How Lufthansa can learn something from its American rivals

After my recent flight with Emirates I took a connecting flight with Lufthansa to Munich. Lufthansa overall is a very reliable yet unexciting Airline with modern planes and decent on-board service. My flight from JFK arrived early in Hamburg so I asked the check-in personnel at Lufthansa whether I could catch an earlier flight (there were 2 departures prior to mine - both with availability). She referred me to her colleague at the booking desk who then told me it would cost me EUR 250 to change to an earlier flight - not really worth a 2 hour wait.
Lufthansa could have done me a favor (I would even have paid a EUR 25 fee for this) at absolutely no cost to them - instead they chose to enforce their silly booking rules and alienate a regular customer.