It seems the cooperative nature of Star Alliance has taken another hit, as Lufthansa slashes code-share with fellow partner Turkish Airlines, as Turkish are taking Lufthansa’s passengers from the German regions, connecting them at their hub to worldwide destinations.
This hasn’t gone down a storm to put it nicely, as Lufthansa customers are defecting to Turkish Airlines.
So there are commercial retaliations, with code-shares being cut. Whilst that in itself isn’t the end of the world, the kicker comes from Lufthansa’s Miles and More scheme.
Logging onto it, there’s a warning of mileage earning:
Please note the following changes to the award of status miles for flights from 1 January 2014:
from the flight date 01.01.2014 you will receive 25% of the award miles you earn as status miles.
You read that right. A 75% cut in ANY status miles earned in flight taken on Turkish.
It seems that Lufthansa sees Turkish as a real threat to its business, and even though meant to be cooperating, is now going on the attack. Much as Emirates goes on a regional attack and targets major and minor destinations and funnel them through their hub, Turkish does the same thing.
In the end, the passenger has a choice of what to do next… and a 75% cut in status miles is a nasty cut… by any stretch.
Combined with the slashing of European mileage earning, to paraphrase the old Lufthansa catchphrase “There could be better ways to fly….”
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Air Canada has constantly been adjusting the number of miles awarded… Air Line by Air Line… month my month. Most fares are less than 50% award miles.
Star Alliance seems to be on the way out…
For german residents, Star Alliance was never a consumer friendly alliance. No real credit card options other than Lufthansa’s and their Miles & More program really sucks. Unless you are willing to spend in the region of US$ 700 and up, a ticket from , let’s say Berlin to London, will earn you a measly 125 or 250 miles oneway. Now, what kind of “loyalty program” is that? For me, i switched to BA a long time ago and never regretted it, so far. Should arrogant LH go broke or be bought out by some middle eastern carrier, someday, I’m surely going to have a bottle of champagne, that day!
Ahmen… you have to fight for my loyalty
Not surprising given TK’s business plan calls for it to become an EK with a hub closer to Europe and the intention of sucking up customers from across that continent and channeling them through IST and sending them onward to other continents. This has hampered relations with its STAR partners and is an obvious reason for LH to have made this move. As TK flies into more US gateway cities, I can see UA responding in a similar fashion. Although UA (and AC) took up reciprocal rights to fly to IST, TK
s aggressive expansion has led to the cutting back of frequency since most customers are limiting themselves to NAmerica to Turkey, and those are not enough to keep daily flights full enough, particularly with premium customers.
At the same time, we know that every airline operating into a non-home country swoops up customers to channel them onward through their hub at tariffs lower than the home country’s airline and its non-stop service.
This may ultimately undermine alliances like STAR and SKYTEAM where certain partners become overly aggressive. I suspect it is also the reason DL and UA have introduced the ticketing/spend changes for elite status as a means of minimizing such poaching. AF and KLM have been aggressive in their low fares from NAmerica in direct competition with DL. This is less an issue with ONEWORLD, where by having fewer members, the route systems tend not to overlap and each trans-oceanic partner respects the key overseas routes of the other, sharing traffic and feeding onward customers at respective gateways to the benefit, not the detriment, of all alliance members.