dgwright99

On-time - certianly.
Service ? Well, I guess it depends on how you define "service", but by my definition, no way. That is not to say that I find UA service at all good, merely that LH "service" is so uniformly cold and impersonal as to be an abuse of the word. I have never gotten even an inlking that LH staff felt that they were there to "serve" me (rather the reverse, in fact).

seat 1a

I am a 1K on UA and HON with LH . When things go wrong, as they will from time to time if you fly enough, my experience is that I most of the time get better treatment by LH.

weero

Oh that one is easy! Because there never ever ever is any XC(I in LH lingo) inventory on UA itself. It all goes to NC(specific for upgraders only I bucket).

weero

I do realise that personal experiences to vary, even if one flies one airlines extensively. But LH for me, is much more chronically late in the sense that their feeders make me miss connections. And while - when I was still actively using LH services - traveled about twice of much on UA than on LH, I never had to endure an overnight thanks to UA misconnects but 4 on LH.

And I also more on dgwright99's side with ground service experience. LH cheated me out of services they owed me on a few occasions. I never had a really positive CSR experience with LH which together with the changes to their FFP makes me avoid them these days.

That is their planes, not their lovely lounges .

exbayern

Then call me cold and impersonal. I find the false friendliness of UA to be intrusive and overly personal. I often want to respond 'none of your business' when I am asked personal questions from someone wishing to make 'small talk.'

It is a significant cultural difference between the American and German perceptions of 'friendliness' and 'courtesy'. Neither is better or worse, but they are very different.

I prefer the German over the American.

Ari

I'm not sure the comparison is entirely fair-- you should compare to how UA would handle a GS in iropps.

* * *

I once had an IDB on LH, and they rose to the occasion and were helpful in making other arrangements. Another time, the "emergency" car service for the less-than-45-minute connections for HON/F saved a connection in FRA.

CommittedLurker

Sorry, but that is not a fair comparison. Even if compared to UA GS, LH Hon would probably be better.

CommittedLurker

I have never flown anything but intercontinental on LH, so I can't comment on LH feeder performance.

On United Express, I have encountered many cancellations, to the point that I even purchased a new ticket on DL because UA would not transfer me over.

I have even spent a night at ORD on a chair because UA's crews went illegal (time wise) during a weather delay. This has happened to me twice. All other flights took off after an hour or two, except ours. UA of course took no responsibility and blamed it on the weather. When several passengers complained, UA of course threatened to call the police !

Honestly, the only thing good about UA is their ubiquitous upgrades from Y to C. Even that has become heavily diluted with their Double Elite Qualifying Mile Promotion, where large numbers of people have become 1K's for $2-3,000.

LH is by no means perfect and has many flaws, and I am not trying to defend them. But I don't want my valuable miles to go down with the sinking ship that is UA.

dgwright99

I made it clear that I was not talking purely about the warmth of the service delivery - though the friendliness often shown in the USA is usually geniune, and not false, and to suggest otherwise is either ignorant or mean. FWIW I grew up in the EU, lived briefly in Germany and still speak a little (rusty) German, and am familiar with the cultural differences. The difference here is not merely about being equal/different, anymore than rudeness is "merely different" from politeness (and yes, I am perfectly aware of the principal cultural differences of what is rude/polite in the 2 societies).

As is clear from my post (though you chose not to include that bit in your quote), I was talking about basic customer service orientation - the ethos that the service provider is there to serve the customer - not the other way around. This ethos may manifest itself differently in different cultures, but will always shine through when it exists. Although this ethos is far from ubiquitous on UA (contrast with excellent customer service orientation of AS employees, for example), I have generally found it to be completely lacking in LH.

DownUnderFlyer

But I do agree with the OP about the on time performance of LH. Almost all of my flights with them this year were late. But, in the case of the OP the question also is why LH was late. Some things are under the control of LH, others are not. So just blaming LH for everything might be an easy solution but might or might not be true.

exbayern

And I have had completely the opposite experiences - often encountering true kindness from LH staff, most recently a few weeks ago when I was in serious difficulty and several people went above and beyond.

Being exact and enforcing rules is not 'cold and impersonal'. To me it is like the carry on baggage rules which are rarely enforced in America. When people complain that they cannot carry on something which exceeds the stated rule, I really don't have any sympathy at all.

The majority of my LH experiences are positive; the majority of my UA experiences are neutral. I don't believe that I had a single late LH experience this year, but had more than a few on UA. However I won't hold it against UA as I understand the various factors which created the situation.

novaguy30

but I was at my parents over the weekend and their computer was down!

This is entirely LH's fault. The segment from FRA to IAD was so late that I missed my connecting flight. That is not UA's fault or anybody else (I'm not trying to stick up for UA on this post since they arent exactly great in general). My whole flight segment was SAT-IAD-FRA-BCN (on the way to BCN). Then BCN-FRA-IAD-SAT on the way back. As another matter, EVERY single segment on LH flights were delayed (including the last critical one that caused me to miss my flight). Then CONTRARY to what they announced on the flight when we were landing (they obviously new a decent number of us were going to miss our connections), they told us go to see our United representatives for rebooking. Of course nobody ever told me that they were going to rebook me on AA that night. I went to UA (with long customer service lines) and ended up rebooking over the phone. Then I tried to hunt down some LH reps so i could get a hotel voucher since UA suggested that I try to find one. The ticket counter told me that they rebooked me on the AA flight -- of course w/o any communication to me and CONTRARY to the instructions provided over the PA system on the plane. Then the rest of the problems followed (late arrival time, connecting segments instead of direct flight, more parking $, delayed baggage until the next day -- it couldnt make it to the UA flight if the plane already took off!, return trip to the airport to pick up the luggage the next day -- parking $ for that as well, etc. etc. Thanks but no thanks.

benmacd

Over the past few years I have taken more flights with LH than I care to remember... (almost 100 short-haul and long-haul ) and I have to say I find their service consistently good.

With only a few exceptions due to bad weather or ATC issues, they have got me to my destination on time, provide good onboard service that is, IMO far superior to most US legacies. When I lived in the States I flew UA extensively, and although definitely not the worst US airline, I found their service to be inferior to LH's product.

A quick look at Skytrax will confirm this (UA 3* v LH 4*)

DownUnderFlyer

So all on one ticket? Or was IAD-SAT a separate ticket. I am surprised that they announced over the PA to see a UA agent. Because people might have been booked on UA, US, AA, B6 etc. etc. so a UA agent won't be the right person. LH ground staff is responsible for this and they have done a good job by re-booking you on AA.

openflync

So they booked you on a non-alliance airline and got you home the same day you were supposed to be there. And they repatriated your luggage on the following day. I also assume there were those priority tags on your luggage to ensure TLC care and make sure they did not get lost or missplaced. And all of this on a C award ticket you paid with UA miles.

Even though Lufthansa tends to have more than its share of rule-nazis, they always tend to be very efficient in getting you to your destination.

I would hate to imagine your story if this happened to you on UA metal.