Lufthansa not responding to customer's queries
 

Hello Michaela, Anna, Elke, Vanessa, Fatime and Isabell,

Simple question: when we submit a question to "customer feedback" on your web site (as opposed to a comment), does it actually get read by a human being, and if so, what is a reasonable time for a reply to be expected?

Recently I submitted a query seeking some information regarding a complaint (no need to go into details). I received an automated reply with a 'FB-ID' number and the statement "Our Customer Feedback Management team will contact you shortly in this matter". However, 3 weeks later I have heard nothing (??"shortly"??). A follow-up e-mail to the reply met with the same dead pan response.

Frustrated by the lack of respone I attempted to telephone, but found no-one across 2 continents able to take a query, only reservations etc. Eventually after much time and phone cost, I did find some-one who supplied the information. I've heard nothing back in respect to this core issue either.

Does Lufthansa take any notice at all of when its customers write to it? Or do we have to complain again, again and again to get the airline's attention?

Thanks & regards

Dear Fatime,
I'm anxiously awaiting the outcome!
Nice to have you around here! ^

Couldn't have said it better, I fully agree with the above.

How long does it take to get the reclaimed miles on my account ?

The only answer I got back was following:

Sehr geehrter Herr szg,

vielen Dank für Ihre E-Mails.

Gerne haben wir Ihre Flugdaten vom XX. und XX. September 2012 für Sie aufgenommen. Nach erfolgter Prüfung informieren wir Sie mehrere Monate rückwirkend auf Ihren Meilenkonten unter www.miles-and-more.com.

Can you explain me the last sentence ? :confused:

Thanks in advance.

What is customer equity ?
Higher value - in terms of what?

Hi htb, hi Zehee,

I am sorry that you feel that I didn't get your point. To put it differently: We are of course aware that some passengers prefer the paper forms - but in the end we decided to follow the online trend, which admittedly is also the more cost-efficient process. The effects of this switch will nevertheless be monitored. To this means I will of course pass your input on.

Michaela

Dear szg,

I have forwarded your question to our colleagues at Miles & More and will get back to you as soon as I received an answer.

Fatime

Dear Michaela,

thank you for your followup. This statement sounds much more honest. Yet, I still feel like a dummy left behind because I'm not fully "following the online trend". For me, following the online trend doesn't mean to axe paper feedback. It means to offer online feedback in addition.

Thank you for passing on our comments. And while I rarely need to leave any feedback in the first place (most flights just go quite smoothly), I prefer to have a choice. I also feel bad for flight attendants who have to tell customers that they will not hand out feedback forms. Most customers will assume that the crew intentionally makes it more difficult to give feedback -- especially bad feedback.

HTB.

Ladies & Gentlemen,
we just had to suspend a duplicate handle. Note that such juvenile games will be dealt with as per FT TOS:
http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#q76

Best regards

Oliver2002 & Totti
Mods M&M forum

Dear Team,

I'm 19 status miles short of the SEN threshold, and have travel booked for October/November which will exceed the 100K. (CDG, JNB, MUC booked, RUH in the mix).

Is it possible to force my status change now, so I have SEN, prior to my next set of flights in about 10 days time.

Thanks,

Aidan

Hi Aidan, First of all congrats for 'almost' reaching your SEN status. I will find out for you if there's a chance for an earlier status change. Will get back to you soon. Best regards, Fatime

Hi LH Lurkers,

I really have a big problem with an LX Retrocredit. The flight was rebooked twice due operational problems. We had four attempts for the retrocredit, but only get the "Passenger not on Board" response.

It was a segment in the middle of a nonflexible itinary. Not flying would have resulted a cancellation of the last legs.
The ticket is processed correctly in Partner Plus Benefit.
We tried it online first, then we sent in Boarding Passes and Passenger receipts.

What makes it so hard for Miles and More just to credit those segments?
I am sick of running after a few miles (but they are important for Status requalification this year).

Is this normal?

After a PM enquiry from one of our Official Lufthansa lurkers, I laid out my issue in some detail. A day later, I received a reply to my issue from the respective LH office.

Whilst not entirely satisfied with that LH office response, it appears that our friends here can actually grease the LH wheels. :) So thanks, Fatime !

Dear Team
Could you please clarify this?
Thank you

Dear Tyrolean, I understand how unsatisfactory it is to have to wait for your mileage credit. May I ask you to please send me more details (such as flight numbers, ticket numbers, your personal details) via direct message? I will gladly try to see if there is anything I can do to speed up the process.
Kind regards, Isabell

Great that we could be of help. You are very welcome!
Fatime

Dear szg,

I was able to find out the following regarding the display of the mileage account: All activities within 90 days will be displayed retroactively from the date of the most recent activity. Status customers as Senators and HON Circle Members also have the opportunity to view an account history where activities within this time frame are shown. The retrocredit of missing miles can take up to 14 days to appear on your statement.

