HON service at its "best"

Old Jul 14, 2012, 10:38 am
  #1  
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HON service at its "best"

Today on a nonstop domestic flight: fully booked, CR9 plane. At arrival one piece of checked-in luggage missing. Was told that three pieces had to be left at departure for weight resaons. I was the only HON on board and they left mine unloaded! It is now 6 hours after arrival, no delivery. Internet search says the luggage os still not found. HON call center told that it is at the dep. airport and it is planned to be shipped on the next non-stop later in the evening. But was told that is "planned" not guaranteed that they will ship it with this plane.
They really do not care any more for their key customers.
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Old Jul 14, 2012, 11:33 am
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Originally Posted by shipsmail
Today on a nonstop domestic flight: fully booked, CR9 plane. At arrival one piece of checked-in luggage missing. Was told that three pieces had to be left at departure for weight resaons. I was the only HON on board and they left mine unloaded! It is now 6 hours after arrival, no delivery. Internet search says the luggage os still not found. HON call center told that it is at the dep. airport and it is planned to be shipped on the next non-stop later in the evening. But was told that is "planned" not guaranteed that they will ship it with this plane.
They really do not care any more for their key customers.
This happened to me 7 times within 8 quarters in a row on my last leg FRA-NUE. HON priority means it is offloaded with priority. Alles fr diesen Moment!
It is ridiculous, I know. But this is LH at its best.
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Old Jul 14, 2012, 4:04 pm
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You guys do know that those bagage loaders have nothing to do with LH.... And those priority tags probably mean that the bags get loaded last and are therefore the easiest ones to unload.

A baggage loader could care less whose bag it is....
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Old Jul 14, 2012, 5:11 pm
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Originally Posted by RTW1
You guys do know that those bagage loaders have nothing to do with LH.... And those priority tags probably mean that the bags get loaded last and are therefore the easiest ones to unload.

A baggage loader could care less whose bag it is....
Then the SOP is seriously flawed!
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Old Jul 14, 2012, 5:28 pm
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Originally Posted by Rambuster
Then the SOP is seriously flawed!
Understatement.

Other airports this not the case- even outstations which are almost zero LH staff.
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 12:49 am
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Originally Posted by shipsmail
Today on a nonstop domestic flight: fully booked, CR9 plane. At arrival one piece of checked-in luggage missing. Was told that three pieces had to be left at departure for weight resaons. I was the only HON on board and they left mine unloaded! It is now 6 hours after arrival, no delivery. Internet search says the luggage os still not found. HON call center told that it is at the dep. airport and it is planned to be shipped on the next non-stop later in the evening. But was told that is "planned" not guaranteed that they will ship it with this plane.
They really do not care any more for their key customers.
I can top that story: LH did not load my luggage and sent the bags to Lost&Found - before boarding was even completed! I was checked through in the morning and flew a couple of segments with meetings in-between. Holding a valid boarding pass I was slightly irritated when the gate agent stated: 'We thought you might not be taking this flight.' They could not tell me why the luggage was with Lost&Found already and it got absurd when Lost&Found refused to send the luggage to the plane immediately...
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 12:55 am
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Originally Posted by SMK77
I can top that story: LH did not load my luggage and sent the bags to Lost&Found - before boarding was even completed! I was checked through in the morning and flew a couple of segments with meetings in-between. Holding a valid boarding pass I was slightly irritated when the gate agent stated: 'We thought you might not be taking this flight.' They could not tell me why the luggage was with Lost&Found already and it got absurd when Lost&Found refused to send the luggage to the plane immediately...
I had a good story a couple of years ago flying YYZ FRA PVG:
Flight was delayed at YYZ due to mechanical and so LH paged me and put me on AC so I would make my FRA connection.
At FRA I was denied boarding to PVG as they said I had never made my connection at FRA due to a late incoming arrival from YYZ. I did point out twice to the Ga that I was indeed in FRA and that I had indeed flown on the LH ticket as shown on the boarding pass printed out by LH ground staff in YYZ.
Fortunately after 20 minutes the FCT was able to convince them it was alright.
They held the plane to PVG to get it storted in the computer for unpulled coupon.
It was a very strange surreal event.
It did work out however which is rather fortunate (the first GA wanted to deny boarding and told me it was my problem).
Flexibility ...
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 1:48 am
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They lost my luggage 4 times already this year
& they really do not care

HON circle is now all promises & little or no delivery
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 5:31 am
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Originally Posted by RTW1
You guys do know that those bagage loaders have nothing to do with LH.... And those priority tags probably mean that the bags get loaded last and are therefore the easiest ones to unload.

