Altitude 22: Lufthansa building ‘radically simplified’ loyalty scheme ready for launch in 2024

Gerald Schloegl, the airline’s vice president digital channel solutions and commerce, told this week’s Amadeus event in Dubai that it plans to ‘completely change’ how it communicates with customers

The Lufthansa Group of airlines is aiming to modernise the way its loyalty programme works and plans to roll out a “radically simplified” version at the beginning of 2024.

Gerald Schloegl, vice president digital channel solutions and commerce, told this week’s Altitude 22 airline executives’ summit in Dubai the operator will be data driven.

He said the airline aims to “completely change” the way it communicates with customers having introduced a traveller identity platform for all brands in the group.

“From inspiration to purchase, we think that’s a very straight relationship. But for the majority of our customers it’s a big mess. There’s a lot of friction in there.

“We have a lot of friction in our payments processes as well. This is the reality. It’s time to bring harmony in to this journey.

“It’s important to understand that the customer journey is not a single experience, it’s a connected experience. We need to deliver product based on customer data.”

Schloegl described loyalty as “more than a programme”. “It’s not a one-way street,” he added, “we would like to give back to long-term loyal customers.”

Lufthansa is working on a “lifetime concept” for Senator status flyers in its Miles and More programme and has developed a challenge centre to offer more rewards for loyal customers.

Schloegl said Lufthansa will put the customer at the “very centre” of the experiences it offers by delivering “great basics” including more automated and self-service processes.

Lufthansa Group’s Traveller ID platform gathers data on customers so that the airline can simplify the experience and deliver it at speed, he added.

The carrier “needs to manage the complexity for all of our customers” and to be consistent, personal and to rebuild trust lost during the COVID pandemic.

“We lost a lot [of trust] during the last two years,”  Schloegl said, “so we need to rebuild that.”

Group airline Austrian Airlines launched a new app at the beginning of the year offering a “connected experience” and intends to develop this further based on user feedback.

Working with Amadeus, Lufthansa is developing a “consistent booking flow” for all its customer touchpoints including web and chat that will be unveiled at the beginning of 2023.

The operator is also building a separate payment hub where customer can store their details and preferences allowing one-click payment functionality. 

The hub will also allow users to store vouchers and accept refunds directly to their digital wallet.