Lufthansa service charge

[Runway 31]

I noted an news article on Expatica which states that Lufthansa are looking to apply a service charge to all flight bookings made. As of 1 September they aim to apply a charge of 30 euros for flights within Europe and 45 euros for intercontinental flights with on line bookings continuing to get a 10 euro rebate.

They are also going to stop paying commission to travel agents which they reckon will save 100mil euros per year.

Given that on low cost carriers you can sometimes get a flight for the cost of the service charge that Lufthansa are trying to adopt, what do you think are the chances of this idea "getting off the ground" ?.

I have a feeling that if they did commence these charges they would soon be forced into a u turn.

[Avman]

Interestingly, if like myself, you try and book online from The Netherlands for a departure from DUS (or anywhere in Germany) you cannot do so on their Dutch site because it only gives AMS as a dep option; and you can't on their German site because it won't accept a Dutch issued credit card! Same problem with British Airways by the way. It's amazing how some of these major carriers' interline sales procedures are so out of tune that they must loose millions in lost bookings to their more flexible competitors. (No problem booking German Wings from CGN or SN Brussels Airlines from BRU online from NL for e.g.).