A baggage loader could care less whose bag it is....
This always happened at FRA, which is LHs home base. And there I just make LH responsible for taking care that this does not happen. They have enough influence on Fraport to do that, but - of course - they do not care about anything about luggage handling. They just lost a bag for me "we do not know and were unable to trace, where your bag is" and I found it back 10 days later in a Qantas store for undeliverable bags in Darwin, because LH did not properly address it when they "tried" to send it to me from MUC with a 7 day delay. Their processes are completely messed up and nobody appears to be responsible for anything. They gave me two phone numers which were already disconnected and after a week a new 0800-number, which you can only reach from within Germany. Calls were not replied as always promised, repeated input about contact data and where I currently stayed were not entered in the baggage record, the worldtracer-interface was disconnected from Luftis system for more than a week: "file not found, please call customer service" etc. It is unbelievable, which rocket scientists do manage processes in this airline. And it is getting worse and worse. Im thinking intensively about going for competition instead of maintaining HON beyond 2015.
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 6:15 am
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You are right that LH is particularly incompetent in handling lost luggage, and it is their responsibility.
But they have hardly any operation control over baggage handling so I can't really blame them for these issues. Nor does it seem likely that they don't care that bags are lost.... their service when it happens, and for other common things, leaves a lot to be desired.
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 12:13 pm
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Originally Posted by RTW1
But they have hardly any operation control over baggage handling so I can't really blame them for these issues.
I think that would be a bit too easy. Not setting appropriate standards with sub-contractors in not an excuse for lousy service.
S
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 1:08 pm
  #12  
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I'm always amazed at how quick people are willing to lay blame without any evidence or facts.
The ground handling at Frankfurt for LH is done, exclusively, by Fraport AG. Just some line from the announcement in 2010:

Some parts of the existing contract, which define quality standards, have been revised in the new agreement. Service quality has taken on greater importance in the new contract and will also be reflected in the pricing. "Our competitive advantage is precision and reliability. The price itself exists only on paper. When highly complex and interconnected ground handling processes run smoothly, then we can show the value of our service delivery," emphasized Michael Mller, Fraport AG's executive vice president of ground services. The contract's "bonus-malus system" gives an incentive for delivering optimal services and, at the same time, provides fair compensation if the performance of the parties involved falls short of the agreed upon objectives.

So yes, ultimately LH is responsible for your luggage, and you should complain to them (loudly!) about any lost or delayed luggage. And they should have better systems in place to deal with the follow-up.

But on the operational level the decision to leave a bag behind isn't made by LH. And I'm pretty sure that the contracts will specify something about giving any priority luggage priority over being loaded. But since these are the last on board, it's easy for some baggage loader to do the opposite. Especially if there is a balance between offloading bags and planes leaving on time.

Without knowing the facts, and unfortunately we never will, who knows why this decision was taken. If 3 pieces of luggage were left behind for weight reasons people will be unhappy. Being a HON doesn't really make that much of a difference.....

It's the service after the fact where LH has a chance to perform... and they do that poorly.
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 2:02 pm
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I'm glad I don't have this problem (not being HON), but I also find it unacceptable. HON should be the guarantee for "no-surprises", and when basic stuff like this happens...

I assume those bags have appropriate luggage tags, and ground staff should know how to read them...
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 3:29 pm
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Don't want to go against the flow of the subject, but sometimes, LH does something right and it should be mentioned.

On Tuesday, I was flying VIE-FRA-LYS. Arrived in FRA with 15 minutes delay. Only 25 minutes remaining for the connection to FRA-LYS. I made it without problems but luggage did not.
Upon landing in LYS, I received an SMS from LH before reaching the terminal, letting me know that my luggage did not make it and sending me immediately to the lost & found desk.
Luggage was sent on the later flight, arriving at 22:30. Was informed by staff that delivery at hotel will only take place the following day. Then, when staff realized that I was SEN, they informed me that it would be delivered around midnight.
Luggage was in my room by 01:00, not too bad.
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Old Jul 15, 2012, 3:32 pm
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Originally Posted by RTW1
I'm always amazed at how quick people are willing to lay blame without any evidence or facts.
The ground handling at Frankfurt for LH is done, exclusively, by Fraport AG. Just some line from the announcement in 2010:

........

It's the service after the fact where LH has a chance to perform... and they do that poorly.
This is no excuse for prioprity offloading or not loading HON tagged luggage. This did not happen to me before being HON and it happened almost once a quarter afterwards. This is just ridiculous.
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