Lufthansa’s latest carrot to be dangled to its passengers is one I’ve covered recently – free inflight messaging.
Lufthansa Airbus A320-200 – taking off – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
It will be offered on Lufthansa’s short- and medium-haul flights on aircraft which have European Aviation Network connectivity installed with FlyNet activated (namely the Airbus A320 family aircraft). Travellers will then be able to send and receive as many messages as they like, including photos, on their own smartphone or tablet during the flight.
To access the service, you will need to log into the FlyNet portal onboard with a Miles & More service card number or with an e-mail address registered with the Lufthansa Group Travel ID. Like other options, you can register for an account during the flight.
For all other Internet packages on board, such as streaming, the tariff will also be reduced by almost 50 per cent from mid-January by the airline to increase uptake.
In Quotes
Heiko Reitz, CCO Lufthansa Airlines said:
“Lufthansa is investing around two billion euros in product and service improvements. In the process, we have implemented and planned many large, medium, and also smaller initiatives that make travelling with Lufthansa an even better experience,”
“One great example is Free Messaging. I am pleased that our guests will in future be able to stay in touch with their relatives or business partners above the clouds – free of charge.”
Beware of the limitations
Free messaging in principle is a great idea, allowing you to update people on the fly (for either business, pleasure or communicating with loved ones). However, there are some things that Lufthansa hasn’t disclosed yet – such as the services which people will be allowed to use (for example, text messaging wouldn’t be allowed).
It would be safe to assume that Apple iMessage and WhatsApp would probably be allowed – it would be up to Lufthansa to decide what other services may be allowed (and there are plenty of messaging services out there).
In addition, messaging is a low bandwidth application which shouldn’t cost an airline much to deploy – so expect images, in any event, to be blocked from any of the messaging services.
For those who want to pay, there are bigger options – and thankfully lower price ones which should help in the uptake of the service too.
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