This suspicion of the Swiss Lufthansa subsidiary is difficult. Swiss is said to have scammed with registered customer profiles to earn additional money when reserving seats on the plane. These are the reports received by the Blick editorial team. Reader Damian R.* (58) exclaims: “The Swiss airline is misusing my data to optimize their revenue.”
R. wishes to remain anonymous as he works near the airport and is known there. As the Zurich native flies regularly, he has a customer profile in both Switzerland and the Lufthansa Group’s “Miles & More” frequent flyer programme. This includes seat preferences, in addition to the usual personal information and payment methods. For example, R. states in his profile that he prefers a seat in the aisle on flights to Switzerland.
“My preferences used to be perfectly taken into account,” says R. “Since then, I’ve always had a window seat, and then I had to spend 30 francs to get a seat in the aisle,” says R. It assumes that the automatic seat allocation is programmed to do the opposite of the stored request so that the passenger can rebook the request for a fee.
He cannot prove it. However, on his last flight to Switzerland, as a test, he stated he wanted a “window seat” and was immediately given a seat in the aisle. On the return flight, everything was just the opposite. That’s why R. sees a system behind him.
No more choices
If that’s really the case, it would be very ugly. “We strongly deny this accusation,” said Swiss spokesperson Karin Montani, when asked about the alleged cheating. The preferences field stored in the profile is no longer used for seat allocation even before paid seat changes are applied. This is about harmonizing reservation procedures for all airlines in the Lufthansa Group.
This ended on February 23, 2023. “As part of the Travel ID rollout, no more seat choices will be collected,” the Montani innovation announces. Travel ID provides uniform access to the digital channels and “Miles & More” of all airlines in the Lufthansa Group.
Costs occur only with Light tariff
The seat change subject to a fee is only valid for passengers traveling with Light, the cheapest ticket category within Europe. This does not include free seat reservation or free seat change at check-in. Other fare categories Classic and Flex include a free seat change upon check-in.
“I can’t and don’t want to say anything about the current case because we don’t know any details and so we couldn’t make any verification,” Montani says.
Business model with seat demands
A company like Swiss cannot afford data tricks to optimize revenue. However, seat assignment fees leave a stale taste in the mouth. These are for people who have a clear idea of their seat, or nervous parents who incur high additional costs to stay with their child on the plane. According to an estimate by Ideaworks, airlines earned $103 billion in revenues from these and similar surcharges and “side fees” last year.
According to Montani, automatic seat assignment primarily depends on whether someone is traveling alone, as a couple, in a group, as a family, or with an animal. Theoretically, it is also possible not to sit next to each other in such situations: for example, if almost all the seats on the plane are occupied by passengers who have booked paid seats. But spokesperson Montani says it’s a “very unrealistic scenario.”
If you want to make sure you get the desired constellation of seats, you actually need to book a paid seat at the time of booking. Therefore, no nasty surprises are guaranteed at check-in. Or you can book a higher fare class that allows for free seat changes.
In both cases, the airline takes advantage of desires or fears.
* Name known to editors
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
