Lufthansa problems last Thursday

[Beagle-eye]

Did anybody else get caught out flying Lufthansa last Thursday (23rd September) ? A real shambles. Two hours in a queue to check in for a Frankfurt flight that was two hours delayed and then, because they couldn’t reconcile the number of passengers with their (hand written) records, we missed our slot and had to sit on the ground for a further two hours 10 minutes. All in all a bad day. Anybody have any idea of what caused it all ? Seemed back to normal on Friday and was only an hour late getting back to EDI.:ooh:

[CargoOne]

Yep I've been flying ex FRA on 23rd as well.
I was on another airline but handled by LH. Two desks been checking-in passengers for 2 flights (both 737) and the queue was about 1.5-2 hours I believe. Lucky me - they allowed me to check-in without waiting that long because I was the only business-class passenger on this flight. However it took me good 10 minutes just waiting when the girl will check the family of 3 members before me.
The check-in was fully manual, with handwritten boarding passes without seat assignment and handwritten baggage tags.
I've been told that their super-integrated-all-in-one LH system has failed causing this nightmare.

However 1.5 hrs later at my boarding time system was back online and all pax been promptly re-checked at the gate.

Also seen several cancellations for LH domestic flights at that time.

[surely not]

The up side of computerised check-in is that more info can be retrieved, and more info put entered. As time goes by more and more info is required for c-in, but that's ok because 'the system' can cope with it. The Load control gets it's info automatically from the c-in system, no manual adding up or reconciling required.
Then one day 'the system' fails and suddenly it is clear just how much additional info the system provides automatically. The manual systems of days gone by cannot provide the same level of sophistication, plus, the check-in agents aren't used to the manual systems.
To the passengers it looks like, and in all probability is, chaos on a grand scale. It isn't that the staff are any less competant than in days of yore, it is simply that the computer is light years ahead of the old manual systems.
Yup it must have been inconvenient for those of you caught up in the melee, but it does underline the add ons that the computer systems allow us.

[flok]

"The reason for the manual check-ins was a failed software update, started during nighttime, which ended in an unprecedented system crash, damaging hardware too.

Fault isolation by the producer Unisys isn't completed yet."


http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/51398
http://www.spiegel.de/reise/aktuell/0,1518,319516,00.html