[Anonymous]

[seasonedtraveller]

I am flying tomorrow, MAN to ORD via DUS.

Outbound was booked in non discounted Business & return in non discounted First – A single booking made on the Lufthansa website.

Try to check in this morning to find the 1st leg is operated by Germanwings – foolishly, I have spend an hour this morning trying to check in online with Germanwings and LH without any success.

LH website points me to GW & GW fails to check in & produce a boarding card both on PC and the app.

Phone LH who tell me it’s sold by LH, marketed by GW but operated by Eurowings!!
They advise me to check in on Eurowings website…… which turns out to be the very same website as GW – unbelievable!

I call LH again who tell me that they are unable to help – despite it being a ‘full fare’ Business & First tix.

I try calling GW & am informed that there will be a 30 mins wait whilst I pay £? per minute for the ‘pleasure’ of listening to GW adverts…..

To say I am frustrated would be an understatement.

[FDOS_UK]

The legacy airlines do seem to have a deathwish.

Hope everything sorts itself out.

FWIW (and this is certainly no excuse for such un-joined up service), I believe that GW costs are proving too high (in particular pilot salaries) and GW is being phased out with a move to EW (another LH subsidiary) with lower costs.

[AMcWhirter]

seasontraveller –

Sorry to hear about your experiences with this particular routing.

But, it has been mentioned many times over the past three years both in the magazine and on this Forum, that all Lufthansa non-hub flights would/have been switched to German Wings which in turn will be branded EuroWings from next month.

We reported on this development three years ago.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/lufthansa-will-create-budget-brand-to-cut-costs

And last April we broke the news that the German Wings name would be retired later this year.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/101615/germanwings-name-to-be-retired

It means that Lufthansa would rather passengers hub through Frankfurt or Munich rather than take those very few long distance flights it continues to operate from regional airports.

In fact, according to lufthansa.com all the Manchester-Chicago connections that I can see are for routings via either Frankfurt or Munich.

I do hope everything works out for you.

[seasonedtraveller]

ALEX.

I just checked the LH website & I can only see the same options as you…..my sectors are;

4U9341 – MAN to DUS
LH436 DUS to ORD

I was vaguely aware of the whole LH switchover but what is frustrating is the inability to check in on either website, the lack of assistance from LH and the fact that the GW-EW website is sending me round in a continuous loop instead of moving on in the whole check in process.

Edited to add – I’ve just spoken with GermanWings who inform me that online check in is not available for this particular flight – this, despite the fact that I received an invite to do so and that the website doesn’t alert you to this fact, it simply loops you into a continuous cycle.
What a great start…..

[FDOS_UK]

seasonedtraveller – 20/09/2015 13:53 BST

I completely agree with you, you have bought a premium class through ticket and the service should be seamless.

LH should be taking responsibility and assisting you.

[AMcWhirter]

seasonedtraveller –

I do sympathise and maybe Lufthansa should have made an exception and offered assistance in this case.

However, as I see it, the very few Lufthansa long-haul services ex-DUS are intended for the local market rather than those from overseas who might be intending to use DUS as a hub.

In any case, this non-stop flight is seasonal. It is withdrawn effective October 25 and according to luftansa.com, will not resume until summer 2016.

I do hope it works out in the end.

[penfold69]

I had the same issue trying to check in for a German Wings flight about 6 months ago and again about 2 months ago. On both occasions I was told by my TMC that the online check in was not working. This was after they had called GW to investigate. Sounds like it’s still not working and most likely never has been.

[seasonedtraveller]

When I finally checked in at the airport I was given both boarding cards but was stopped at the lounge in DUS because non of the API information had been stored in the LH system. Just arrived in ORD where I have to say that I prefer the BA service overall.
I await my return in First with high expectations.

[FDOS_UK]

Pleased to hear you got there, although the shambles continued in the lounge!

LH J isn’t great (although I like their food), but you should have a very good F experience coming home.

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