Strike plagued Lufthansa has decided to once again credit their Miles and More status customers extra Elite Qualifying Miles for the membership year 2016 as universal compensation for all strikes.
This is a repeat of the same promotion in previous years when the airline was also struck by numerous strikes inconveniencing their passengers, many of which decided to jump ship to other carriers in the process.
Lufthansa Airlines and their passengers have experienced close to a month of strikes in 2016. LoyaltyLobby has covered each of these strikes and the effects on passengers and the daily operation.
For many of the customers, this uncertainty meant that they began to rather book on competing airlines instead of continuing to book Lufthansa flights.
In order to retain some of customers goodwill, the airline has now decided to credit their Miles&More customers with HON Circle, Senator and Frequent Traveler Status with various amounts of Elite Qualifying Miles as a bonus for 2016.
Here is one version of the letters arriving in customers email today:
It outlines the challenges both company and customers faced and acknowledges shortcomings in service during the strike periods. Based on information LoyaltyLobby has, customers will receive the following bonus miles:
- HON Circle: 30,000 HON Circle Miles
- Senator: 10,000 Status (EQM) Miles
- Frequent Traveler: 3,000 Status (EQM) Miles
These will credit to the account automatically and effect the status qualification year of 2016.
Some members already anticipated this bonus is coming and somewhat calculated it into their overall flying pattern over the year but to be honest I’d say while this is a nice gesture, only a very small percentage of Miles&More customers will be able to really profit from this bonus for various reasons.
It is extremely difficult (and dangerous) to set up a re-qualification strategy based on the sole assumption of getting x amount of status miles in mid December. If these miles do not materialize you might face the necessity of an expensive year-end status run during the holiday period.
Furthermore, not every member can actually qualify in 2016 as Miles&More has so called ‘dead years’ where you can not re-qualify if you have done so two previous periods prior (Each qualification period is good for 2 years of Status).
Conclusion
I think this is a fair promotion and likely the maximum the airline can do. Keep in mind, if a passenger had travel booked on Lufthansa but got rescheduled on another carrier there is always the option of applying for ‘Original Routing Credit’ for the mileage supposed to be earned on Lufthansa flights.
If a customer pro-actively books on other airlines then they can do so on Star Alliance carriers that still earn status miles (but not the 25% Elite Miles bonus that are also Status qualifying) or other Lufthansa Group airlines such as Swiss or Austrian.
I personally will not profit from this bonus at all but to be honest I wasn’t effected a single bit since I simply didn’t fly on the Lufthansa Group much this year. I’m happy for all who can extend their status another round with this credit.
