chris63

worldclubber

Which would be many *A customers' dream.

chris63

NewbieRunner

LH just announced an additional daily flight to MUC and already operate more flights from MAN than ATH where there is also an A3 lounge right next door. Not sure about the total number of LH Group flights ex-MAN vs ex-ATH but as the second largest operator of *A flights (SK may have more flights ex-MAN but they don’t believe in providing lounge access outside their home countries) it would be nice if LH opens its own lounge in MAN T2. Unlike LHR there will be no competition.

hugolover

Well that could be interpreted to prove the point that the turkey's will still fly Helga's cabins even though the lounge product is crap because she is adding more flights!

Or maybe its because BArb has put her strong commitments to fighting the climate emergency foremost and cut her MAN schedules thereby depriving a significant chunk of MAN pax from her premium M&S Buy on Board offerings but increasing fares for the few, not the many, who can afford her premium Club cabin and Helga is picking up those legacy pax who care more about the free beer than the 8kg cabin allowance.

For Star to open a lounge a consideration will be the charge they pay to Aspire vs opening their own. For all we know, its peanuts and why would it be anything more as its crap?

Of course it became too expensive for our Portuguese friends no doubt due to TAP wanting to prevent their pax from having some kind of allergic reaction to the coffee and lack of egg based pastries.

chris63

IAN-UK

OK - The Rebooking Experience

I reached the Senator line from the comfort of the aspire lounge in MAN T2. They quickly verified that here was no hope of making the FRA-connection, but refused point-blank to put me on BA or any other carrier outside the "Lufthansa family". I hung up and tried again: same answer. This one even suggested I cancel, and rebook myself a last-minute BA ticket (at my expense).

With a 24H delay I had the luxury of time at FRA the next day to discover exactly what the policy was. Senator lounge staff and the F-class service desk told me the information I'd been given sounded like nonsense: both said they would have no difficulty putting me on (virtually) any other carrier, contracts are in place to facilitate such procedures.

One of these helpful FRA folk was interested enough to pursue the question. The message she got back from a super-supervisor was that call-centre staff must have interpreted the case as a delay rather than a missed connection, and delays don't get re-routing: she said the supervisor didn't sound too sure about what had gone wrong but the explanation he gave was the best he could come up with.

Diturbingly, there were no notes on my reservation. No record of my calls and the decisions given. No requests for assistance at FRA.
All-in-all, a bit of a shambles, but life goes on ...

lhrpete

And yet if we were to believe the publicity here:

https://www.staralliance.com/en/connection-service

LH ground staff ought to have been waiting for IAN-UK on arrival at FRA.

Indeed FRA is listed on the page as one of the hubs where this service is offered. Surely a founder member of *A is in on this at their main hub or would it only work if for instance you were connecting SK-SQ?

I would be inclined to draw LH's attention to this downright failure in their own service at their major hub.

chris63

chris63

IAN-UK

In the past I've been given apron transfers at FRA, once just me, travelling to Singapore: the other time I hugged an HON's coat-tails travelling to Lagos.

But I'm told that type of service is now reserved only for passengers in F, and possibly for HONs.

They have staff positioned by arrival gates, but as far as I could make out they are limited to directing connecting passengers to the correct gate. A couple of times I've been told by these helpful souls that I'm too late and will be booked on the next flight, only to make it to the gate and be accepted on the flight.

At Munich, pressed for time but travelling with a friend who has some mobility problems, I waved down a gofl-cart thingy and the driver really bust a gut getting us to the gate.

I guess it is simply more expeditious for the airline to rebook, rather than employ resources to facilitate connections: the personal costs to passengers are disregarded. The EU Regulation works towards redressing this, but with LH straight-batting each claim, the cost of compliance is probably lower than might be expected.

chris63

IAN-UK

Just occasionally i can manipulate a travel budget to allow F, but (sadly) that's quite rare ! Oddly enough though, I have one next month on LX, where I'm hoping for a caviar extravaganza.

This trip came under the heading of personal travel, where premium-economy was the best I could manage. Still, I'd hoped the SEN business counted for something, so the outcome was disappointing. An EU claim will be muddied because there was a second delay. This one to the re-booked, next-day flight, which left 13-hours' late following a bona-fide technical issue. At least they had the grace to put me in a business-class seat.....

But that's a 37-hour delay and two nights in the FRA Steigenberger on a pretty simple itinerary.

And two EUR10 refreshment vouchers, squandered on beer and curry wurst

schrodingerdog

Thanks for the detailed reply @IAN-UK

That does not sounds like good customer service...

Nowadays I try to avoid hotlines. Most of the times twitter / facebook customer service is much better. Still, good to hear that at FRA/MUC the customer service team still can rebook in other airlines.

Carpacchio

True that ! Way better than their SEN lounges in the hubs ZRH and GVA !