In a move that can't possibly please powder-hungry European skiers, the Colorado resorts that welcome them or transatlantic business travelers, Lufthansa German Airlines is cutting its Denver-Munich nonstop service from daily to five per week beginning on October 28. Monday and Friday flights will not operate until they are reinstated -- possibly on March 31, the first anniversary this route. That, BTW, is my conjecture, not anything that Lufthansa has indicated.
Southwest Airlines is not going to abandon its open-seat plan but in addition to assigning first-come, first-served boarding groups, but by early November, the carrier will assign numbers within each boarding group at all 63 airports it serves. I don't know whether this will prove to be a good thing or bad thing. Instead of bunching up waiting for their boarding group to be called and then jockeying for position once the group has been called, passengers will be asking each other, "What number are you?" -- like the supermarket deli or bakery counter. In any case, Southwest did test several other boarding procedures in several markets and concluded that this was the best for it and its passengers.
Also, starting on October 2, Southwest will cease automatically pre-boarding families with small children. If they want to get on with the first wave, they will need to arrive at the airport early enough to be in boarding group A. Families will be boarded after the first 60 passengers are on the aircraft.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Hi Claire. Bummer to read that. I took the Lufthansa DEN-MUC flight in May and was quite pleased. But I'm thankful Denver does have some direct European options with east coast or Chicago transfers. With packed aircract and busy hubs people underestimate the value of a direct flight. For me it's worth extra money to avoid potential delays, especially on trips of less than two weeks.
ReplyDeleteAlso nice blog as well. I'll have to read more of your restaurant reviews! I live in Congress Park so always on the hunt for new places.
james http://www.futuregringo.com
James - If you flying this winter, you still have five weekly nonstops, just not Monday or Friday. For what it's worth, we tried to use frequent-flyer miles in any class of service to go from Denver to Munich for a wedding in late May. We had hoped for the non-stop (impossible!) and were even willing to change planes once or even twice (also impossible!). Air fares were then hovering around $1,000 per person, and that didn't include our costs once we were there. We sent a gift and our best wishes instead.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments on the blog.