Lufthansa is currently taking the next customer-unfriendly step by making it mandatory to sign up for a Lufthansa TRAVELID or lose access to the online check-in feature.
Since November 2, anyone departing from a German airport other than Frankfurt or Munich will suddenly be directed to a TRAVELID registration page – you cannot proceed without a customer account.
It’s almost unbelievable how much energy Lufthansa puts into the effort to make traveling with them as complicated and unpleasant as possible; it almost deserves an award.
The exemption for passengers from Frankfurt and Munich is only temporary; from the end of this month, the new requirement to have a Lufthansa account will be in place for all airports.
The transition is taking place in stages. It began on October 20 with departures from the Schengen Area—excluding Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. As of November 2, the requirement also applies to non-Schengen European countries and to almost all airports in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
On November 16, this will extend to Munich and Zurich, as well as departures from the USA, Canada, and Mexico. The final phase will take effect on November 30, covering the Frankfurt hub and all remaining regions. Eurowings and ITA Airways are not currently affected.
Passengers who prefer not to register have an alternative: they can still check in at the airport—either at a counter or via a self-service kiosk—without a “Travel ID.” Furthermore, no account is required for passengers traveling on tickets issued by other airlines.
So the ticket for my uncle that I just booked with Air Canada and which has a domestic feeder flight won’t be affected by this nonsense:
Lufthansa really acts like a giant vacuum trying to suck in as many aspects of a customer as possible and its starting to really get annoying.
Another issue is that if you have an actual Miles&More number attached to your TRAVELID then it’s like a cancer and will manifest itself into your booking. Even when you try to change the FFN later on, I often had it that flights would still credit to Miles&More
Conclusion
If you’re checking in for your next Lufthansa flight, you might notice that you now have to log into your Lufthansa account or will no longer be able to use the online check-in tool.
There are some exceptions (like holding tickets that were not issued by Lufthansa or flights operating by other carriers), and the restrictions will be implemented gradually through the end of October. If you don’t want to sign up for the online account, then the only remaining option will be to check in at the airport via the counter or a self-service machine.
Yes, another annoyance we have to deal with when flying with airlines of the Lufthansa Group, as if we needed any more reason to be annoyed by them, but it seems that it’s Spohr’s mission to make the customer experience as unpleasant as possible.