airberlin topbonus - AB... big disappointment

We recently took a trip to europe. Used miles and did lufthansa first from lax to Fra. Obviously amazing. Not comparing to AB. We've taken regional stuff in europe many a time. We know what to expect. AB so lied to us, delayed us and handled us so poorly. They purport to be a "cool" hip airline where they are all about "you." They were all about them.

We were going Venice to Mallorca. So it would be a connection through DUS. The connection was not very tight but close enough...1 hour. Of course, the vce to dus was delayed. I spoke with a rep and they said, "no problem with connection and only a few minutes late." 30 minutes later still late and i asked the same kind question. Now more pissed at me, "only few minutes late." i said no problem i was just curious what options there were if i missed my connection. They promised it won't happen.

When i got on the plane 45 minutes late i asked the attendant. She showed my connecting boarding pass to the pilot. She came back and said... you guessed it, "only a few minutes late, no problem with the connection."

Guess what? I missed the connection. No one told us to go see the Air Belin desk. We finally figured it out. They were sending us to Barcelona. Then later that night to Mallorca. No offers. No compensation. No apology. No explanation for the lying, and unreal responses.

I wrote to the CEO of Air Berlin. When i've had problems in the past i write a simple, kind, clear letter to a CEO like of Virgin America and get immediate response and continue to be a customer and appreciate the communication. Hartmut Mehdorn, the ceo, has yet to respond.

This is simple stuff... COMMUNICATE. I know the expectations in europe is different. But they are starting to change. They will soon be doing priority boarding for business. Different kind of amenities and protocol. The world is getting smaller. Harmut has to update his airlines attitude and remember the customer comes first.

AB is considered a budget airline. Don't expect much. EU customer service is almost non existent compared to US. I should know because I live in Germany. Have the right mindset and have a good trip.

Sorry - but are you seriously suggesting customer service for airlines is better in North America? Now that is funny and you really are having a laugh!:eek:

Sorry - but are you seriously suggesting customer service for airlines is better in North America? Now that is funny and you really are having a laugh!:eek:

Oh yes. I think customer service by comparison to anything related to "customers" is generally better handled in North America than Europe.. UK for that matter just gives you the run around. They're nice and polite about it , but still, you get the runaround.

to all the precious protective people of Air Berlin fandom. No need to "huff" and "puff" at me. If you read my thread i clearly state that i've flown internally in europe many times and have a very clear understanding of what to expect. these forms aren't for throwing stones. they are to share experiences, learn from one another and to help better our collective experiences. throwing ones hands up the air and saying "well that how it goes in Europe" will lead to nothing but apathy.

As i've said, change is underfoot already in the inter-Europe carriers. Lufthansa domestic is going to begin a program of priority boarding. Other carriers are going to implement zone loading. and so on. i don't think excusing Air Berlin for bad customer handling is an option. I think they should be held accountable or nothing will ever improve. You all have the power. You provide them dollars and they continue to operate. You take those dollars away (Euros, Pound, so on) and changes will happen. I don't mean to sound condescending. I think someone just has to put it in it's simplest terms. It is what it is. Thanks for hearing me out.

We recently took a trip to europe. Used miles and did lufthansa first from lax to Fra. Obviously amazing. Not comparing to AB. We've taken regional stuff in europe many a time. We know what to expect. AB so lied to us, delayed us and handled us so poorly. They purport to be a "cool" hip airline where they are all about "you." They were all about them.

We were going Venice to Mallorca. So it would be a connection through DUS. The connection was not very tight but close enough...1 hour. Of course, the vce to dus was delayed. I spoke with a rep and they said, "no problem with connection and only a few minutes late." 30 minutes later still late and i asked the same kind question. Now more pissed at me, "only few minutes late." i said no problem i was just curious what options there were if i missed my connection. They promised it won't happen.

When i got on the plane 45 minutes late i asked the attendant. She showed my connecting boarding pass to the pilot. She came back and said... you guessed it, "only a few minutes late, no problem with the connection."

