LH to the rescue? Don’t be stupid

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 23 total)

  • Anonymous
    Guest

    OzTraveller
    Participant

    We were caught up in the French general strike last month when travelling from Barcelona to Seoul via Munich and Singapore with Lufthansa.

    The flight from BCN to MUC was delayed 2 hours because the bloody French air traffic controllers were working to a go slow or whatever they like to call it, and we subsequently missed our connection in Munich to Singapore by 20 minutes.

    Die Fuehrer of the LH flight decided not to wait for us and others on the flight ( ve vill leave on time) and we were forced to stay 24 hours in Munich, which LH paid for.

    My point however is: how do we judge an airline, how do we make the call “the best airline” ; “the worst airline”. It’s all subjective of course, but too often we judge an airline by the food, the seating, the crew. But its the overall experience that counts and in this instance LH deserves a 1 out of 10.

    The weary LH Service Agent (it’s where all the old cabin crew spend the rest of their days) could not have cared less. Ho hum, another delayed passenger. Here’s your voucher for the Holiday Inn and see you later.

    When we asked about our connecting flight to Seoul on Asiana, that was of no interest. It’s a separate contract she said. But its a Star Alliance carrier and it needs to be changed.

    A simple change of the flight in her computer and all would have been fixed. Too bad, she responded.. next!.

    Several phone calls later to our travel agent in Australia and the need to pay $600 for a new ticket and I wonder just how sympathetic Lufthansa will be to our claim for reimbursment.

    Hopefully, more so than the LH “Service” agent in Munich.


    JonathanCohen09
    Participant

    Hi OzTraveller,

    I am really sorry to hear about your bad experience with LH and I hope that the rest of your trip went or will go well.

    Unfortunately, I fear that you are unlikely to get a sympathetic response as the reason for your delay and subsequent missed connection was beyond their control, which to be fair to them, on this occassion it was. They discharged their obligation to sort out the LH part of the problem by rebooking you and providing accommodation.

    the next bit is where it gets tricky. Were you booked on one ticket or separate bookings, was the flight a codeshare? These will or may affect the response you get from LH. If it was a codeshare and you were on an LH flight number then they would have been responsible to rebook you as they did to Singapore. If not then unfortunately you are at the mercy of Asiana. As a member Star alliance carrier you would hope they would be sympathetic but as you were charge $600 clearly they were not. this is where the whole issue of how much of a true alliance are any of the airline groupings? I would be interested in the views of others on this. I am also interested if other posters think i have got this wrong?

    Please let us know what LH say when they get round to responding to your compensation request. Sorry that I cannot give you more positive news.

    Safe travels everyone,

    Jonathan


    flier74
    Participant

    well I think many of us will have similar experiences to yours OzTraveller, especially recently with strikes by ATC left right and Centre.

    However on reading your post on here I am not at all surprised if the Ground Staff or whoever you spoke to were “weary”.
    If you spoke to them the way you word your posting on here, I doubt you were given any sympathy and they probably just did what they have to, no more no less and why would they.

    Yes they are service agents but having witnessed Passengers venting their anger at them and/or the Crew about something which is out of their control, i.e. strike, weather etc, generally they just do what they have to do and offer minimal help. On the other hand when you are nice to and with them they generally do all they can to help and assist you.

    The ticketing issue was already addressed by JC so no need to duplicate this, but if you booked a seperate ticket with Asiana then the LH Agent simply could not have helped you anyway as its another booking system and another ticket. If it all is in one booking (Itinerary) then they can access this booking and they will change it, but not if you booked and paid for the Asiana Ticket seperately, Star Alliance or not.
    Maybe its not such a good idea for you to travel LH,again as you clearly think its hilarious and funny to compare them to the “Fuehrer” and you seem under the impression that all Ground agents are too old to fly so they do this job. Tongue in cheek or not but I find this rather offensive and inappropriate, but maybe thats just me.


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    As flier74 has noted, LH’s inability to rebook appears to be a result of travelling with a separate Asiana ticket between S’pore and Seoul.

    I don’t believe any airline, irrespective of whether it is an alliance member or not, would be able to change your booking if it were issued on a separate ticket and charged at a special fare. (The fact that your travel agent had to issue a new ticket suggests your original ticket was a restrictive one).

    Had you been travelling with a single ticket for your entire itinerary then there would have been no problem. In fact, LH may well have rebooked you on its non-stop Munich-Seoul flight which left the following lunchtime.


