Here is a little story of Otto M[.], a Lufthansa Flight Manager, who gets a kick out of inflicting pain and damage on their paying customers.

First of all, we fly a lot on both Business and Economy - we are Chairman's Preferred on US Airways (their highest Elite level). I took 108 flights last year.

My wife and I had the misfortune to have one of our flights booked on Lufthansa (March 6, Flight 1338 FRA-BUD). We arrived at the gate early. That was a mistake. As we were waiting for the boarding to begin, Otto M[.] (who I decided to make famous after the incident, hence the giving of the name) asked for our boarding passes and then pointed to our carry ons (which traveled around the world with us several times - they are standard carry-on size: 55x40x20cm) and told us that we had to check them in. Given that Lufthansa BROKE our checked in luggage on the outbound trip and the carry-ons he pointed to had about $15,000 worth of camera equipment in them, we politely said we could not do that as the equipment in them was too valuable to us to be broken (which would have been guaranteed to happen). He then raised his voice and said that we had 2 options: either we check them in, or we won't fly. I told him that our carry-ons were standard size, and he told me that they were "huge" (no measurements or anything, just opinion), and told me that if he says they are too big, then they are too big, and if we want to fly with them, we will have to check them in. I told that there was no way we would check them in as they would break our equipment. He held up our boarding passes (with all the other passengers standing around, waiting for boarding) and told me (with visible PLEASURE in his eyes) "Are you sure? Because I am canceling your tickets right now. Your tickets are no longer valid. You want me to do it?" I told him to go ahead, because there was no way I would let them break my equipment. So he did cancel our tickets (causing the flight to be delayed, as our checked in luggage had to be removed from the plane - a foot bullet for Lufthansa, since delays are expensive - he wouldn't be bothered. He was on a mission: he had to teach us the lesson that he had POWER.

I was traveling with 7 friends who did get on the flight and they told me the following after we all got home:

- There were dozens of passengers with LARGER carry ons than ours. They were allowed on the flight.
- As people were standing in line to board, my friends noticed FEAR in their eyes - they were trying to hide their carry-ons, and were SCARED that they might be the next to be refused to fly if they didn't check in their valuables. What a nice way to start a flight - Otto M[.] practically terrorized all the passengers.
- The flight was NOT full and there was plenty of room in the overhead bins - my friends saw a bunch of empty seats and ample room in the bins. Of course, the Flight Manager knew that would be the case. That's his job - unless he makes it his mission to terrorize randomly selected passengers and delay the flight in the process.
- The flight left late as a result of Otto M[.]'s unnecessary demonstration of (abuse of) power.

So we went to the Lufthansa customer service counter, where we were told that we would have to pay 200 Euros (about $280) to rebook our flights to another one 8 hours later. I politely argued with the agent telling him that we were DENIED boarding and I wouldn't want to pay a change fee since *I* did not change my flight - I was refused. We talked to everybody all the way up the food chain and they insisted that we had our choice and WE decided not to take that flight and we had to pay or we won't fly. They all seemed to know what happened, but at that time that didn't strike me as odd.

Later I found out WHY all of Lufthansa seemed to know about us and why we had no chance in hell to get the "change fee" waived: my friends told me that after we left, Otto M[.] spent some 20 minutes on the phone calling EVERY Lufthansa ticket counter, check-in counter and service center telling about how "horrible" we were and how we were trying to "sneak onto the flight with our HUGE carry-ons" etc. I.e. he made absolutely sure we would get a very cold reception anywhere we went at the airport. It didn't matter who we talked to, the attitude was the same: rules are the only thing that matters, customers can eat .... or go somewhere else if they didn't like it. Since we were flying home from Hawaii, literally the other side of the globe, we were extremely tired - no one at Lufthansa seemed to care.

Not having any other choice (we DID check with other airlines, but since it was a same day, one way flight we needed, it would have been at least $1,600) we decided we to repack our luggage. We bought a smaller carry-on (EUR 89 - about $125) and re-packed everything that was not that fragile (camera tripods, power adapters, cables, etc.) in a checked in hard suitcase. Having fulfilled the requirements of the Airline of Terror, we checked in again on the flight that we were moved to. Total cost: $405 and 8 hours of delay.

Then we boarded an almost EMPTY flight (about 2/3rd of the seats were empty) and placed our new EUR 89 carry on in an EMPTY overhead bin that could fit about 8 more of the same size, but there were none.

My message to you, Lufhthansa: YOU SUCK. Your rules might be necessary, but customers are, too. If you treat your customers like ...., you ARE ..... The soulless policy-eating empty-headed robots you employ are a disgrace to the industry - qualified for the Airline Hall of Shame. The culture of disservice you instill in them is second to none. I have never seen a company with such lack of care - no trace of any humanity, compassion, desire to help or serve - Lufthansa is a dead machine with no heart and no soul. Believe me, if you don't change your ways, people will vote with their feet and eventually avoid such a sorry excuse for an airline like you are. I used to get better service at so called low-cost, no-frills airlines - Lufthansa showed us a whole new level of "service" - right down in the septic tank. Even more shocking was to see the perverted PLEASURE of Otto M[.] who actually got a kick out of denying us to board the flight when he had no rational reason to do so. If you are reading this, Otto, just know that I actually feel sorry for you - you are a wreck of a human being. You probably can't connect the dots to understand this, but I, and people like me have been paying your wages, but not any more, because I and my friends are spending our money elsewhere from now on. Have a good life.

My conclusion: The rudeness and the perverted pleasure Lufthansa employees are getting from going out of their way to unnecessarily inconvenience and harass those who pay their wages just to "follow the rules" even when they make no sense and hurt THEM and their passengers is legendary. Additionally, Lufthansa is unqualified to provide air transportation to international travelers. Their carry-on allowance (ONLY ONE PIECE, 8kg MAX) is a JOKE - a typical carry-on bag weights 4kg, a laptop and a camera is about 4kg - if you also want to take your passport on board, you are overweight per Lufthansa's standards. Not to mention that on their Inter-Europe flights they board Business Class LAST (huh?) after all the Economy passengers have boarded. Elite members have no privileges on LH either - they board with the rest of the crowd. Summary: worst-of-class service, worst attitude, worst employees.

Last year I spent about $60,000 on airline travel, part of that on Lufthansa (including a trans-atlantic Business Class flight). This year, I will probably spend even more, but Lufthansa won't see a dime of it, as I will NEVER, ever, ever fly Lufthansa again. Not if they paid me to. I will take a train or rent a car and drive if I have no other option, but I will never set foot on a Lufthansa flight again. Lufthansa is the most arrogant and retarded airline on the planet.

Goodbye Lufthansa. Hope others will start to realize what a joke for an airline you are and you will go bankrupt soon so other airlines that understand the meaning of the word SERVICE will take your place.