Auction

How they do it: Lufthansa offers several classes on their airplanes. To upsell customers to a higher class and monetize vacant spots in their business class, the company allows customers to bid for an upgrade a few days before the flight departs.

Barter

How they do it: In the 1990s, Lufthansa owned a costly retail space in New York which was unused. As they wouldn’t have been able to recover the costs with subleasing it, the company bartered and swapped the vacant real estate for airtime and paraffin.

Cash Machine

How they do it: Lufthansa flights are paid right away when they are booked, although the actual flight is in several days, weeks or months time. This allows the company to utilize the liquidity it gets from the prepayments and also finance their capital expensive operations (e.g. plane maitenance).

Cross Selling

How they do it: Lufthansa offers its clients inflight shopping and a webshop to buy aviation related and non-related products during their time in the plane or from their home. This allows Lufthansa to increase the revenue from their customers with non-flight related products as they can target a customer group which typically has significant purchasing power.

Customer Loyalty

How they do it: Lufthansa’s loyalty program ”Miles & More” allows customers to collect status tier and reward points for each flight or spend with the airline. This allows the company to tie frequent flyers to them by offering rewards which can be physical products or flights as well as access to exclusive lounges and priority treatment at the airport.

Direct Selling

How they do it: Lufthansa sells its products and services through 3rd parties such as travel agencies but also offers its customers a direct way to book. All flights can be booked on their website or via their phone hotline.

Integrator

How they do it: Lufthansa’s product offering to passenger is the flight from location A to B. However, the company performs only the actual flight but not the process steps before and after such as baggage handling, airport service and maitenance etc.. This is usually performed by 3rd parties which are not paid by the customer though but paid for by Lufthansa.

Ultimate Luxury

How they do it: Lufthansa has a special offer and service towards clients in the luxury segment. First class travelers and guests with the highest loyalty status enjoy exclusive treatment and amenities such as limousine airport transfer, exclusive lounges as well as in-flight luxury dining.