A tale of 3 airlines

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    seasonedtraveller
    Participant

    Over the past 9 weeks I have ecountered fairly long delays on flights with 3 airlines. I hold BMI Gold but have zero status (other than Star Gold) with any of the airlines flown. Interesting how each ariline dealt with the delays….

    1) US Airways – 5.5 hour delay from Manchester to Philly (quoted tech reasons)
    2) SAS – 9 hour delay Copenhagen to Manchester (delayed incoming, connection missed, single through ticket)
    3) Lufthansa – 7 hour delay Paris to Dusseldorf (cancelled, no reason stated)

    US Airways – Within a week of my return & without any prompting I received a written apology and $400 for future travel needs

    SAS – Filled in a complaint form and 2 weeks later received a written apology & a cheque for €240 in ‘compensation’

    Lufthansa – Filled in a complaint form and after 5 weeks I got a call from LH customer service rep who offered “as a gesture of goodwill’ 5,000 airmiles! Since I already have more than 500,000 miles, I declined & pointed out that, in my view, I was entitled to monetary compensation as my flight was delayed more than 4 hours. The rep claimed to be unaware of the EU ruling & promised to call me back later in the day – 4 days later and I am still waiting!
    Suffice to say, I am somewhat dissapointed with LH.

    Let me be clear – this is not about ‘money grabbing’ or compensation culture. The money does not come to me since its used against future air tickets.
    As another forum member pointed out in another thread recently, the airlines seem to like to have their cake and eat it – if we try to get on an earlier flight, that will be £250 sir but when they delay us, we are supposed to sit back, relax and enjoy the delights of the airport terminal……


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    I do believe that LH has no concept of customer care. They are very arrogant in the extreme and simply refuse to accept, or believe, they can make mistakes. Yet they do, continually.

    My wife had seat 4a, booked 3 months in advance. She took her seat, got up to talk to someone she saw and knew, returned to find someone else sitting in it. His boarding pass also had 4a printed on it and he refused to move. The stewardess refused to help, took my wife’s bag and moved to to the back of the C cabin and put her in the middle row. Worse, she refused to giver he back her boarding pass, so no proof.

    Spoke to LH customer care (the title is an oxymoron) who said my wife was mistaken, she was seated in row 14. I reserved the seat through Swiss senator service, they even acknowledge it was 4A but LH refuse to accept it and will not admit they made a mistake.

    Cannot be bothered to take it further so will just not make the effort to fly LH again.

    In your case, press for compensation. There is a website that helps in making claims, and can verify if the delay was down to the airline or really was the weather. Google them and go against LH and enjoy the compensation, which will be in cash.


    PatJordan
    Participant

    My wife and I had a very good experience with LH last year (MCO-FRA in Business). So much so that I contacted LH complmenting the service.

    I didn’t get so much as an acknowledgement of this from LH.

    It seems it’s not just complaints that LH choose to ignore…..what sort of business model is this? Do the decision makers not realise that there is competition on most routes, and if LH choose to ignore their customers, then they do so at their peril.

    I often wondered if company executives read this forum, and if so do they take note of what is posted??

    Pat


    Potakas
    Participant

    Had similar problem with BA,

    “Delay” of 12 hours!! We got on an aircraft the next day on the morning, Hotel payed by BA but not food/drink/transportation coupons, send them back asking for compensation under the EU laws, on my letter I pointed out this article from BT ,
    “Last November, the European Court of Justice ruled that delays of three hours or more were to be treated in the same way as cancelled flights. This means passengers can claim €250-€600 in compensation depending on the length of delay and the distance between destinations, provided the reason for the delay is within the airline’s control – the real deal-breaker. The ruling has been criticised by the airlines, who say it could cost them up to €5 billion a year, forcing them to increase ticket prices. But they are not required to publish what they pay out.”

    http://www.businesstraveller.com/archive/2010/may-2010/special-reports/what-are-my-rights

    And this from EU,
    “If you get to your final destination with a delay of three hours or more, you may be entitled to identical compensation to that offered when your flight gets cancelled, unless the airline can prove that the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances. Additionally, airlines can be held liable for damages resulting from delays. “

    http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/08-air-long-delays.html

    The reply I got was dismissive and they told me to that the flight was not cancelled but delayed 😉 Also they told me that this happened because of “was due to an unexpected technical difficulty on the previous flight. This delay constitutes an extraordinary circumstance as set out in Recital 15 of EC Regulation 261/2004 and could not have been avoided by British Airways even if all reasonable measures had been taken. “

    I wonder what tech could have been predicted,

    Also the letter closes with that paragraph:
    “BA will prove the defense of “extraordinary circumstances” should this become necessary in court proceedings. I am sorry to disappoint you, and I hope this helps clarify our position for you.”

    I didn’t bother more but their answer was bad IMO,


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    The problem with LH is they have a large captive market. Most Germans prefer a German airline and German crew, and the crew do treat their compatriots much better than they do “Auslanders”. An example of this was clear when my wife’s seat was double booked. They had to upgrade passengers to the half empty 1st class cabin, where I was sitting.

    A German man sat next to me, and said what was happening, and that my wife would probably be upgraded and he would swap seats with her so we could sit together.

    In the end, despite her Silver status she was not upgraded, yet the man next to me had no status at all with LH – not even the basic card. Clear bias here.

    Her sweet revenge was when our 11 year old came to the cabin. She and our friends were helping drink LH dry, keeping the FA’s from resting which annoyed them as well. In came Mrs. Arrogant FA who told my wife in that annoying tone, “your son must leave the cabin NOW!”. He turned, looked at her and threw up his lousy LH dinner – and this at 3am. Her face went crimson, she rushed off to get some cloths which she handed to my wife.

    Now when wound up, Italians can be much more vocal and arrogant than Germans so she refused and a now very angry and flustered FA then set about cleaning up the mess to the delight of my wife and friends. Interestingly, they used the coffee grounds to neutralize the smell.

    I should add my wife’s behavior was driven by the arrogance of the LH crew. My son for some reason is airsick on almost every flight and she is the first to offer help in cleaning it up if he does not get the bag in time, but the Swiss crew always refuse her offer.


    seasonedtraveller
    Participant

    An update to this tale……

    I had a call from LH on Saturday morning – I missed the call so they left a message saying “sorry we missed you but we will call you again on Monday – have a nice weekend”)
    Well, its already Wednesday and guess what………


    kevin46
    Participant

    @Lugano Pirate. What an extraordinary way for your wife to behave on an aircraft. I doubt if the upgrading of passengers had anything to do with the cabin crew.

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