March 2017 | Airlines are becoming more creative in selling ancillary services to passengers in order to increase revenues per seat. For example, many airlines today offer passengers the option to place their bids in a blind auction for an upgrade to a premium seat, while airlines such as KLM and Emirates invite passengers to contact the tablet-equipped crew if they want upgrade to another cabin at the very last minute onboard.

Selling upgrades at the gate
Lufthansa has recently trialled an innovative way to sell upgrades to Premium Economy at the departure gate. Earlier this year, the airline used virtual reality (VR) glasses at its Frankfurt Airport hub as a way to tempt Economy Class passengers to purchase an upgrade to Premium Economy right before their departure.

By inviting passengers to put on some VR glasses and take a 360 degrees view of how the Premium Economy seat and cabin looks, Lufthansa hoped passengers booked in Economy would become more interested to purchase an upgrade.

As Lufthansa put it: “Because what legroom and premium service really mean in Premium Economy can be best demonstrated in three-dimensional form.”

For two weeks flights were selected for the VR-based promotion on a daily basis, choosing those where there were still enough seats free in Premium Economy. Up until 40 minutes before departure, passengers were given the chance to virtually try out Lufthansa’s new travel class in 3D.

Passengers who decided to go for the upgrade could then pay the surcharge directly at the gate with an agent carrying a mobile payment device.

According to Lufthansa it has already achieved considerable success with upgrading passengers to Premium Economy through the use of VR in the U.S.

Lufthansa and virtual reality
Over the past few years, Lufthansa has been busy experimenting with the usage of virtual reality devices and was one of the first airlines to use 360-degree films at trade fairs such as the ITB, as well as for advertising promotions.

Furthermore, the airline last month offered passengers the chance to try out the Avegant Glyph video glasses at its Business lounge at Frankfurt Airport and has featured the same glasses onboard its Flying Lab flights to San Diego, New York and Houston.

source : https://tinyurl.com/lm5sj6a

Lufthansa Group is aiming to offer passengers service “personalized on a silver tray”

by utilizing “predictive analytics” to determine what offerings individual customers want, a senior executive said.

Speaking to reporters during a Feb. 2 briefing in New York, SVP sales-Lufthansa hub airlines and CCO-Frankfurt hub Heike Birlenbach explained that Lufthansa plans to “pinpoint the respective needs of an individual customer rather than offering them everything we have.”

The initiative is part of Lufthansa Group’s $430 million investment in digitalization through 2020. “We have customer data about activities” that can be analyzed and utilized to explore revenue opportunities, Birlenbach said. “For example, we have learned there is a certain timing when a customer is looking for an upgrade, and it’s not when the ticket is booked or on the day of the flight. [The ideal time to offer an upgrade is] in between purchasing the ticket and the date of flight. [Lufthansa has analyzed data to determine] when is the best time a customer would respond to an upgrade offer.”

Lufthansa believes communication with passengers via smartphones and other devices should be ongoing, and not limited to the day of ticket purchasing and the day of flight. It is enabling passengers to choose onboard entertainment options as much as six weeks ahead of a flight, for example.

Lufthansa will also make sure a passenger has the digital reading material he or she wants. It is offering passengers 250 digital titles in 18 languages. “The times are gone when we say, ‘The magazine is not available because the last customer took it’,” Birlenbach said.

The data used to tailor offerings to passengers is “not necessarily linked to the frequent flyer program,” Birlenbach noted. The data could come from a joint venture partner’s frequent flyer program or just from general information about passengers flying aboard Lufthansa Group airlines.

“The key is who has the basic data,” added Lufthansa Group VP sales-Americas Tamur Goudarzi-Pour. “We have the data that many players in the industry [such as airports] do not have. If we know you have a 3-hour transfer time, but you are not a frequent flyer, we’ll offer you access to the airport lounge [on the day of the trip for a price]. But we do not want to overdo it. After three rejected offers [of lounge access by a specific passenger], we will no longer make the offer … This is real. This is not something for the future. This is already happening on the ground in Munich.”

Birlenbach said 2017 is viewed as “the year of digitalization within Lufthansa Group.” Using advanced analytics is a “mega-trend” in business that Lufthansa wants to get ahead of, she added.

“There are many opportunities in terms of interaction with customers,” Birlenbach said. “We can improve profit margins by having additional revenue sources … We believe that if the air transport itself is rather exchangeable [from airline to airline], we need to differentiate in other services.”

source : https://tinyurl.com/jvdcxeu

On the heels of CES’ tech takeover of Las Vegas, Lufthansa Airlines and its subsidiaries yesterday converged at Frankfurt Airport, transforming the hub into a forum on digital aviation.

“I think, by now, we all agree that we live in a digital world,” said chairman and CEO Carsten Spohr, who lauded the airline’s reputation for being “the most digital airline.” The goal for 2017, Spohr says, is to become “the most digital aviation group.”

Digital innovations on display included Avegant Glyph headsets, an artificial intelligence-driven chatbot named Mildred and one of five Inmarsat GX radome-equipped Airbus A319s, ready for take off. Lufthansa’s FlyNet Internet service, powered by Inmarsat Ka-band satellite connectivity, is now online and will be available to customers in three service packages: FlyNet Message, FlyNet Surf and FlyNet Stream. Delegates from the press tested streaming capacity on the service’s inaugural flight, watching a live ground-to-air teleconference.

With four days downtime required for radome installation by Lufthansa Technik on each aircraft, Lufthansa aims to have 10 A320s equipped by the end of the first quarter and 100 aircraft by spring, completing the full-fleet roll out in roughly 15 months. Austrian Airlines has also launched its service, and will have 31 aircraft equipped by April this year, while Eurowings plans to begin installation early spring and equip its 69 aircraft by end of summer.