Guess what? I missed the connection. No one told us to go see the Air Belin desk. We finally figured it out. They were sending us to Barcelona. Then later that night to Mallorca. No offers. No compensation. No apology. No explanation for the lying, and unreal responses.

I wrote to the CEO of Air Berlin. When i've had problems in the past i write a simple, kind, clear letter to a CEO like of Virgin America and get immediate response and continue to be a customer and appreciate the communication. Hartmut Mehdorn, the ceo, has yet to respond.

This is simple stuff... COMMUNICATE. I know the expectations in europe is different. But they are starting to change. They will soon be doing priority boarding for business. Different kind of amenities and protocol. The world is getting smaller. Harmut has to update his airlines attitude and remember the customer comes first.

I'm not sure that underestimating a delay or displaying a cavalier attitude to your connection problem counts as "lying". Also, Im sure AB didn't "delay you". You made it sound like they purposely ensured you didn't get to your destination on time. Pub quiz question: if you miss your conection at an airport, where would you seek help? ("No one told us to go see the Air Belin desk.") The non-compensation is a different story but since you didn't indicate the reason for the delay I can't even say whether or not compensation is due. Customer service may vary by airline but in Europe there is clear legislation on compensation (http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/index.html). I agree you received poor customer service and I feel your frustration but your assertion about being lied to is offthe mark. If your letters to various CEOs were written in a similar style I'm surprised you got very far.

(http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/index.html). I agree you received poor customer service and I feel your frustration but your assertion about being lied to is offthe mark. If your letters to various CEOs were written in a similar style I'm surprised you got very far.

i think the lying is clear. this isn't their first rodeo. they know i wouldn't make a connection. instead of having to deal with the reality they'd rather shut me up, along with the rest of the fliers, by telling me "everything is fine." i think we all know that the attendants and pilot all knew better. No one wants to have to deal with a frustrated passenger. Can't say i blame them. But come on. They knew there was no way i was going to make the connection. They could have said, as a part of policy, "if you do not make the connection for any reason see our help desk... we will rebook you onto the next available flight... we don't have that information available immediately but the gate agent will be happy to assist you." Would that be so hard? We're all grown ups. it's lying. They know it. A policy of "push off the problem so you don't have to deal with it" just don't cut it. I'm shocked so many people excuse AB. Why not just say, "yeah, it's bad. They should fix it. Thanks for pointing it out to upper management so maybe my flight or his flight will run smoother one day." And yes, CEO's respond. It's their company. They take pride. They have large staffs that probably block the letter from going all the way but someone handles it. Well done in those cases.

Contrasting to what some of the other posters say: I can only agree.

Had a similar incident some years ago with a very simple, one-way flight to Munich and to reach a ground connection. :mad:

After several hours lying, no compensation offered and the "highlight" was:
As we have no longer a base in Berlin noone is able to rebook and reschedule the ticket.

Insisting for a free charge to Lufthansa (in the meantime at least 2 aircraft of LH have left Berlin) and asking for a supervisor: The ramp agent was presented. Who is specialist in loading, turning around an aircraft, refuelling etc. . Needless to say that he didn´t know how to rebook a ticket (what was not his fault).

But presenting a ramp agent for a rebooking/compensation question is completely ridiculous.

And you may imagine what happened: Got to my destination about 5 hours late. So this behavior of denying responsibility hasn´t changed yet.

To make it short: I believe every word and would sue for compensation according to the EU rules

Gum, great thought. And thanks to earlier poster for EU Passenger rights link. The fight continues. I never give up hope.

Have to agree as well. We had an AB segment recently. My mom who had wheelchair assistance and had paid ahead for an aisle seat was asked to move to a window seat. The male FA said it was AB policy for those with WC assistance to not sit in an aisle seat. So he moved her. A man arrives who says he paid for the window seat she was now in and wanst to sit there. I see a female FA and tell her about it. She motions to the male FA who comes back and moves her back to the aisle seat. So much for AB policy. The pilot rudely stares at us as we depart the flight. Who knows what the FA told him. Interestingly, on another AB flight on the same day, my mom had an aisle seat- nothing was mentioned/she was not moved. They don't appear to have their act together yet, at least in this regard.

