[kershcliff]

Just returned from a trip. Manchester to Tblisi and return on Lufthansa via Frankfurt and Munich.
The flights were all pretty much on time. The aircraft A320 or A321 all good and the cabin crew very polite.
The meals on the Munich to Tblisi legs were both very tasty, served efficiently and even on a 35 minute flight from Frankfurt to Munich, they managed to serve all 180 passengers with drinks in time. All good then….well almost!

The connections at Frankfurt and Munich were round about 1 1/4 hours to 1 1/2 hours.
Given the size of these airports, there’s a lot of walking from Arrival gate in one Terminal to Departure gate in another.

So why, when I have bought tickets several months in advance, do they insist on putting me and Mrs Bluemooner towards the back of the aircraft on each and every flight. This means that we had 10 to 15 minutes less time to make each transfer. Mrs Bluemooner is 64 and her little legs are not accustomed to running. The distances that were needed to be covered along with Passport Checks and Hand Luggage Checks resulted in a very tired wife not to mention an extremely stressed husband.

Surely their sophisticated computer systems can see who is on connecting flights with tight transfers and do their best to alleviate things. OK – I could have paid 2 or 3 times the fare and sat at the front of the plane in business class (identical seats with identical service) but this seems unreasonable when sensible seat placing is all that is required.

ps
Security at Manchester outbound took less than 10 minutes and on return we were through Passport Control and picked up luggage in 20 minutes – no complaints there.

[capetonianm]

Connections at FRA have been discussed recently in another thread. They are dreadful. MUC a little better. As far as I’m concerned it’s a reason to avoid LH unless you have at least 2 hours connecting time, but in common with most airlines, they sell themselves on short connecting times.

They can see who is connecting onwards and how long they have and to where, but I don’t think the systems are sufficiently ‘joined up’ to automatically relate this to pre-seating allocations.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Jacob, AMcWhirter, Swissdiver, biguli76

[FaroFlyer]

[postquote quote=966793][/postquote]

Why not pay for seats when you make the booking?

[kershcliff]

“Why not pay for seats when you make the booking?”

The tickets we purchased showed “Seat Reservation” as a feature.
On low cost airlines booking sites, you then get directed to a seat plan.
There did not seem to be any seat plan access.
Not exactly sure what I did wrong if anything!

[capetonianm]

“Why not pay for seats when you make the booking?”

Those who don’t mind where they sit should not be blackmailed into paying for seat selection. Connections should be timetabled so that everyone on a flight has the possibility of making scheduled connections.

3 users thanked author for this post.

EU_Flyer, kershcliff, AMcWhirter

[AMcWhirter]

Or I like the KLM policy (on routes where it may have numerous flights) to allow travellers to increase their MCT at Schiphol.

The flights, allowing better connections, are displayed on its website.

1 user thanked author for this post.

EU_Flyer

[Author]

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