Originally Posted by
LH-Guru
Hi Zenica
Firstly i'm sorry to hear of your experience on one of our flights and I completley understand your fustration! I have read everything posted after your original letter and some of the comments are completley uncalled for.
I have just spoken to a customer relations manager in FRA who I know well as I was very interested to hear where we stand. The info I was given is that our crews are asked to seal duty free bags.... but there is absolutley no legal requirement for us to do this. It is simply done to assist passengers. Clearly on this occassion we did not do a very good job. I was also advised that on previous occassions requests for compensation such as yours have been denied. Did you receive any receipt for the goods taken by security?? The reason I ask is because there is a level of fraud risk in that a passenger can purchase hundreds of Euro's/Dollars worth of perfumes for example onbaord and then land themselves, hand it over to somebody, go back through security to catch another flight and then claim compensation for removal by security.
You'll have to wait and see how our NYC office deals with this but any compensation will likely be a gesture of goodwill. It depends who handles the case. But as I said above we are not legally bound in any shape or form to get your purchased liquids through security check points where rules on the transportation of liquids are defined by EU regulations.
This may seem totally unfair and I would understand anyone thinking this but it is the case. I wanted to give you as best factual info as possible.
Regards
I appreciate your reply and candor.
I am not versed in EU law well enough to know if the airline is required
or not so I will defer to your knowledge and accept it isn't.
Where my stance differs is in the printed word on the Lufthansa web
site. If the company openly advertises a policy, whether enforced and
required by law or a voluntary action on the part of the company, I
feel I have a reasonable level of expectation that the advertised policy
is enforced until rescinded. In the event that policy is not followed by
an employee of the company, a certain level of dispensation should
be granted. It is reasonable that a consumer read that policy prior to
making the purchase and expected the company employee to follow
it. In my case, I was not aware of it and if I had been, I may not have
noticed anyway. Try to imagine, when the flight attendant offered the
duty free, I was in a seated position with the cart to my right. I chose
which items I wanted, the flight attendant then bagged them and placed
them in the overhead compartment. She did not hand them to me for
inspection. Truth be told, she could have placed anything in that bag and
at that moment I would not know. At the time we were to disembark
from the aircraft, I recovered my belongings from the overhead compartment
and at that moment I could have checked the contents but being unaware it
needed to be sealed, I would not have taken notice of the missing seal.
I would only have noticed that the contents did not match what I purchased
but in my case, what I purchased is what was in the bag.
My point is that your company advertises that your duty free sales agents "must" seal
the bag. If that policy is by choice or law, it is your company policy until changed.
Also, I would like to bring your attention to the EU regulation regarding liquid
duty free items purchased in-flight.
"Passengers may transfer with their liquid
purchases only if:
(a) Items are purchased at an airport retail
store at a EU, EEA or Swiss airport, or
onboard a EU carrier, and
(b) Items are purchased on the same day of
travel, and
(c) Items remain sealed in a 'tamper-evident'
bag
NOTE: ALL OTHER PASSENGERS
TRANSFERRING AT EU, EEA OR SWISS
AIRPORTS WILL HAVE THEIR DUTY-FREE
LIQUIDS CONFISCATED, IRRESPECTIVE
OF WHETHER THESE PURCHASES ARE IN
SEALED BAGS OR NOT
NOTE 2: Passengers transferring at
Amsterdam Schiphol airport have to forfeit
LAG products +100 ml if travelling to the US."
I refer you once more to the sentence on Lufthansa's web site:
"These items must be sealed by the duty-free sales staff"
I will continue to pursue this matter as I strongly feel that while I could
have elected to discard my duty free, I was only placed into a position
to make that choice because an airline employee neglected to follow
company procedure. I am also certain that the flight attendants, crew
and possibly home airport are rewarded for exceeding expectations
regarding duty free sales. I would think that if the airline takes this
secondary avenue for revenue seriously, the company would want to
ensure passengers have a positive experience so as to buy again on future flights.
Yes, I have the receipt for my duty free purchase. The ticketing counter personnel
attached it to the box prior to placement in my carryon bag for check in.
Rest assured, while my decision to fly LH again is undetermined, my decision
to never again purchase in-flight duty free is etched in stone.
Once again, I thank you for your reply and the time you took to listen
objectively to my concerns.