To make it short: I believe every word and would sue for compensation according to the EU rules [/b]

I also believe the OP's story and can imagine he was disappointed. BUT: From the limited information we have, it looks unlikely to compensation according to EU rules. These rules don't apply to connections, but only to individual flights. I.e. if the flight VCE to DUS wasn't delayed by more than 2 hours, no compensation is due. And even if it was more than 2 hours, it depends on the reason. The flight DUS to PMI was apparently not delayed and certainly not boarded by the OP - so no compensation based on the arrival to PMI.

But about AB's communication, I can't see any wrong. Connecting from a schengen flight to another schengen flight in DUS takes between 2 and 10 minutes, depending on the respective gate locations. Even if you take into consideration that they may close the gate 10 minutes before departure, a 30 minute delay in a 1 hr connection is no issue and even a 40 minute delay should generally be fine but tight.

And then: I had similar experiences with UA (yes, an american carrier), LX, IB - just to name the ones I can remember. No compensation from any of those airlines, nothing ... They all put me on the next flight, which was sometimes next day ... Not that I liked it, of course!

And then: I had similar experiences with UA (yes, an american carrier), LX, IB - just to name the ones I can remember. No compensation from any of those airlines, nothing ... They all put me on the next flight, which was sometimes next day ... Not that I liked it, of course!

i hear ya. but if you look at my original post i did point out that my original experience with compensation WAS on a domestic American carrier. I agree that the area gets grey but when it got grey with the US carrier... i took it to defcon and got the justice from the airline. I hold out hope for Air Berlin. It was many hours later arrival at PMI then originally ticketed. It was also additional connections. No offer for food voucher, any talk of any kind of compensation or anything. I know it's grey but i'm not going to follow the cut and dry route. I'm going to demand the airline take responsibility. They can ignore me but as a traveller they take my money... i can bring their attention to the faults of their practice. If enough people like me annoy them then you might... might... see changes one day. Might not too.

Thanks all for hearing me out.

First of all: I don't think AB has any character of a low cost carrier left.

I used to have pretty good experience with AB flights during the last years. Even their customer service was ok. Delays and rebooking never was a problem.

Within the last one or two years the quality decreased generally. My last AB-Experience wasn't good. I felt kind of betrayed and the behaviour of ground staff was unprofessional and dissappointing.

The hotline is hard to reach without stucking in line for at least 25 minutes.

I don't think they will survive if they chase away customers in large numbers.

First of all: I don't think AB has any character of a low cost carrier left.

I used to have pretty good experience with AB flights during the last years. Even their customer service was ok. Delays and rebooking never was a problem.

Within the last one or two years the quality decreased generally. My last AB-Experience wasn't good. I felt kind of betrayed and the behaviour of ground staff was unprofessional and dissappointing.

The hotline is hard to reach without stucking in line for at least 25 minutes.

I don't think they will survive if they chase away customers in large numbers.

i agree with you but somehow they grow. I mean they must be supplying a product that people need. Perhaps a low cost alternative for quick hops? Not sure. But from what i read, their reach is expanding. They are swallowing up a regional and somehow they are competing in this very tough airline biz. Even Ryan Air survives through very extreme cost cutting. They are basically the rush hour bus with wings.

I know i can't recommend them or financially support this carrier again with out follow through. But i'm sure many will. Hey, one drop at a time.

The lying part:
seems standard business practice in Germany these days.

I have never experienced a place where more lies and false excuses were made up than in Germany.

The lying part:
seems standard business practice in Germany these days.

I have never experienced a place where more lies and false excuses were made up than in Germany.

