This HAPPENED to me in CCS few hours ago! LH disaster!
 

Guess what people.... if you happen to be in Venezuela and fly Lufthansa, and arrive 1 hour and 50 minutes (!) prior to your flight, AND check in online the night before, you WILL FIND AN EMPTY desk!!!

And when you run down to the LH office, they will tell you: "Oh well, we CLOSE TWO (2) hours BEFORE the flight!!! And even though you have almost TWO hours and already checked in (but still need to drop off luggage), AND you are SEN (both of us), they will call the "manager" and he will say... "too late, I'm at the gate and busy"!!

Here comes the punch line: It is NOWHERE to be written, that they CLOSE the counter 2 hours prior the departure!!! They were feeding me stories like "we have super security control" and it takes long to process everything. (not to mention, on our last flight in CCS, my fiance forgot and brought on board her manicure scissors and filer)...what security??

I swear! I have NEVER experienced that! LUFTHANSA need to know what is happening in Caracas!!! Now, we are stuck here, extra hotel, extra expenses and over $500 usd in LH fees! Don't know what to say! Feel powerless and they smile in your face there! Shame on LH reps in CCS!!!

And I thought the damaged luggage and weather cancelations in FRA were bad!

But on the serious side: What should I do / can do??

sorry for a bit hectic writing...too upset now...

>>>>>FULL AND DETAILED STORY ON PAGE 4<<<<< (thread merge) thank you

As a matter of the fact, it is on Lufthansa's website and I believe it is your duty to be on time. So I fail to see why it is Lufthansa's problem. Never been to CCS, but would doubt that LH has its own people there, so it will be whoever does it for them and they simply follow the rule...
So IMHO, since you came late, you cannot do much and as LH SEN you should know better.
The only chance for you would be if you were on C/F ticket, then according to this link they should accept your luggage until 90 minutes prior departure. In whY it is indeed 120 min.

You are being far too harsh on the OP. It is absurd that LH would have no one at the counter with a flight pending 1:50 later, especially if the staff behaved in the alleged fashion.

With the OP being SEN, shouldn't the C/F cutoff times apply? At least they should have a check-in counter manned until 90 mins before departure.

I do not think that I am too hars on OP. They are both supposedly LH-SEN, so well travelled. They should know the rules. Venzuela is country known for having security problems and I am not surprised that they want to make sure all is 100%. OP also admits that they have been through before, so they should know what the rule for CCS is.

Don't forget that the OP was upset when posting, that may influence they way he presents the facts. Also, OP claims to have locations as LED,TLV,DUS
- first two high risk, high security destinations. So again, I would expect OP to know the rules.

Although it may sound harsh, for the sake of fairness and other travellers, I hope LH does nothing for OP - of course, unless he was in C/F class where the deadline is 90mins. If it was a case, then I hope that OP fleeces LH as much as they can.

I think that FT is becoming place where people come to vent their anger too often without giving airlines fair treatment. Rules are there to follow and in places like CCS, you cannot expect LH to have there too many staff. So I am not surpirsed that staff move from check-in counters to boarding gate and hence, cannot do anything for those who happen to be late.

I was recently to CCS and I am not surprised at all. There work there is pretty much done at workers will and if they wish, they can finish it sooner or start later. On one domestic flight for 8 am they delayed by some hours as the pilots had had some party the night before with flight attendants and somehow half of the plane knew it as they had been on the same event - unfortunately not me.

I have never been to TLV, but I have heard that over there is also cutoff 120 minutes.

And I know well - CCS is not the best place to get stranded. I hope you get out soon.

Good question. The site talks only about classes of travel, not about status levels. Does the fact that one is entitled to use C/F checkin also apply to deadlines? Anyone with answer?

Waaaay too harsh, IMHO. I'd certainly expect there to be some flexibility with 2 SENs in the party.

Solution would've been to send your luggage through UPS or some other company (if at all present at the airport) and just fly with handluggage.....

Oh yes, I'd certainly be too harsh if it was in other country. However, there are countries where one cannot expect much if anything, Venezuela being unfortunately one of them.

LHs website clearly says you can still drop bags until 90 minutes before the flight for C/F passengers. So this implies that they must have a desk open. Unless of course all C/F passengers had already dropped their bags.

I would take this up with LH as I find this very strange. If you were in Y then LH can always say you were to late and this is bad luck. In C/F you should be getting significant compensation and reimbursement of expenses.

By the way, many airlines are very strict with check-in times and will not allow to check-in 1 minute after the deadline.

Not good... At, all... :(

Cheers,

AG. :-:

I hope not.

C/f checkin rules should apply to sen and *g of course.

Never been to CCS, but this would have caught me out too.
Sounds ridiculous, especially the station manager claiming he was busy at the gate.
What's he doing there nearly 2 hours prior to departure which is so important that he can't send someone to check the OPs bags?

they can count themselves lucky over there that they still have oil....