But for Spohr, who shyly admits preferring to disconnect while he’s flying, passenger connectivity is just a piece of Lufthansa’s sweeping digital strategy. “When we think about marketing, it truly has changed from communication only in non-digital environments to being present in a digital world via various channels,” he says, adding that the airline’s head of Marketing now spends at least 50 percent of his time devoted to cultivating the airline’s digital presence.

Lufthansa Group’s SMILE program, which takes its name from the cheerful acronym for “Surpass My Individual Lufthansa Experience,” focuses on using customer data to provide personalized marketing and services. “We’re using a multitude of different customer data points, and we’re using a lot of market research, which we’ve always done, but we’re matching that very deeply with ethnographic research,” explains David Doyle, SMILE’s program director.

“We don’t believe that digitalization will create job losses.” — Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa

A recent SMILE initiative involved deploying 200 Bluetooth beacons at Munich Airport that can read digital boarding pass data as travelers pass by, and send offers for lounge access, via Lufthansa’s app, to those who have more than 65 minutes before departure.

Spohr affirms that the group’s digital ambitions will not threaten jobs, adding that the group will add 3,000 personnel over 2017, including 2,200 flight attendant positions. “It’s not either or,” he says. “We don’t believe that digitalization will create job losses, but rather we believe that it will create additional jobs because it will make Lufthansa bigger and more successful.”

source: http://tinyurl.com/z96e2e8

The complete offerings include music and audio books for adults and children in Lufthansa’s in-flight entertainment system

•  The partnership is set to begin in Summer 2016

Napster has taken over the skies as the first music streaming service in Germany! Streaming services are enjoying increasingly more popularity, whether at home, on the way to work, at the gym or on vacation at the beach. To enjoy the diverse range of music in the air, Napster and Lufthansa Systems have formed a strategic partnership.

Lufthansa Systems is one of the world’s leading suppliers in the Airline Industry and already equips a variety of airlines across the globe with its innovative BoardConnect platform, as well as the corresponding entertainment content. Through Lufthansa System’s BoardConnect, Napster will offer passengers selected playlists and audiobooks for adults and children, making traveling more enjoyable and entertaining.

By this summer, Napster and Lufthansa Systems together want to equip the first airline with the service, Eurowings.

Aside from having access to the extensive selection of music and audio books from Napster, the greatest feature is that passengers will no longer have to use the built-in aircraft screens to access the media content, but will also be able to connect their own smartphones or tablets with BoardConnect via onboard WLAN. With this connection, users can enjoy a selection from the music-streaming pioneer. The Napster playlists, as well as audio books will be updated monthly and provide plenty of popular and up-to-date content for all ages.

Patric Niederländer, Vice President of Business Development Europe at Napster, said of the cooperation with Lufthansa Systems, “Napster has always stood for innovation.

We are pleased to have developed, together with our partner Lufthansa Systems, an attractive proposition with which we move into another business segment. Our aim is to offer all music lovers the best and most multifaceted listening experience – whether on the ground or in the air.”

“Diverse onboard entertainment programs are increasingly becoming a competitive advantage for airlines,” says Olivier Krüger, CEO of Lufthansa Systems. “We are pleased to have found in Napster an important partner, who brings with it its music expertise and will in the future provide our BoardConnect platform with an exciting program.”

In addition to the selected music program on board, Napster will initially offer all Euro Wings passengers discounts after their flight. That means that all passengers who register during the flight can then enjoy three months of Napster for just one euro and discover new music through playlists, recommendations and advice.

Favorite artists, albums or single tracks, as well as individually created playlists, can be stored and easily managed in the user archive. Favorite songs and albums can also be accessed by up to three devices, i.e. smartphones, tablets or computers with iOS, Android or Windows operating systems. The premium service also allows users to download individual songs, albums, or playlists to access offline, which requires no mobile data or Wi-Fi – the perfect solution for enjoying music on the move. The completely ad-free catalog of more than 40 million music tracks, as well as the more than 15,000 audio books of all genres for users in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, leaves nothing to be desired.

read more : https://www.lhsystems.com/article/partner-news-lufthansa-systems-and-napster-take-flight

The platform enables passengers to use iPads for purchasing exclusive products from airport stores and have them delivered within half an hour. The online product range extends from fine delicacies and spirits or fashionable accessories to practical travel goods and leather goods.

The product range will be further expanded in the coming months. Meanwhile, in addition to ‘Lounge Shopping’ for departing travellers, a new ‘Inflight Shopping’ service for arriving passengers will also be introduced during the first quarter of this year. On long-haul flights to Frankfurt, Lufthansa passengers may purchase exclusive products from airport stores during their flight and collect them at the arrival gate immediately after landing.

Another digital service offered by Lufthansa and Fraport in the near future will be the new ‘Taste & Travel’ Gourmet Service. The airline’s passengers will be able to use iPads available in the check-in area and near security checkpoints to choose menus for delivery to their departure gate. These will be delivered in high quality, heat-insulating packaging thereby enabling travellers to enjoy their chosen meal while on the Aircraft

read more : http://tinyurl.com/h78lj58

A couple of weeks ago, every thinkpiece in your feed was already attempting to define 2016 as “The Year of…” but, for Lufthansa, it’s the year of luggage solutions – and it doesn’t need 2,500 words to explain why. The German carrier has been experimenting with digital bag tags for the past few months but, this year, it expects to place its touchless bag drop system in additional airports and also to make it easier for passengers to claim compensation, should the airline somehow misplace their luggage.

Read more : http://tinyurl.com/zkfbujq