What an amazingly ignorant comment! Well done!

We were going Venice to Mallorca. So it would be a connection through DUS. The connection was not very tight but close enough...1 hour. Of course, the vce to dus was delayed. I spoke with a rep and they said, "no problem with connection and only a few minutes late." 30 minutes later still late and i asked the same kind question. Now more pissed at me, "only few minutes late." i said no problem i was just curious what options there were if i missed my connection. They promised it won't happen.

When i got on the plane 45 minutes late i asked the attendant. She showed my connecting boarding pass to the pilot. She came back and said... you guessed it, "only a few minutes late, no problem with the connection."

It seems like you kept asking expecting to get a different answer, but you should know -- considering you had enough miles to book First on LH, that sh%t happens. Flights get delayed, connections get missed. Departing 45 minutes late usually doesn't mean landing 45 minutes late, so they told you the average-case scenario. The worst case happened, but you still got on another flight.

Guess what? I missed the connection. No one told us to go see the Air Belin desk. We finally figured it out.

Again, you needed to be told to go to the air berlin desk after missing a connection? Did you expect boarding cards to fall from the sky in little parachutes?

I don't really see where airberlin messed up...

you didnt get screwed at all dude. the plane was late. no FA can possibly tell you anything about ground ops and connection times. No one literally knows how late a plane will be until theyre given takeoff clearance by the tower. meaning, they all hope it's not late...but that's the best they can do. they got you to mallorca right? the same day? count yourself lucky!!!! most US airlines would leave you in the airport with MAYBE a 5 dollar voucher for a sandwich and say "see you tomorrow".

We recently took a trip to europe. Used miles and did lufthansa first from lax to Fra. Obviously amazing. Not comparing to AB. We've taken regional stuff in europe many a time. We know what to expect. AB so lied to us, delayed us and handled us so poorly. They purport to be a "cool" hip airline where they are all about "you." They were all about them.

We were going Venice to Mallorca. So it would be a connection through DUS. The connection was not very tight but close enough...1 hour. Of course, the vce to dus was delayed. I spoke with a rep and they said, "no problem with connection and only a few minutes late." 30 minutes later still late and i asked the same kind question. Now more pissed at me, "only few minutes late." i said no problem i was just curious what options there were if i missed my connection. They promised it won't happen.

When i got on the plane 45 minutes late i asked the attendant. She showed my connecting boarding pass to the pilot. She came back and said... you guessed it, "only a few minutes late, no problem with the connection."

Guess what? I missed the connection. No one told us to go see the Air Belin desk. We finally figured it out. They were sending us to Barcelona. Then later that night to Mallorca. No offers. No compensation. No apology. No explanation for the lying, and unreal responses.

I wrote to the CEO of Air Berlin. When i've had problems in the past i write a simple, kind, clear letter to a CEO like of Virgin America and get immediate response and continue to be a customer and appreciate the communication. Hartmut Mehdorn, the ceo, has yet to respond.

This is simple stuff... COMMUNICATE. I know the expectations in europe is different. But they are starting to change. They will soon be doing priority boarding for business. Different kind of amenities and protocol. The world is getting smaller. Harmut has to update his airlines attitude and remember the customer comes first.

As i've said, change is underfoot already in the inter-Europe carriers. Lufthansa domestic is going to begin a program of priority boarding. Other carriers are going to implement zone loading. and so on. i don't think excusing Air Berlin for bad customer handling is an option.

Reading this, I had to double-check the date of this post - 2012. wow.

I fail to see how this links to AirBerlin and your experience with them.

Just to get the facts straight though: "In Europe" priority boarding and zone loading are both things that have been done for many many years, to varying extend, by many carriers. I was part of a team at FRA that was actually evaluating the different boarding methods such as those above, over many months. On behalf of a number of European carriers. And that was many years ago.

Still fail to see the relevance though.

The lying part:
seems standard business practice in Germany these days.

I have never experienced a place where more lies and false excuses were made up than in Germany.

