Lufthansa will charge extra if you don't buy your tickets through its website. Is this becoming a trend?
If you woke up this morning and immediately asked yourself "Will the airlines ever add another arbitrary fee for me to pay?" then today is your lucky day. The Lufthansa Group has announced that, starting on September 1, it will be adding a $18 (€16) surcharge to any flight that is booked through a third party (OTAs) instead of through its carriers' own websites. The additional fee would apply to flights on Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS.
This makes Lufthansa the latest airlines to fight third-party booking sites, after news surfaced last week of Delta going to war with OTAs. Delta has proven to be a leader in industry changes before — as seen with overhauls and devaluations of its mileage program that United followed soon after — so we hope this isn't the beginning of a trend. Still, Lufthansa seems to be taking things to another level with this fee.
The surcharge is Lufthansa putting its collective feet down after getting tired of paying fees to global distribution systems – software and technology companies like Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport – which is hilarious in its irony. Lufthansa hates paying fees to other companies so it's punishing its own customers...by adding an additional fee. Good choice, guys! In a statement, Jens Bischof, the COO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG saida;
Until now, the percentage of revenue generated from the sale of flight tickets by our airlines has continuously decreased. While other service and system partners in the value chain are recording increasing margins and returns, our airline’s earnings have been compromised over time, even though they are the actual providers of flight services. We want to counteract this trend by refocusing our commercial strategy.
Other than helping you fill in your CorporateSpeak Bingo Card, that's a lame justification for socking it to the customer, because we're gonna get it either way. We'll have to pay an increased base fare by going through the carriers' sites or we're stuck with both that new $17 surcharge AND any additional fees that booking sites and travel agencies might implement if they have to change their own booking systems or processes as a result. Most of them use other systems because they can't book directly through the airlines. In its own statement, Amadeus – which serves Expedia and other booking sites – wrote:
Travelers will either pay more for the same service or, in the case that travel agencies are forced to accept this new commercial strategy by modifying the way they access content just for [Lufthansa Group], there will be extra IT costs that may ultimately be passed on to the traveler, putting the travel agent, and/or the end consumer, at a disadvantage.
According to Skift, Northwest Airlines adding a similar fee in 2004, but scrapped the idea after enduring ten days of pointed criticism from consumers, GDS companies and travel agents. If that's what works, then we have another 8 or 9 days to let Lufthansa have it.