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Sep 10, 2004, 2:16 pm
#1
ACfly
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2000
Programs: AA Platinum 1MM, AC SE*100k, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Gold, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,353
what does the zone on boarding card mean?
Hi,
Just took a series of LH flights in the last few weeks... and each time I was given the boarding pass, I noticed that each had a different zones: Zone 6, Zone 5, Zone 3 and Zone 1.
What does the Zone mean? Also, what deos the big M mean?
I am not a LH M&M member, but am Star Alliance Gold from AC.
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Sep 10, 2004, 2:54 pm
#2
dia15222
Join Date: May 2004
Location: MUC,INN
Programs: LH SEN, QF PS, Sixt , Bahn,...
Posts: 243
Zones and M
The Big M is to show the class of service you are in: Economy Class.
(Also called Monkey class 
I remember when they had different colour Boarding passes:
Green for Eco
Blue for Business
Red for First.
Then they changed it to the same Boarding pass.
They got complaints because the first class pax could not show that
they have a cool red boardnig pass.
So they write the class of Service M,C or F in a big letter on your BP,
that you can show everybody what class you travel.
Recently they introduced the red Borading passes again.
Zones:
If you travel in a very high booked Fligth, they want to fill the plane as fast as possible: Window-Seats first, then middle then row-seats.
So every BP has a Zone.
Sometimes they call: Please Borad Zone X!
They do it not very often, it is not controlled, and it is as crowded as if they let everybody in as they want.
Hope that answers your Questions!
Best regards
Alex
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Sep 10, 2004, 2:55 pm
#3
AJLondon
Moderator: GLBT travelers, India-based Airlines and India; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Asia
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[QUOTE=ACfly]and each time I was given the boarding pass, I noticed that each had a different zones: Zone 6, Zone 5, Zone 3 and Zone 1.
Originally Posted by ACfly
What does the Zone mean?
was started when LH imagined they would do something that resembled priority boarding. So window seats at the back of the plane were labelled Zone 1, then middle seats Zone 2, Aisle seats Zone 3 etc for that rear section of the plane. And an aisle seat in the front of the plane would be zone 5 or 6. On intra-europe business most of the 'C' seats in business are zone 5, while 'D' seats are zone 6 etc. And if your seat changes at the boarding gate / lounge etc, then your zone would automatically change too.
Originally Posted by ACfly
Also, what deos the big M mean?
Is that the really big M that prints on the bp you are refering to. If so, that is just to tell the whole-world from a mile away (including the glaring lounge matron) from a mile away that you are a lowly economy pax 
And a similar big C prints on the same yellow business class bp's.
F class bp's are red and have a lovely looking big F plastered all over them. 
Strange though that the letter of the alphabet that I hated most while in school is the letter that I soooo love now as an adult
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Sep 10, 2004, 3:18 pm
#4
gum
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southern Bavaria, Germany
Programs: LH Blue, BA Blue, Hyatt Gold
Posts: 1,517
M only used by Lufthansa
Originally Posted by AJLondon
was
Is that the really big M that prints on the bp you are refering to. If so, that is just to tell the whole-world from a mile away (including the glaring lounge matron) from a mile away that you are a lowly economy pax And a similar big C prints on the same yellow business class bp's.
Just giving you one short supplement of your post. Lufthansa is (on my knowledge) the only airline using the letter M for the Economy class. It's a relict of the last century (sounds nice, doesn't it?) when nearly all of the fares were IATA controlled.
Then with the new Flieg & Spar (Fly&Save) and Wochenend (weekend) fares there was a possibility to save money against the old full fares. As Lufthansa had a very bad and arrogant attitude
against that passengers sitting in the old two class times (First and Coach) they created that arrogant and unfriendly abbreviation in German
M = MINDERZAHLER (a person paying less than the full fare) to tell everyone that these are not good and full paying passengers but passengers which are not worth the full service they get in the coach class which was a mixture of all fares 100%business, 75% weekend, 50% flieg und spar and so on (all sitting in the same class(
So due to that historic calling Lufthansa until nowadays is the only airline using M instead of Y.
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Sep 11, 2004, 3:47 am
#5
daysleeper
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: SXF/TXL, old europe.
