visitor

A Washington Times reporter on a holiday trip to Berlin wrote the following story about her experience on Lufthansa Flying the unhappy skies . Not a happy customer.

hardhat

Well I don�t know what happened to our friend. May be she wrote articles like that before and got an big X on his BP.
I think, even if I sometime moan about LH it is still one of the best airlines around. I sure did have some problems with them but usually they are solved in a way that I can life with.
Regarding overbooked flights: It never happened to me in my entire life on LH even before I had status. But it happened to me on other airlines. Especially our friends in the US are pretty good in selling one seat to several people. Ok, the old C and especially Y is nothing to write home about on LH.

berenike

Overbooking was how I ended up in the cockpit from TXL to FRA but that was before 9/11. Apart from that I completely agree with hardhat.

flamboyant 1

Welcome to FT berenike!

LH still is one of the better airlines, no doubt. This is an overall observation. Safety, reliability, etc. are of utmost importance, minor service issues are actually rather redundant. It is all about getting quickly and in a safe way from A to B. Comfort is secondary, and of course appreciated.

YVR Cockroach

The only difference is that with the U.S. airlines, no one - or at least very few pax - with confirmed reservations are ever denied boarding involuntarily. The voluntary denied boarding compensation amount is usually raised until enough volunteers can be found to seat everyone who wants to travel and this compensation far exceeds (at least in $ face value) the statutory compensation. LH gave compensation only because E.U. airlines have recently been forced to grant denied boarding compensation.

daysleeper

"If Lufthansa had been the Luftwaffe over London in the autumn of 1940, the boys of the RAF would have been home for Christmas."

Sure, whatever... silly b*tch.

peter42

The style of the article is incredible bad!

chtiet

Wholeheartedly agree. Luftwaffe? Schroeder? Fatherland? Totally inappropriate & completely irrelevant.

Snobs

She really wrote that article in a very bad way, but she is not that wrong...
Lufthansa staff often is quiet unfriendly compared to some other airlines (SQ for example)!
Also you have to wait for hours, even at the C and F check in!
C and F class is good, but have you ever tried to fly Y on long distance with LH!??
Of course you can have bad luck with every other airline too, but since I had some bad experiences with LH I try to fly with other *A members when ever I can!

gorilla

I agree. You may come across really nice LH staff, but it is definetely not the norm. And if they are bad, then they are really bad. LH does not seem to have sufficient programmes in place to select, train and monitor their employees effectively. I remember standing in line at FRA's First/Business Class ticketing counter once and, while waiting for ages for my ticket to be re-validated, witnessing one of the counter agents YELL at another customer who was waiting in line, repeatedly and rudely.

But then again one may be lucky if spoken to anyway. At other airlines, did I say AF?, you may sometimes regard yourself honoured that staff actually allows you to disturb them in their silence.

choster

Suzanne Fields is neither a Times reporter nor a travel writer, she is a syndicated political columnist. Don't read the piece out of context.

daysleeper

no question about that! But I'm fed up with people like this cow who is unable to form a sentence without using words like Luftwaffe etc. pp.

billhar

Yes she is a POLITICAL reporter and you must remember the Washington Times was/is pro war and pro Bush.
I believe her comments are offensive and uncalled for. She is entitled to her opinion about LH but her wording reflects very anti-german feeling that the paper should refute.

For those comments in this thread about LH coach..I'm sorry I cannot agree.
I travel LH coach twice a year since 1999 from BOS to either FRA or MUC
and have flown on the 747-200,747-400, 330-200, 340-300 and have not encountered problems on the aircraft. I have disability involving back and knee and the seating isn't that bad..While UA Economy plus has much more room, I would rather fly non-stop rather than a connection that increases travel time by three hours.

The ground personnel in Germany have been very accomodating and are PROFESSIONAL. Some of the women driving the electric carts would be great at LeMans

My only problems have occured at Boston where the personnel do not seem trained and will not change a seat regardless of the circumstances and seem to have a problem boarding passengers.

LHstatus

Is she stupid or intelligent? She says she learned on this flight that airlines oversell. So, she did not know this before? And although more airlines do this she attacks lufthansa? Obviously she attacks them because they are German. we see this with her anti-german references everywhere.

And ,,our flight from Berlin's Tegel Airport to Frankfurt was late, naturally,`` Why naturally?

She is not only a political writer but a spreader of hate, not understanding.

She says things like we once imagined that a Lufthansa stewardess could overhaul an engine in flight if necessary. And the worse "And you're just carrying out orders". Is this a reference to the third reich?

In a different article she says it is anti-Semitic to condemn only Israel and ignore the Palestinian atrocities..., but she attacks lufthansa (and no onther airline) because of it being german, that is all.

daysleeper--you say, sure, whatever...silly b*tch. I say her attitude is dangerous.

it is only one opinion but i would not be upset if this thread is closed

blue2002

Actually, she appears hardly capable of forming a sentence... period. I would guess that she also does not travel much. Quite frankly, in my eyes her article has cast a negative light on The Washington Times, and not on LH.