Lufthansa Group has launched a new concept – “Culinary Journey” – the airline’s attempt at a personalised premium menu plan.
Lufthansa Group’s new “Culinary Journey” allows guests flying with Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines to pre-order and enjoy their favourite meals and snacks.
The “Culinary Journey” bundles all food and beverage offerings for the entire flight experience, regardless of whether guests are flying with one or more Group Airlines on their trip. It includes the digital menu, pre-order options, and a feedback function. The offerings vary depending on the airline and travel class.
How it works
Customers can access the new offer directly via the Lufthansa Group app, the website, or by clicking a link in the information email sent prior to departure.
The appropriate culinary selection is automatically provided for each guest based on their booking.
Whether it’s a short-haul flight in Economy Class or a long-haul flight in First Class, the “Culinary Journey” offers a tailor-made experience in all travel classes. Guests also benefit from this if they have a connecting flight and are flying with more than one Lufthansa Group airline.
For example, a guest who has booked a trip with several flights can travel with Austrian Airlines from Vienna to Frankfurt and then with Lufthansa to New York – and select their meals and drinks in advance for both flights via the “Culinary Journey” feature.
Additionally, customers often benefit from an expanded range of meals that may not be available later on board. For example, passengers on long-haul flights can choose from up to nine main courses, including exclusive creations prepared especially for users of the new service.
Meanwhile in Shorthaul
On shorter flights, guests can choose from a range of tasty buy-on-board products such as sandwiches, bowls, salads or cakes.
They also benefit from an exclusive 10 percent discount. Pre-orders enable better planning for flight catering, which helps reduce food surpluses.
In Quotes
Caroline Drischel, Senior Vice President, Customer Journey for the Group.
“For the first time, customers flying with Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines can see all their food and beverage options for their flight at a glance – even on connecting flights with different airlines,”
“The ‘Culinary Journey’ makes the comprehensive range of services offered by the Lufthansa Group, which we represent with our premium airlines, even more consistent and enjoyable for our customers than ever before.”
Delivering choice, whilst reducing waste
This is a little interesting, as Lufthansa Group is expanding the pre-ordering concepts across some of its airlines (With Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, Eurowings and Discover Airways left out), but across all of the travel classes – not just premium products.
That’s going to be interesting to manage, least of all from a crew perspective, as this will multiply the “special meals” pre-loaded on a flight, as well as managing the meal distribution.
For Lufthansa Group, whilst there is the cost of the upfront development of this platform will not doubt be a factor, this can be offset with the amount of catering it has to load… or rather, not load on the aircraft. That will lead to reduced costs of the meals produced and not consumed, as well as the fuel to lift those meals.
Remember, everything on an aircraft comes down to how much weight it adds, and in turn, how much fuel is burned in the process. Whilst it might boil down to points of a percentage, over a fleet size, that adds up fast.
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