ernestnywang

I completely agree that for CX/KA-to-CX/KA, one should be able to through-check bags irrespective of separate PNR or tickets. I only wanted to point out that what ricktoronto mentioned was incomplete.

Rivarix

If you're used to dealing with mediocrity, OP's experience would've been just another day for you. If you regularly deal with competent CX staffs, the same thing is considered poor service. It all depends on what you're used to because your own experience is your baseline.

I was flying SQ earlier this year and on the return, SQ staff (or maybe contract staff? I rarely fly SQ so couldn't tell the difference) at DPS offered to check through my luggage on 3 separate PNRs. It wasn't by design - had last minute changes to plan. So ya, I was flying SQ - AY - BA - AC and my luggage were checked all the way through 4 airlines and 2 alliances. I was highly impressed cause I'm so used to dealing with OW nonsense. I presume a regular SQ flyer would've shrugged and say ... so what?

YuropFlyer

I'd not say that SQ (or any other airline) is consistently good (or bad) across the board (only taking in ground services - in the air, some airlines are certainly more streamlined than others)

Some airlines give lounge vouchers when the offered lounges are a disgrace, others don't even think about it. (TK at KUL hands vouchers for the PP lounge, which is, while not great, two steps above the TG/SQ lounges all other *A flyers get access to)
Some give lounge vouchers where it doesn't make any sense at all (or used to) - LX at HKG, for example, despite 3 *A lounges available who are all having their merits.

Same goes for checkin staff. Some airlines squeeze the lemon even more - LH group basically stopped having LH staff at all their Non-German hub airports, going as far as the LX checkin being operatated by staff who was completely clueless in HAJ. And I mean clueless, not just slow/needing to check the rules twice.

May I go on? LH Group hub GVA, where one would expect that staff knows that it's "LH FFP" and not "LX FFP" to enter into the system when checking in (with your FFP card) but does it wrong - every time. They're still surprised when I tell them how to do it, and suddenly the correct status displays on the boarding pass (and thus the automated priority gates work..)

Some of the staff might even be hired by airlines directly, some are from 3rd parties, it's not even that 3rd parties are necessarely worse. It's just that in todays world, good staff doesn't tend to work at airports in huge numbers. The job isn't that great anymore. Just like airlines having more issues to find underpaid flight attendants (not in all countries an issue - but for LX, they basically pay 20% less than a supermarket checkout lady.. and thus usually only get staff on short term contracts, who will jump ship once they've seen the world a bit)

The downwards spiral is real, and one can't expect the same standard of flying with prices for flying being 1/3rd across the board than they were just 15 years or so ago.

I remember when I hardly ever got a fare below 1500$ to Asia (from Europe) in Economy, or about triple that in Business. Now it's down to 500$ in Economy and if I pick the right airports I can easily get a <2000$ fare in Business.

Flying is no longer a luxury, not even in Business class (might argue about First, but it's really too few who do that to pay for everyone else) - and while it's not a luxury anymore, funnily enough, the product itself (hard product) is much better nowadays. While everything soft product wise seems to be sliding down.. from checkin to security to lounges

I think some people will eventually have to reduce what to expect. I did that already, and while this lowers my excitement for upcoming flights, it won't hit me with sadness when the product delivered isn't that great anymore.

Buster CT1K

Yes flying these days is generally comfortable, but not truly luxurious in J. There are smart and not smart ways to cut costs, and if it is cut in such a way that a loyal customer experiences a pain point and starts looking elsewhere, that is a real problem.

Uli

Clearly, there are no excuses. FRA did have an excellent bunch of people at FRA. now they are all gone. alongside their premium call center. same time, they increased flights to FRA.
even if you do not have any issues, you can feel the decline in ground service. is it only SQ still keeping their own staff at FRA? I always wondered how come CX has so many people in Frankfurt, for just one flight. Now, they fire those guys, but increase frequency.
and, @YuropFlyer, CX did not take care much about F from FRA. the best wines were only available out of LHR, and there was no dedicated F lounge in FRA since years. But when you were a regular, you at least have been greated by CX local staff.

wyskevin

You mean LH group checkin crew have done a lousy job. You reduce your expectation and suggest we should all decrease ours too?

I do believe CX is different as LH group. Traditional CX service is fantastic! It might be not as good as it was before but still polished.
Was my FRA checkin experience only contingency? Or this will become more common?
Only time will tell....

wyskevin

We are on the same page!
I must fly CX over hundred times, and at least 30 of them were on seperate PNRs. Sometimes they even conbined different airlines.
For example, my outboard flights were KHH-HKG-FRA-AMS, KA+CX+KL, in 3 tickets, 3 PNRs.
When chekcin in KHH, as long as showing my KL ticket, the luggage was tagged to AMS without any doubt.
And this kind of checkin was not only just in KHH , but also in many outstationss, including FRA.

I felt surprised because it never happened before.
It was such simple CX-KA journey. How could it go wrong???

antebellum

Definitely FRA ground agents didn't get trained properly.
Given there's only 1x FRA-HKG per day, they had very good reason to use contracts instead of contracts donning CX uniforms. The result is, they don't quite understand all CX baggage rules.

kaka

Uli

---
There are now two flights to HKG on several days per week. This route is performing very well. Besides people at the airport, they also fired half of the back office staff in Frankfurt. The result is that you are -- nowadays -- always talking to their new call center in Krakow ... answers are much slower now, and sometimes they really mess things up (happened to me already, like they forget to issue your ticket and then F is fully booked). The only carrier left from that region doing a superb job in Frankfurt is SQ.

wyskevin