The poster must be very unfortunate on his trips to Germany?!!

well... all you naysayers are wrong. i've delt with American carriers delaying me. They are much more communicative and they compensate. They also have a rep standing outside the jetway to direct you where to go when there is a problem. So all the agro posters standing up for the lame airline. Wrong. AB at no time made an attempt to do anything the American carriers have done for me in the past.

Yep, i don't know to go to the help desk. Last i knew i was "going to make the connection" and were about to race across the airport to the gate our connection was assigned to. A long, far way away. I only caught the desk way down a hall on our way running to the gate. So i diverted. Of course the pilot/flight attendant had me believing i'd make the connection so i have to assume i need to race to the gate. Did they hold the flight? Was it delayed anyway? I HAVE NO IDEA 'CAUSE NO ONE IS SAYING ANYTHING!!! So we went running.

Like i've said, it wasn't their first rodeo. You know, i know, the airline knows EXACTLY what was going to happen. If you fly a route every day for years you've missed the departure windows before and know passengers won't make it. Come on! Don't be silly.

Stop making excuses for poor customer care. Stop defending bad policy at an airline. Start standing up for your rights as a traveler and customer. Go ahead and make excuses and you'll continue to experience poor quality. Decide that the actions are unacceptable and your wallet will speak volumes to an airline and their practices.

Please don't continue to lecture me on "i don't see how the airline lied" and "i don't see it as that bad" or "American carriers are worse." that's your opinion. Start your own thread to praise the airline. Share your amazing experiences with Air Berlin. Have at it. Mine is an honest account of a faulty practice. Continued excuses for them, acceptance of their failed customer service isn't going to change this one person's opinion and many many others. Connecting me through an extra city... getting there way way late with no food voucher, no compensation, nothing... Spending 2 hours at 1am at an empty airport to acquire our luggage... No transportation help... No response from the airline when i contacted them by mail.... Uh.. yeah... i'm so very lucky to have experienced such a wonderful airline. Let me ask you naysayers. Given a choice... you'd fly them again. Easy answer for me: no

The lying part:
seems standard business practice in Germany these days.

I have never experienced a place where more lies and false excuses were made up than in Germany.

Wow.....

well... all you naysayers are wrong. i've delt with American carriers delaying me. They are much more communicative and they compensate. They also have a rep standing outside the jetway to direct you where to go when there is a problem. So all the agro posters standing up for the lame airline. Wrong. AB at no time made an attempt to do anything the American carriers have done for me in the past.

Yep, i don't know to go to the help desk. Last i knew i was "going to make the connection" and were about to race across the airport to the gate our connection was assigned to. A long, far way away. I only caught the desk way down a hall on our way running to the gate. So i diverted. Of course the pilot/flight attendant had me believing i'd make the connection so i have to assume i need to race to the gate. Did they hold the flight? Was it delayed anyway? I HAVE NO IDEA 'CAUSE NO ONE IS SAYING ANYTHING!!! So we went running.

Like i've said, it wasn't their first rodeo. You know, i know, the airline knows EXACTLY what was going to happen. If you fly a route every day for years you've missed the departure windows before and know passengers won't make it. Come on! Don't be silly.

Stop making excuses for poor customer care. Stop defending bad policy at an airline. Start standing up for your rights as a traveler and customer. Go ahead and make excuses and you'll continue to experience poor quality. Decide that the actions are unacceptable and your wallet will speak volumes to an airline and their practices.

