Well done Lufthansa

[daedalus]

Family flight of 5 Frankfurt SFO 9th July. No 11 hour flight in tourist can be regarded as anything but a trial, but the Lufthansa staff on this flight were superb!
The film choice (Ice Age The meltdown AND the Pink Panther) was awful -why 2 children's comedies?
The classical music choice is bizarre - atonal modern rubbish guaranteed to raise your blood pressure. Why not all time favourite classics - Bach, Strauss, Vivaldi etc.? Passengers need to be soothed, not excited and annoyed. I have some mediaeval chants which bring my blood pressure down in 10 minutes from 150/90 to 120/62! Unfortunately my I-pod hadn't charged (my fault) so i was at the mercy of the airline programmers.
Despite these disadvantages the quiet friendly efficiency of the staff was exemplary - nothing was too much trouble and the flight (747) was as good as tourist class can get.
Heartfelt congratulations were offered by us to the staff on our arrival.

When we flew on from SFO to Honolulu we had no choice but United Airlines (Lufthansa's partner).
Why oh why do a first class airline like Lufthansa ally with such a useless outfit as United? On a 5.5 hour flight NO free food or alcoholic drinks! And people criticize Ryanair! At least with Ryanair I only pay Euro 20-50 for the flight and it rarely lasts longer than 2 hours!

If they tried that in Europe, the French would set fire to the plane, the Italians would make so much noise they'd have to close the airport and the Germans might invade Poland.English men would grumble, but shut up when their wives dig them in the ribs and say "Don't make a fuss dear!"
What a bovine lot the Yanks are! Not a squeak from them. They must be used to it. The stewardesses were nice, but grandmothers looking like WVS volunteers or the WI.

The Boeing 767 might be a fine aircraft to fly, but what graduate of the Marquis de Sade school of engineering designed the seats? I stood for much of the flight, since it was more comfortable. What kind of idiot puts the headphone plug on the inside of the armrest of a narrow seat? What pillock puts adjustable air nozzles for ventilation on the roof so high up that you have to stand on the seat to adjust them?

I hope the much vaunted 787 is better designed.

Anyone know why the A350 first design was so unpopular with the airlines that Airbus have gone back to the drawing board?
At least the A319 and I think A320 have retractable individual flat screens instead of antedeluvian CRT or projection screens.

Aircraft seat and interior designers should be forced to fly tourist in their creations from Europe to New Zealand non-stop before the result is released on the long-suffering public.

Rant over. It was worth it to sit by the pool in Hawai'i.
Long live Lufthansa, but please, find a better US partner (if there are any).
:)

[lexxity]

but please, find a better US partner

There is no one better, at least not on such a big route network. All the American legacy carriers are fairly rubbish. It's a fact of life now I'm afraid.

If you want good, friendly service at a good price try southwest, what a great airline. The original LCC and the staff are just great.:ok:

[Bus429]

A lot of the equipment issues you refer to are not airframe manufacturers' responsibilities; some are BFE (Buyer Furnished Equipment).

[The late XV105]

I second a vote of congratulations to Lufthansa.

Some months back, my flight from Moscow was delayed by several hours because of storms at Frankfurt delaying the inbound aircraft, but we were all kept well informed.

Once on board we learned of a further delay but were kept well plied with drinks and light refreshment by cheerful crew, regardless of cabin. During this conversation I made a joke - nothing more - about being stuck in the last row - the same as outbound - whereupon the crew member I was talking to offered to keep back whatever meal we wanted instead of being given Hobson's choice by the time he reached us.

Once in the air, all onward connections known to apply to passengers on board were confirmed over the loudspeakers as having been missed, or kept (because most were similarly delayed by the weather, many of them could still be made).

For those connections that had been missed, passengers were given clear instructions of where to go and what to do (meal vouchers, hotel, transfers, etc). This information was repeated several times during the flight.

In the end we made our flight - just - by running between two gates to find that the flight had been held for us; as soon as we were through the door, it was closed, and pushback started.

On arrival at Heathrow a Tannoy annoucement asked us to go to the baggage office where we made arrangements for our cases to be home delivered; they were, the next day, bang on time.

10/10 Lufthansa.