midnightio

FB-ID 22494556

Lufthansa, let me count the reasons you disappoint me:

- Business class itenieary begins Friday at 3PM from Europe to China. Lufthansa ends up with a 45-minute flight delay. This causes an almost missed connection in Frankfurt averted only with a 20-minute sprint through the airport with no assistance from your staff.

- Arrive in Beijing and wait 1-hour at the luggage carsouel to eventually discover my luggage is still in Frankfurt. Scramble to fill out the necessary forms, making due with limited English skills by the staff.

- Told I can receive some compensation but have to find the Lufthansa office on level 2. The only way to get there is on an elevator that has a 15 minute wait from both the top and bottom floors. Cannot wait or I would miss my connection and no assistant from Lufthansa staff.

- Arrive in Shenzhen Saturday afternoon with only the clothes/shoes I am wearing. I request for the missing luggage to be delivered to my hotel the following day but told it may take 3-5 days, so I need to take a 1-hour taxi back to Shenzhen airport the next day at my expense and time from my schedule.

- I telephone Sunday morning and discover that one luggage has arrived in Shenzhen, but the other is missing or delayed. I still have no clothes, toiletries, nor any assistance from Luftansa.

I am told the second luggage has been found, but will arrive in Shenzhen at 6pm. I check at 7pm and am told the luggage will not arrive until midnight. I ask for the luggage to be delivered to my hotel and am again told this will add 3-5 days with no clothes or toiletries.

- Monday morning I have to pay to take a 1-hour taxi to Shenzhen airport and spend another hour trying to find enough staff who can speak English to eventually locate where my luggage is being held. Followed by an hour taxi ride back to my hotel and a day or work wasted. Topping it off one suitcase has the wheels broken and is only suitable for the rubbish bin.

- Throughout this I am told the only way to get additional help and eventual compensation is not by speaking to a person. No, Lufthansa only offers an email address for 'Customer Relations'. Quite the oxymoron.

Three days later, and several 'urgent' requests to
([email protected]) and there is no reply.

Lufthansa, you managed to turn what should have been a enjoyable experience into a true disappointment. YOu left me without clothes and toiletries for three days. You made me to miss a full day or business and forced me to trek back to the airport to pickup my luggage at my expense. You have done -nothing- to date to acknowledge all of the trouble you have caused.

Lufthansa, for these reasons you disappoint me.

seat 1a

The joy of travel

El Puerco Volante

Sorry to hear about your experience, but can't stop wondering why people insist on traveling without luggage insurance ? Luggage gets delayed and lost, on any airline,period.
Get yourself a decent insurance and once the luggage delay/loss occurs head to the nearest Armani/Hermes/your preferred shop instead of spending your time in writing complains that won't take you anywhere

Regards,

El Puerco Volante.

midnightio

@ El Puerco - I appreciate the reply. You ask an interesting question. I've had some issues before while traveling but not to this extent. The airlines previously made a more diligent effort to address the issue and mitigate the trouble & inconvenience.

My first thought is why must I purchase insurance on top my airfare, business class no less?

I am very interested to know approximately what would insurance have cost me, and what would have I gotten out of it? $1000-2000 to purchase clothes and incidentals and a new suitcase? I would love to learn more specifics about this type of insurance as I'm not opposed to purchasing it, but I have always felt it is the airline's obligation to make things right. And in the past they have. Maybe I need to re-align my thinking?

gum

IMHO many of the insurances are wasted money. In case of the luggage delay they normally would state that the airline would be responsible for some reasonable amounts for clothes/toiletries. There is something like the Warsaw Treaty strictly limiting this payments.

Besides that these kind of events naturally happen. Only thing which is unexcusable is the lack of response of the airline.

In the unlikely event that this would happen again I would just file the complaint respectively the lost baggage report and let the airline handle it.

No need to travel back and forth to your destination airport.

And sorry for the contribution of El Puerco Volante it lacked empathy.

oliver2002

Usually when you file the lost luggage report they give you a folder that details what you can do. Meaning buy your own bare essentials and send LH the bill later especially when it is evident the luggage will arrive >24h later.

El Puerco Volante

I would recommend to select a CC with a proper travel/luggage insurance. Airlines will only give you some ridiculous amount for delayed luggage that is enough for a pair of socks A credit card luggage delay insurance will normally range from 1.5 to 5k and more. I would normally start looking at Amex Plat and above, unfortunately I can not give you an exact indication for US CC market, but I'm sure that some time spent in googling and choosing the right CC will pay off
Luggage insurance is one of the most useful things any traveler should have.
Regards,
El Puerco Volante

YuropFlyer

If you've goods to declare, usually airlines will refuse to deliver the goods to your place, which can be really annoying if it's a long trip there.

Also, many people don't like to buy new stuff at stores and directly wear it without washing it prior to first use (understandably)

Therefore, I can only repeat: While it might be uncomfortable to carry lots of things with you in your carry on, I'll always have one set of clothes with me, sometimes more (when on a itin that has more "losing airports" included or tight connections), especially underwear and light shirts.

You can easily wear socks for 2 days (a bit smelly perhaps..) so what you wear + what you bring with you should be fine for 3 more days, you can easily wear pants for several days, but you want to change your underwear and your shirt daily, so bring some in your carry on. Or be prepared to buy them on the spot, should something go wrong.

I've been in similar situations than the OP, it's not nice, especially when you really need the stuff that it's inside (and yes, some goods you can't transport in your carry on obviously) and you basically don't have the option to buy it on the spot, but that's unfortunately part of travelling too.

In your case, LH should be paying for toiletries, clothes (full if returned, 50% if you keep it, however if you were not crazy on shopping experience is they won't want it "back") and obviously a repair of your luggage (or, if unrepairable, either a similar luggage as replacement or the time value of it)

Unfortunately no further compensation due.

You didn't mentioned which airport you originated from. If your local airport doesn't have a direct flight to China, it's difficult to get there with 1-stop only, but if you're really dependant on your check in luggage, I would have considered any airport nearby (CAN or HKG) which is easier to get as nonstop or 1-stop, reducing the risk of losing your luggage.

Aeroflot has good schedules from many European airports to CAN (and usually is significantly cheaper than LH in C) - and TK flies from many small airports in Europe 1-stop to CAN (and HKG), plus many other airlines.

2-stops, especially with 2 tight connections as you booked it apparently, will HEAVILY increase the chance of anything going wrong.

Lack

While insurance is good to have (and usually can come for "free" with a CC), LH has always been pretty generous and accomodating when they delayed my luggage. No problem buying a whole outfit and then sending in the bills for reimbursement.

htb

Actually no. They keep suspiciously silent about what you can do. That's because they hope that you will not buy anything and claim the expenses later.

HTB.

htb

No need for travel insurance. Just head into the next store and buy what you need. Lufthansa will reimburse you 50% of the price for overgarment and 100% for underwear -- if they manage to deliver your suitcase eventually. Or you can send the overgarment to LH and get 100% as well. There was a thread somewhere that detailled that they are bound to reimburse 100% for overgarments as well, by the way.

HTB.

Often1

The easiest and least stressful approach is to utilize LH's very generous carry-on allowance. It should be possible to travel for at least a week with what one can comfortably fit in a proper carry-on.

The crises of delayed/lost luggage then only become apparent for the truly serious situations.

In the meantime, keep receipts. Don't spend on that which you would not purchase if you knew that you would not be reimbursed. Why? Because you might not be reimbursed. When you get home, submit everything.

At 21 days, your bag is deemed lost under the Montreal Convention. You are entitled to maximum compensation of approximately EUR 1300. I stress maximum.

Ragnarok

Insurance or not, why put yourself in the uncomfortable position of not having any change of clothing for 3 days?

Just buy some shirts and trousers in Beijing or Shenzhen and take care of the business you need to take care of and deal with LH when your work is done.

htb

If you're away for a beach vacation, maybe. Otherwise I'm not sure how you want to pull this off with an 8 kg limit (including the bag itself), which I wouldn't call "generous" anyways.

HTB.

seat 1a

^^
Also most companies I worked for have some sort of insurance to cover this.

If you are based in USA, Amex has a very good travel insurance.
In my case I always carry on. In the odd case I have to check in , I still have one c/o with essentials.