Please don't continue to lecture me on "i don't see how the airline lied" and "i don't see it as that bad" or "American carriers are worse." that's your opinion. Start your own thread to praise the airline. Share your amazing experiences with Air Berlin. Have at it. Mine is an honest account of a faulty practice. Continued excuses for them, acceptance of their failed customer service isn't going to change this one person's opinion and many many others. Connecting me through an extra city... getting there way way late with no food voucher, no compensation, nothing... Spending 2 hours at 1am at an empty airport to acquire our luggage... No transportation help... No response from the airline when i contacted them by mail.... Uh.. yeah... i'm so very lucky to have experienced such a wonderful airline. Let me ask you naysayers. Given a choice... you'd fly them again. Easy answer for me: no


I am not going to excuse them, but knowing both, airberlin and in particular DUS very well I get the feeling you are over exaggerating. AB arrives on the B pier and you had Schengen connections. The longest possible way to run appears to be something like 150 meters. You were not telling anything about stairs and a tarmac arrival, so it is more likely in the range of 100 meters.

And what do you expect telling you on board? "you will miss the connection!!". Telling that an overexcited American who keeps asking will not make anything any better. Calming the pax down and being prepared for plan B appears to be the right thing to me. And a 10 minutes connection in DUS is not witchcraft but day to day business....

You have had a bad experience , unfortunately we all have. However I just think your expectations are too high. I don't imagine the airline personnel lied to you, just gave you their best estimate with the probably limited information they had.
Other than giving you a few euros for refreshments I don't know what more the airline could reasonably do. They rebooked you and got you to your destination without an overnight stay.I would have been pleased with this outcome, knowing that other airlines might make you wait until the next direct flight which could mean a wait of several days!
I think your expectations are just too high.

They are much more communicative and they compensate.

Sometimes. (Says my over 1 million miles flown over last 10 years on American carriers.)

They also have a rep standing outside the jetway to direct you where to go when there is a problem.

Sometimes, only when you are lucky. (Says my over 1 million miles flown over last 10 years on American carriers.)

You know, i know, the airline knows EXACTLY what was going to happen. If you fly a route every day for years you've missed the departure windows before and know passengers won't make it. Come on! Don't be silly.

Stop deluding yourself and learn from those with a deeper understanding of how flight operations work than you have shown you have. An airline DOES NOT know the arrival time of a flight until Air Traffic Control approves a flight plan with an assigned take off time. This does not happen until the doors are closed and all passengers seated, ready for departure. Depending on other planes, weather, and other variables the route and take off time will vary and is not known until after the plane is ready to go. The flight plan cannot be approved until the plane is actually ready to go.

It is very common for a plane to leave 15 and 30 minutes late but still arrive on time. This is because the schedules are created for an early arrival if all conditions are favorable, with extra time built in for many variables that may or may not be favorable.

The lying part:
seems standard business practice in Germany these days.

I have never experienced a place where more lies and false excuses were made up than in Germany.

This has got to be one of my all-time favorite posts! Oh those deceptive Germans... you definitely can't trust them!! It's amazing so many countries do business with them. :rolleyes:

As for the OP... why did you fly that routing to begin with? Going from VCE to PMI via DUS is a definite detour. I've flown BCN to VCE, and it was basically a straight across shot. Now, I know that many traditional EU carriers don't offer service to PMI and leave it to the LCCs. So was that the reason? And if so, what did you expect the ground agents at VCE to do (if they actually were AB staff and not some contract company)? The only other AB flight I know of out of VCE goes to TXL in the afternoon. It kind of seems that being re-routed from DUS to PMI via BCN was the only other alternative for you anyway. Can AB endorse a ticket over to a LCC? Or should I say, would a LCC accept a ticket endorsement from another carrier? Because they basically don't here in the United States. And the flight did leave VCE 45 minutes late. It's not as though it was well over an hour late (which was your original connection time).

Sorry - but are you seriously suggesting customer service for airlines is better in North America? Now that is funny and you really are having a laugh!:eek:

Customer service in US is certainly much better compared to EU. It may take some time and you have to find your way around but I always received a good customer experience in the end. (except for that one experience where I was a first time customer)

You can't compare this to EU. Customer service her is just becoming important I have the impression. We have yet a lot to learn! (not only airlines)

The one thing about airlines that is better in EU are the regulations that are imposed to the airlines where they're required to give you certain compensations as of 4hrs of delay.