I hope this will shed some light on the matter. Best, Fatime

Dear GBM.flights, my colleagues from Miles & More have furnished us with the following answer: When award tickets are purchased and the route is eligible to pay the taxes with miles - the amount of 15.000 miles is set as a flat fee. For reduced award fares like companion, child, oneway, etc. or any customer group the same amount (15,000 miles) is applicable. No reduction is possible in these cases. i.e. it is advisable to pay the taxes by credit card when one-way tickets are purchased. Kind regards, Isabell

Dear Aidan, I have contacted my collegues from Miles & More - we are unfortunately not able to assist with your request. Please understand that the aim is to treat all Miles & More participants equally. This is why the only way to obtain a status is by collecting the required amount of status miles. Thank you for your understanding that this is why even such a small amount of miles cannot be granted in advance. We are, however, looking forward to see you as a SEN so soon and are sure that you will enjoy the status benefits, Fatime.

Thanks Fatime !!

M+M Account Name and Name on Ticked
 

Dear LH Team,

First I did not want to bother you with this incident but I do not get it solved myself.

On 14/8/2012 my wife and I came back from TLV via FRA to AMS in Z.
All miles were credited in time and completely to my Senator account. However, my wife did not receive any miles. Exactly the same happened with our JFK via FRA to AMS flights of 28/3/2012 where I got the credit but not my wife.
Contact with M+M in that case revealed that I had to forward a copy of the passport of my wife as the name on the ticket was not equal to the name of the M+M account of my wife.
After submitting the copy to M+M the JFK miles where credited (incident number 975139).

On the ticket to TLV I used the same name structure as to JFK (Christian name of my wife – my last name – my wife’s last name). This is the usual way in Holland how married couples present themselves.
Of course I first filled in the required form for missing miles and on the M+M account statement appeared that miles could not be credited as they have already been credited. Of course this was nonsense.
On August 31 I reported the missing miles to M+M again (Incident number 1042832).
Furthermore I called the M+M service number as per 30 September 3.000 miles would expire and I wanted to use them. They could not help me and have forwarded too an E mail to the respective M+M Department. Till to day nothing happened.

Question 1) Could you ask M+M to credit the missing miles?
Question 2) How to avoid this re-occurring misery?
Question 3) Could the 3.000 miles that have been expired in the mean time be re-credited for a 2 months period only?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Dear Terbang,
I will contact my colleagues of Miles & More regarding this and get back to you as soon as I have more information.

Best, Fatime

Dear Team,

I will have a domestic flight in C to MUC with a pick-up by a colleague from the airport about 2 hrs after arrival. Will I be allowed as HON to use the lounge after arrival there? My flight back is two days later.
Thank you very much in advance for your reply.

Thanks for feedback Isabell.
Quite disappointing news and not really not logical IMO, but thanks for the clarification.

GBM

Dear shipsmail,

as a HON circle member you have access to the MUC First Class Lounge when holding a valid boarding pass for the same day (regardless if you will depart or have arrived). Please bear in mind that this is an exception for the MUC First Class Lounge which doesn't apply to other lounges and/or airports.

Kind regards, Vanessa

Dear Lurkers,

Status comes first - that is only true within a booking class. Op-Ups used to be handed out by status first but that's no longer true. Lufthansa cut off the lower booking classes first and some time later they decided to replace the 'status-first' principle with 'booking-class first' principle. Op-Ups today go to tickets in J first and then to ticket in C etc. If a status customer is in the booking class, he/she gets priority.

There have been numerous complaints where HON flying in C or D had to last minute take a colleague (SEN) with them who was booked in J - and the colleague got the op-up.

It is also policy now that a booking in J with an upgrade request (and without status) gets priority over the HON requesting a full redemption in O.

While I understand that LH might not want to publish internal policies, your credibility is on the line if you post hearsay. This board has members that are usually extremely well informed and the change in policy some months back triggered quite some discussion in the frequent flyer community.

Best,
SMK77

Is this not a valid question?

Looking forward to the answer on this one....

Luckily Jet Airways allows us to respond directly to an e-mail address, unlike Lufthansa...

Hope LH gets the hint!

No one from LH will answer this tricky question clearly ;)

I do not know why. I thought that policies for upgrades are set up to encourage desirable customer behavior. Keeping such policy secret is not rational, IMHO.

You hit the nail on it's head. Therefore, the only logical explanations of the recent change in upgrade policy is a certain amount of contempt towards LH's frequent flyers, or -- my personal favorite -- the Excel sheet fallacy: in an Excel sheet less potential revenue is "lost" when upgrading higher booking classes compared with upgrading lower booking classes. Some bonus payments were probably tied to "reducing revenue lost through op-ups" (having in mind mechanisms to avoid overbooking situations) and someone came up with thise scheme...

