Lufthansa Service / Venting My Spleen

[SVK]

So here I am in Terminal 2 at LHR and here is my problem.

(It's not everyday I get to write from the other side)

After being told that there was no spaces on the mid-morning flight to Hannover, I was forced to book the early bird at 0705. (LH6611). Having got up at 0330 I was never-the-less in high spirits as I waited in the Departure Lounge. Suddenly - without any announcements - the flight was delayed. This was followed 30mins later by it being cancelled altogether (again no announcements were made until afterwards).

After a 20min trawl through baggage reclaim, us disgruntled pax made our way back to the 30min queue at the Lufthansa desk to be told that the only alternative was a flight to Frankfurt at 0910, followed by a 3hr coach trip to Hannover.

Follwing a further 30min wait to check in again, I was then told that I had missed checkin for the 0910 flight and would now have to wait for the 1125 flight to Frankf. followed by a 3hr coach journey. All in all, I will arrive in Hannover 5hrs late and will still have a further 2hrs to drive after I get there. Deep Joy.

My complaint is not so much with the staff, who tried to help and genuinely looked as peeved as the rest of us, but rather Lufthansa's Crisis management. I am now waiting to board and have the following questions which I would be most grateful if anybody could answer:

Why did the ac go tech this morning?
Why was there only three members of staff physically at the desk of Lufthansa's ticket collection point (one of whom was a trainee) when there were 6 booths plus the first class booth. This led to quite a queue as they had to deal with both the cancelled pax and those on regular flights.
Why did they then only provide two check in desks at which the staff seemed to flap about a lot for not much action.
Finally, as Lufthansa is part of this Star Alliance Thingie, why was it unable to acquire either a spare aircraft or more direct or punctual flights from their partners?

Right, vent over. All wil be forgiven when I've calmed down
I'm now off to spend my £3.50 compensatory refreshement's voucher on a £3.80 cup of coffee!

Cheers!
SVK

[BEagle]

Not in the same league as your problem, but I'm also getting a bit fed up with LH customer care in general.

Yesterday I was booked from HAM to LHR in C class and had a reserved window seat. At check-in it was "Ve haff had to change your seat - you now haff a middle seat". But she said that it could be checked at the departure gate. So I showed my reservation to the female at the gate and she tapped a few keys-"Ve do not haff this in our system".
"Well look, here's the booking reference from your website with the printout showing which seat I was allocated last week. Why is it not in your system?"
"Ve do not haff it in this system"
"Right - is this an aircraft or variant change? Is this route normally flown with this ac type?"
"Yes - this ac is usually on this route"
"Do you have a customer comment card"
"Nein - you must write to this address"

Is this normal? Why tell passengers that they've got a reserved seat on a confirmed booking if that isn't honoured at check-in?

And Lufthansa still haven't learned how to treat passengers properly when things go wrong...

Shall see what is forthcoming from LH Customer Service as I faxed everything to them last night. But then they still haven't resolved the delayed luggage problem they caused me nearly 2 months ago.....

[RUDAS]

There was a priceless advert on TV here a while back.I swear it was a LH f/a and she was making the pre takeoff announcement to fasten seatbelts:'i only vant to hear vun klik!'.Sound familiar?

[BEagle]

Well, at least they gave me another 2000 M&M miles as some compensation - but still no response to my earlier claim.....

[Bus429]

Not just LH. As documented previously on this site, I've had problems with KLM. It seems that, with margins ever tighter, or losses even greater, airlines try to minmise expenditure. This is particularly true with regard to transferring you to a rival carrier. It also manifests itself in the number of airline staff, or, more likely, agents', available to help. You are really stuck if you've bought the cheapest possible ticket.

[PAXboy]

"but still no response to my earlier claim....."
I think that Bus429 is right - the niceties of customer service and responding to your customer's letters may have been overtaken by the need to get through each day's regular service.

Then again, a polite letter of enquiry to LH on a point raised in their inflight magazine, drew a blank. That was not even the mainline staff having to answer!

[richie-rich]

not by any mean trying to undermine the image of Lufthansa here, but both the flights I have flown with LH so far have been delayed (dunno why).

Wont say the inflight service was A1, but simply didnt feel like I was sitting in a Business class leaving me no chance to differentiate between Economy n Business! but hey.......life goes on......so would LH!

:D

Richie

[Whooaahh]

As a Frequent Traveller on LH, I am surprised by the negative comments on this thread.

This year to date I have collected over 50 boarding cards on LH sectors, some long haul but mostly inter-European, and have not once had cause to complain.

Once out of Moscow the flight was overbooked and I got rerouted via FRA instead of MUC. Landed back in GVA 1.5 hours later than originally planned having been upgraded to business class and with 300 Euros in vouchers in my wallet as "denied boarding" compensation. Nice...deny my boarding anytime you want LH!!

Inbound MNL to FRA missed my connection to ZRH due to some unknown delay out of BKK. Again many "Tut me leit's" later, rebooked on next flight 3 hours later and upgraded to business.

Can't fault LH in 4 years of (frequent) flying with them. My 1st choice everytime.

Whooaahh!!!

[pzu]

Having used LH the so called 'airline of choice' (recognised carrier, safety record etc), for my work location for past 2 1/2 years on a fairly frequent basis (6 r/trips a year)

The only good thing I can say for LH business class is seating in 340's of 2+2+2;

Food is abysmal, service is grudging - they can't make tea and they frequently lose or damage my luggage primarily on way home so I don't get satisfaction!!! of compensation (apart from replacement cases)

Pre 9/11 used to be able to make outward trip in a oner, now rescheduled & have to nightstop FRA - they provide hotel if I'm on an inbound LH flight (so my company accountants insist I use the 'freebie') - but what a selection of mediocre flea pits they offer around FRA!!! - remember I'm on a full 'C' class ticket;

Am just about ready to incur delay's (6 - 8 hours in my case) etc of a transit via the Gulf (Emirates), but keep saying it should get better :ok: