Lufthansa > Reviews > An Absolute Disgrace

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Poor
Customer Service	Very unhelpful
Punctuality	Awful
Space	Fairly Comfortable
Value for Money	Poor

Advantages:	Flew to Frankfurt
Disadvantages:	If there is a pilots strike they will abandon you

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I have recently been away on business for a meeting at one of our German offices. This meant flying into Frankfurt Airport, in order to get the best of my time and fit in with other meetings and business I flew from Manchester by BA and intended to fly back by Lufthansa.

I have done the journey before and generally I had an ambivalent attitude towards Lufthansa. They were neither particularly good and yet there was nothing specifically bad or annoying about them. That is, until my flights last week.

Now many people may not be aware that Lufthansa are presently going through a number of pilots strikes. I certainly was not aware until I got to our offices in Mainz and they said that these strikes were happening every Thursday. I was due to fly back 22:20 by Lufthansa. There was then a huge amount of confusion as to whether the flight would run. The agents initially said yes, then no, then yes. On this basis we went to Frankfurt Airport to get the flight.

The pilots strike was apparently due to a demand by the pilots for a wage increase of 30%. Now I do not have all the facts to make a fully reasoned judgement on this but I would hazard guessing that Lufthansa pilots are not on the breadline. To make such a demand appears unreasonable. However the problem that I have with Lufthansa is not due to their internal problems but how they deal with them with the public that is, the passengers, that is, me.

The cancellation of the flight was confirmed when we arrived at the airport and it soon became clear that all possible alternative flights were fully booked and I would have to spend the night in Frankfurt. The problem was that Lufthansa would not pay for our hotel although clearly the need to spend the night there was their fault. The detail they fixed on was that we had flown out by BA and only my return was with Lufthansa. Personally I found this decision absurd and perverse. Not only this but Lufthansa would not even help me find a hotel and then when I did try found that Lufthansa had block booked hundreds of hotel rooms on the basis that passengers booked with them might need them They would not even release a room to me to pay for myself.

The attitude of Lufthansa was astonishing. Their staff were completely unhelpful and appear incapable of showing any common sense or flexibility. They do not seem capable of or willing to follow a reasonable argument. I transferred my ticket back to BA as I have no intention of flying with Lufthansa again. I did eventually find a hotel and returned by BA the following day.

My suggestion would be, if you have an alternative to Lufthansa, use them.