The Lufthansa Group has developed and launched its ‘Book-a-Group’ tool as an integrated platform for flights with Austrian, Lufthansa and Swiss. It is exclusively accessible to tour operators, consolidators and travel agents. With just one online tool, they will be able to request group journeys for 10 people or more with the three network airlines – in any combination – and bookings can then be made with immediate confirmation. It includes groups of private individuals, business travelers or tourists.
Following the enquiry, the ‘Book-a-Group’ tool, which is available in 14 different languages, will then deliver an offer and price quote in real time. The commercial conditions for group journeys have once again been improved and have now been standardised in one single contract valid for all the group’s hub airlines. This will be used for new bookings with the introduction of the Lufthansa Group-wide ‘Book-a-Group’ tool. One significant improvement, for example, is said to be the introduction of a booking option for short term bookings. In future, it will be possible to cancel bookings within the last 60 days before the actual flight, at no charge, from 72 hours after the booking. The service will now be provided through just one point of contact instead of having separate contact persons for each airline.
“With the new, integrated ‘Book-a-Group’ tool, we have been able to implement a further step in the harmonisation of our products and services across all network airlines. This will make it even easier for our ticket intermediaries to make group enquiries and bookings with the Lufthansa Group,” said Dieter Vranckx, vice president – sales, Asia Pacific, Lufthansa Group Airlines.
It will likewise be possible to use the ‘Book-a-Group’ tool to make enquiries for bookings involving combinations of flights with further members of Lufthansa Group Airlines (Brussels Airlines and Eurowings), as well as with many other Lufthansa partner airlines. This will allow ticket intermediaries and travel agency staff to offer their customers an even wider network of routes, as well as improved availability. Even after the booking has been made, the travel professionals will still have access to all the important data and can deal independently with the administration for the travelling group.