HTB.

Why not?

Would this not be an incentive to purchase higher booking classes thus increasing the Lufthansa group worldwide revenue and more importantly margin1?

If this is the case LH should instruct its staff to state in case of questions "Sorry Sir, I am not allowed to answer your question as it is qualified by LH as confidential" or equal words.
It will be very stupid to provide an answer that is misleading or totally wrong. Unfortunately this behaviour will confirm the opinion that one cannot trust airline staff about the sincerity of their information given to their customers.
Where will such behaviour ends as this is taken over and becomes the Company culture of LH.
Is LH staff also allowed to provide their managers with misleading or totally wrong information and vice versa?? Will be a nice environment to work in.:td:

:D:D:D

Dear Lurkers,

I have been unable to get a clear answer/solution from the official support, so I will just try here:

There are supposed to be mileage bargain awards from Prague to Warsaw (and other Polish cities) with LOT for 10,000 miles. I am unable to find ANY discounted flights in the promotional period and also I am unable to find ANY direct flights at all (which is even weirder) - only flights via Germany or Austria.

I have been told from customer support, that availability is limited, but there should, however, be seats for PRG-WAW on December 14 and back December 16 or 17. I cannot see these seats at all.

I have uploaded screenshots of what I see in the system:

http://prntscr.com/h8j2z and http://prntscr.com/h8j5j

The customer support is however apparently unable to open these and wants me to call... There is no way to attach the screenshots directly in the online form. I hope you are capable of opening a link...

I have checked and I can for example see plenty of mileage bargains on route PRG-BRU with Brussels Airlines.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

There are still unanswered questions regarding op-ups, proving that this issue is very important to you. However, I have to tell you that it is indeed impossible to provide you with a fixed set of procedure rules applicable to each and every situation.

Our check-in system does suggest an operational UPG list based on the booked class and status. But in the end, the final UPG decision lies in the hand of the the local station, and may even take other factors than status and tarif into account - there may be reasons why neither the HON nor the highest booking class holder receive the operational upgrade. It always depends on the individual situation. And paid upgrades - e.g. with miles - will always have priority.

I realize that this answer will not completely satisfy you. I can promise you that it is our aim to give you as much information as possible, but there will always be topics or details that Lufthansa considers confidential. In these cases we do hope for your understanding, that we – the Lufthansa Flyertalk Team – will have to adhere to this. As for seat 1A's question about the definition of customer equity - Lufthansa's internal defintion is considered to be such confidential information.

But you can be sure that we will always forward your statements and opinions to the responsible Lufthansa departments. In this case, I have understood that for you, op-ups are a clear sign of Lufthansa acknowledging your loyalty as a top tier customer, and I have passed this on.

Best regards,

Michaela

A-ha, this sounds suspiciously different from what was posted earlier on. So now it is no longer "status first" and it actually all turns out to be a big confidential mystery.

Also noteworthy that previously it wasn't a confidential mystery, but a well established fact that status really was determinant of upgrades. That has changed, and I wonder why.

I hope Lufthansa gets the right message here: we are not a bunch of US flyers who expect to be upgraded no matter what. We are fine with the LH policy that upgrades are only given when flights are overbooked. All we would like is when those limited upgrades are given status customers are considered first as a recognition of their loyalty.

If Lufthansa wants to get a feel for how passengers think and feel when some mysterious mechanism is at work for upgrades and employees always get a favour treatment, head over to the Air France forum.

You bet!!

Crystal Clear . Thank you:D

Just for the record , the term was introduced by you in this thread , simply made me curious ;)

For the benefit of clear and transparent communication, let me 'translate' your slightly cryptic message:

Booking class trumps status. The earlier post by the LH team that status is the main driver for upgrades is wrong. LH does not care whether you are HON or SEN when it comes to op-ups unless you are booked in the most expensive booking class.

System Upgrade List trumps over staff. LH has taken all empowerment from staff and the system generated list needs to be adhered to. Deviations from that list need to have a rationale and are thoroughly audited. That's true for German and international stations. Hence, booking class over status is strictly enforced.

No rule without exceptions. While LH tries to perfectionize their yield management approach, there are sometimes circumstances beyond control. In those exceptional circumstances, an upgrade could be handed out to someone flying on an awards, a non-eligible booking class or might not have status. The total number of these exceptions should be very, very small.

Upgrade trumps redemption. FTL upgrading a Z ticket with miles is getting priority over HON redeeming an award in First. Note the difference to the LX approach where HONs still get priority.

Smoke and mirrors still seems to be Lufthansa's preferred mean of communication. Appreciate that the lurkers are still escalating the matter for further review though.