Deutsche Lufthansa AG, commonly known as Lufthansa, is Germany’s flag carrier. Combined with its subsidiaries (Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings), it is the second largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried.
United Airlines operates a large US domestic and international route network spanning cities large and small across the United States and all six inhabited continents. Measured by fleet size and the number of routes, it is the third-largest airline in the world after its merger with Continental Airlines in 2010.
From once enjoying a superior track record in the global world of aviation, Lufthansa, for many, is now at the bottom of the food chain regarding customer service and reliability.
Due to staff-shortage, emerging after COVID-19, anything from customer service to baggage handling and catering is simply a disaster at Lufthansa today.
United Airlines, as well as Lufthansa, both, have no shortage of horror stories when it comes to dealing with passengers, but for loyal passengers and in case of unexpected emergencies, United Airlines is emerging as the clear winner to become the friendly sky in the world, as it always wanted to be.
My airline of choice will remain to be United Airlines, eTurboNews publisher Juergen Steinmetz said.
When eTurboNews tried to get some clarification and responses from Lufthansa Media spokesperson Mr. Lamberty, he said: “I won’t discuss customer service issues with you, and your lack of journalistic understanding of the current strike challenges are surprising.”
This Lufthansa spokesperson demanded that eTurboNews shares any quotes and articles before publishing
A story always becomes better when it hits home, which is the case since it involves the author of this article traveling with another eTurboNews journalist.
Here is what is happening in my own words, eTurboNews publisher Steinmetz explains:
Yesterday Lufthansa announced a strike by its pilots, forcing the carrier to cancel all flights today. It also included some flights for Saturday morning. My PNR on Lufthansa from Malta to Frankfurt scheduled to leave at 6.05 am on Saturday, was one of the flights canceled.
My colleague and I were booked on the cancelled flight to get home from Malta to Honolulu on Lufthansa. We were supposed to fly Lufthansa Malta- Frankfurt- San Francisco and change to United Airlines to Honolulu.
Both passengers had two independent booking records.
In my case, I am a 3 million miles 1K flyer with United Airlines, having access to priority services. I was booked on a codeshare flight with Lufthansa using a paid business class ticket I bought on united.com .
A few hours after Lufthansa canceled the Malta Frankfurt flight, the airline’s website showed the cancellation for this PNR. Still, when clicking on quick help for alternatives, the system responded that there were no alternatives and thanked me for “flying Lufthansa.”Another option instructed to call Lufthansa Customer Service.
The phone number for the call center in Malta on Lufthansa.com was invalid, so I tried to call the 24/7 call center in Frankfurt. The recording said all day that all lines were busy and to visit the website since a human could not talk to anyone. It also again thanked for “trying to fly Lufthansa.”
Lufthansa and United are part of the Star Alliance System . A status in one airline loyalty program should be recognized across member airlines.
Unfortunately, it appears Lufthansa has its own way of interpreting this.
Lufthansa is not providing the so-called”Senator” or “Honorary Circle” access to Gold, Platinum, 1K, or Global service passengers booked through United Airlines.
I realized I was not even traveling on United Airlines, but since my ticket was a codeshare flight, I called the 1K number for UA. Within 5 minutes, a professional and friendly voice on the other end rebooked me a day later on Swiss from Malta to Zurich and on to San Francisco. No fees, no changes in booking class, a quick solution Lufthansa could have given on its website easily.
The situation my colleague was with his ticket was different.
He had a return ticket from Istanbul with a stop in Frankfurt to San Francisco on Lufthansa and a connection to Honolulu on United Airlines. He used the Istanbul- Frankfurt portion two weeks ago.
He was booked in premium economy class and upgraded to business class using United Airlines Plus points on the Lufthansa Frankfurt-San Francisco portion.
His flight on Lufthansa from Frankfurt to San Francisco is scheduled to operate as planned. However, my colleague’s second separate ticket bought through Expedia on Lufthansa from Malta to Frankfurt was canceled. He would have been unable to get to Frankfurt on time for the Honolulu-bound itinerary.
He is also a 1K flyer with United Airlines and a Star Alliance Gold member.
His ticket did not show the United Codeshare flight on the Lufthansa Portion Frankfurt-San Francisco but the true Lufthansa flight number. The ticket, however, was issued on United Airlines ticket stock.
His second ticket from Expedia was a one-way Malta-Frankfurt leg showing the true Lufthansa flight number, issued on Lufthansa ticket stock.
When checking Expedia even now, 24 hours later, the flight Malta-Frankfurt is still showing operating on time. When going to lufthansa.com the flight is marked canceled, and no alternatives were offered when accessing the PNR.
This time, the passenger was instructed by Lufthansa to contact Expedia for a solution since his ticket was not booked on lufthansa.com. When questioning Lufthansa’s media relations on how a travel agency like Expedia could resolve this situation instead of Lufthansa, Lufthansa said Expedia was not a travel agency.
After “investigating” for 3 hours on hold, an Expedia customer service finally chatted Lufthansa was operating on time and as scheduled.
When confronted with a copy of the cancellation screen Lufthansa shows, the Expedia agent instructed the passenger in Malta trying to fly to Frankfurt, Germany, to contact DB.
DB stands for Deutsche Bahn , the German railroad system. Malta, of course, is an island in the Mediterranean Sea not connected by rail to the German rail system.
When researching expedia.com, lufthansa.com, kayak.com, and other booking websites, flights from Malta were available for $1448.00. It clearly shows Lufthansa is ten-folding revenue on this route, deliberately stranding passengers holding cheaper tickets but selling the space for record amounts to other bitters. Spot checking other routes to Germany, record pricing was found across the Lufthansa network for flights leaving 1-3 days after the strike.
No human in Lufthansa customer service was able to take a call. Lufthansa Media relations said they could not discuss this lack of customer service with eTurboNews, nor could they look at individual bookings, blaming only the Pilot Union (VC) for the situation.
Even though United Airlines had no revenue and did not sell the ticket from Malta to Frankfurt, the friendly skies service came to the rescue. It took less than 10 minutes talking to United Airlines 1K desk to rebook my colleague from Malta to Zurich on Swiss and United Airlines to San Francisco, onto Honolulu two days later than planned.
There was no additional charge. However, Mileage Plus points used to upgrade from Frankfurt to San Francisco are currently kept by Lufthansa for no reason.
It shows once more how enabling customer service agents to resolve an issue without delay is so important and could improve a resolution in an emergency more easily, efficiently, and timely.
As a German-American, I feel sorry for all the call center agents Lufthansa employs around the globe to deal with angry passengers who are not allowed to resolve issues.
Germans are known to be efficient. It can only be hoped Lufthansa can benefit from this to earn the once excellent reputation back soon.
As a United Airlines 1K customer for 35 years, I am proud of my airline.
United is not perfect, but 1K customer service and for UA to recognize brand loyalty should stand as a shining example for airlines worldwide.
For me, United Airlines has earned to be number one. Thank you!
eTurboNews was told by numerous Lufthansa staff members that they were fed up, and some were ready to quit. This open frustration reflects the work attitude and overall experience passengers will experience when flying this carrier.