OREANDA-NEWS.  Lufthansa is making it easier to book tickets and a wide range of other services on its website www.lufthansa.com. The individual booking steps have been fundamentally changed, and the layout has been redesigned and the menu prompts simplified. From now on, customers can add flights and other optional flight-related services to their virtual shopping cart. This includes seat reservations, travel insurance packages and rail&fly tickets of Deutsche Bahn for international flights. The shopping basket provides online customers with an overview of all the selected services as well as the total price calculated for these. Details such as destination or date can now also be changed during the individual booking steps – the available flight connections and the shopping cart will automatically be updated accordingly. Up until now, customers had to repeat the booking steps if they made any changes.

New icons on the booking interface help customers to find their way around when selecting the optimal fare. Using brief descriptions, these icons provide customers with a quick overview of the details of the fares on offer such as whether the ticket can be rebooked, refunded or upgraded as well as information about air miles and free luggage. This will make it possible to compare price and services at a glance. Flight times and the number of stopovers are also displayed more clearly in the new booking interface.

For the first time, customers are also able to reserve seats online at www.lufthansa.com for a charge. Customers can reserve their preferred seat from a newly designed seating chart when booking. Seats with more leg-room are specially marked on the chart.

The new booking function can also be used to add other services to existing bookings at a later time. Existing bookings will be clearly listed in the new “Lufthansa Service Cockpit” under the category “My Bookings” and can be amended there (e.g. ordering special meals, rebooking). Passengers wishing to go away with family or friends can simply send their travel itinerary in future at any time by email or via facebook. They also have the option of holding their reservation for 48 hours at a guaranteed price. If they confirm the booking afterwards, this service is free. Otherwise, EUR 30 will be charged. The process for booking tickets for third parties has also been greatly simplified.