    Flagflier
    Participant

    Well said flier74! Enough times now I’ve read this forum and seen with my own eyes in airport terminals, onboard aircraft and in hotels, some incredible behaviour. Grown men and women believing if they shout loud enough and stamp their feet hard enough, they’ll get results. If I were on the end of that kind of behaviour I certainly wouldn’t budge. I have to say, Oztraveller, your attitude doesn’t come across all that well.


    ImissConcorde
    Participant

    This post doesn’t really surprise me. This individaul want first class service but is only willing to pay Ryanair prices. When it goes wrong it’s everyone elses fault!


    lsd1908
    Participant

    I can only agree with flier74.
    Actually LH is not so bad at all and it really depends on the attitude one shows to the agent.
    I recently experienced with SQ that they did not care at all for a connecting flight. Ok it was booked on a seperate ticket, however the reason for missing the connection was a technical failure of the SQ aircraft which caused a 3 hours delay.
    Not only did they even care at SQ, they simply gave me wrong information (not to use the word lying), which I found very unprofessional.
    Anyway, arriving at LH’s transfer desk at FRA, the handling agent was very helpful and booked me on the next flight without any additional charge. Simply goodwill by LH.

    Dont know the IATA rules, but if the reason that you, OzTraveller, missed the connection in MUC is Force Majeure, i.e. strike, than they are not even required to arrange accommodation. So maybe the agent was not as friendly, which on days with ATC strikes seems not really surprising, but LH seem not to have done to bad.


    starflyer
    Participant

    If that reflects your attitude OzTraveller “Die (sic) Fuehrer of the LH flight ” I also would have sent you to the back of the line or completely barred you from flying with LH. Highly inappropriate language.


    JordanD
    Participant

    Whilst tounge-in-cheek, if we want to nitpick, whilst “Der Fuehrer” was a title used by Hilter, “die Fuehrer” is German for “the leaders”.

    And “the leaders of the LH flight” can be loosely used to mean those in charge, nominally the captain.

    OzTraveller is a very valued poster on these boards, and whilst once again we have proved that the internet does not do humour, his post makes very valid points and contains no “highly inappropriate language”.


    Bullfrog
    Participant

    ‘Airline alliances’ are weak marketing agreements. Best service will always be received with a thru ticket on the same carrier when things go wrong. Politeness to those whom provide the service should ensure better treatment .. ‘ranting & raving’ only serves to put people’s ‘backs up’.

    “Do unto others as you would expect done to you” .. a very useful motto in business.


    OzTraveller
    Participant

    How quick you all are to suggest that my attitude was inappropriate and that I ranted and raved. In fact, i was very polite and calm in front of the Service Agent … and to suggest that I paid Ryanair prices (ImissConcorde) is a montrous assumption. I was in fact travelling Business class full fare.


    lloydah
    Participant

    You know, I read most of what’s on this site although I don’t feel I have the experience to write very much that would help anyone here. I would, however, say that this thread is another example where some posters might take a deep breath before they pass judgement, allow for a bit of humour and perhaps think the best rather than the worst of people. JordanD got it about right.


    SimonRowberry
    Participant

    Hi OzTraveller. I’m with Jordan and Illoydah on this one. There are some on this Forum who are very quick to jump to unwarranted conclusions.

    I would say that in my own experience (and LH , along with AY and LX are now my preferred carriers) LH are generally pretty good in terms of their customer relations compared to many others (memo to self – don’t mention TK here or you’ll get into trouble). My only bad experience was flying them once MUC – BHX on their Cityline subsidiary. A truly awful experience. However, this is one out of a few hundred Lufty flights I’ve taken, so that’s not a bad average. Again, unlike one unnamed airline who managed 3 unsatisfactory flights out of 8 I took with them last year.

    As for attitude, I do agree that it makes a massive difference – you only have to watch the reality shows like “Airport” to see how staff treat passengers and provide solutions to their problems often in proportion to the pax’s attitude. However, I’m not suggesting for a moment you were any less than sweetness and light, OzTraveller!

    Hi Jordan – you should know by now that sometimes this Forum doesn’t do humour or irony too well!!

    Regards, Simon


    lsd1908
    Participant

    Guess the question about humour is linked to where you from.
    Germans tend to react more sensitive to “Fuehrer”.

    In any case if OzTraveller paid a fullfare Business Class all the way through, I cannot understand why Asiana wants additional $600,00 and why LH should be responsible for it.
    Fullfare tickets are fully flexible!

    As I mentioned earlier, NO AIRLINE on this planet is covering Force Majeure.
    Not even LH.

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