Programs: Skyhigh Airlines Platinum for Life
Posts: 962
Originally Posted by gum
against that passengers sitting in the old two class times (First and Coach) they created that arrogant and unfriendly abbreviation in German
M = MINDERZAHLER (a person paying less than the full fare) to tell everyone that these are not good and full paying passengers but passengers which are not worth the full service they get in the coach class which was a mixture of all fares 100%business, 75% weekend, 50% flieg und spar and so on (all sitting in the same class(
So due to that historic calling Lufthansa until nowadays is the only airline using M instead of Y.
Minderzahler.
/me is drooling.
I didn't know that. Thanks for giving insight!
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Sep 11, 2004, 7:22 am
#6
peter42
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: LH SEN, SPG Gold(SCI Gold), Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,451
Originally Posted by AJLondon
was started when LH imagined they would do something that resembled priority boarding. So window seats at the back of the plane were labelled Zone 1, then middle seats Zone 2, Aisle seats Zone 3 etc for that rear section of the plane. And an aisle seat in the front of the plane would be zone 5 or 6. On intra-europe business most of the 'C' seats in business are zone 5, while 'D' seats are zone 6 etc. And if your seat changes at the boarding gate / lounge etc, then your zone would automatically change too.
Which of course cannot work, as Pax stowing their stuff in the front will keep people from moving by, the old concept back to front was far better.
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Sep 11, 2004, 7:30 am
#7
AJLondon
Moderator: GLBT travelers, India-based Airlines and India; FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Originally Posted by peter42
Which of course cannot work, as Pax stowing their stuff in the front will keep people from moving by, the old concept back to front was far better.
The 'Zone' concept is supposed to be [back to front] as well as [window to aisle], which does make sense in theory atleast.
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weero
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: OSL/IAH/ZRH (time, not preference)
Programs: UA1K, LH GM, AA EXP->GM
Posts: 38,254
Originally Posted by gum
M = MINDERZAHLER
This is a joke, isn't it?
They even print it on my ridiculously expensive B class boarding passes 
.
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Sep 11, 2004, 10:48 am
#9
peter42
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: LH SEN, SPG Gold(SCI Gold), Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,451
Originally Posted by AJLondon
The 'Zone' concept is supposed to be [back to front] as well as [window to aisle], which does make sense in theory atleast.
No the zones are strictly window/middle/aisle - I still remember the fancy brochure they published about it.
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Sep 11, 2004, 11:13 am
#10
AJLondon
Moderator: GLBT travelers, India-based Airlines and India; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Asia
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Posts: 15,512
Originally Posted by peter42
No the zones are strictly window/middle/aisle - I still remember the fancy brochure they published about it.
Hmmmm.
I was probably mistaken then. Thanks for pointing it out peter42
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Sep 11, 2004, 11:18 am
#11
Tim2008
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 2,729
Originally Posted by peter42
No the zones are strictly window/middle/aisle - I still remember the fancy brochure they published about it.
Great if travelling with a partner... 
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Sep 13, 2004, 6:31 am
#12
oliver2002
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,003
In DEL they still stricly enforce the 'Zone' concept, partly because people carry tremendous amounts of hand luggage in Y. In FRA they used to have litte films running on the monitors to show you the zone concept. Nice idea, but never saw the difference so far.
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Sep 13, 2004, 6:43 am
#13
Uli
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: FRA
Posts: 2,174
Originally Posted by Tim2008
Great if travelling with a partner...
Tim, since when do you care about zones in F ?
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Sep 13, 2004, 7:12 am
#14
FLYGVA
Moderator: InterContinental Hotels and Germany
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 6,545
M = Minderbemittelt
Are you about window/middle/aisle?
From my experience, a friend travelling with me got the same Zone printend on his bp sitting window as I get on my bp sitting middle seat. Also no one really cares about the "Zonen" while boarding...
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Sep 13, 2004, 7:56 am
#15
peter42
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: LH SEN, SPG Gold(SCI Gold), Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,451
Originally Posted by FLYGVA
M = Minderbemittelt
Are you about window/middle/aisle?
From my experience, a friend travelling with me got the same Zone printend on his bp sitting window as I get on my bp sitting middle seat. Also no one really cares about the "Zonen" while boarding...
When on same PNR AFAIR you get both the lower zone #.
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