement well into the litigation, but Lufthansa reacted in its usual blasé way of treating customers, arguing that it was completely up to them how the FFP is designed.

Have there been similar cases in other jurisdictions? This could cost airlines billions…..

soure (only in German): http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/handel…sieg-gegen-lufthansa/70009690.html”

the link to the comments can be found here:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/5414772/

[DavidDab]

Well, after my lost luggage incident in Bremen on 25/01/12, and the very poor way in which LH dealt with the matter on the spot at 11pm in the evening, it looks like they are not flavour of the month. For me it’s a shame that I have so many FF Miles with Lufthansa, as a Senator member and have Senator status until 2015, as it brings no benefit when things go wrong. For all their hi-tech systems they sorely lack the personal touch that one receives, for example, from Singapore Airlines, when things go wrong. I fully agree that changes in FF miles policy when customers have built up big airmile balances in good faith should be accompanied by sensible transition periods. In this case at 12 months’ notice would have been helpful.

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