[Tabari]

The following message was sent to Lufthansa Customer Service:

Greetings,

After putting off writing this for quite some time, I have come to the conclusion that with the world tentatively opening up again and the likelihood of me traveling more often is quite high - it can’t be avoided.

Meaning, I may end up flying with Lufthansa again. Given where I live, the places I’ll go, not to mention the limited times and often noncompetitive prices of your competitors - make it a likely scenario.

However, I do not want to set foot on a Lufthansa plane without filing a formal complaint about the horrible experience I had the last time I attempted to fly with your airline on December 22nd, 2021.

Never have I been so upset that I have filed a grievance with an airline before. This is notable due to the fact that, prior to taking my current job in Norway, I worked just shy of 19 years at an international news organization - which led me to travel to 47 countries (most of them more than once), and literally taken hundreds of flights (across all seat classes) with dozens of airlines.

Lufthansa has been a carrier I’ve used many times, both for personal and professional reasons. I lived in Frankfurt, Germany for almost two years, which only increased the amount of time I would fly with your airline since moving to Europe 10 years ago - as it was the primary one I used.

Upon moving to Scandinavia, one of the many selling points of the job I took was that the company business travel system tended to lean toward Lufthansa flights as the default. And in two years here, I have flown on Lufthansa flights for work (pre-Covid) and sporadically during the pandemic - for what little “safe” holiday travel I dared.

As you can imagine with all these years of travel, I have accumulated a wealth of experience and have had journeys with amazing customer service as well as others where I was treated badly. That said, none of them ever made me so angry where I knew it was imperative that I needed to complain.

I jotted down my notes for this message immediately after it happened. Yet when I tried to write this complaint on three different occasions in December and January, I had to stop each time. I was so upset, it would quickly become the equivalent of an angry rant. So I put it down and walked away from it to let time dull my emotions stemming from the incident.

But realizing that I may be contacting your customer service center soon, this needs to happen first. The reason? I have never been treated so poorly or failed across multiple levels (by multiple people), as I was that particular week I attempted to travel with your organization. I will explain every single detail of this in the paragraphs below.

During the 2021 holiday season, I made a last minute decision to fly home for Christmas. I had not been back to the USA since December of 2019 and even though I was still very uncomfortable about making such a long trip, with so much uncertainty regarding the Omicron variant, to a country with the most Covid fatalities in the world - I chose to do it anyway..

The health of one of my siblings was very poor and had been declining noticeably in 2021. It had reached a point where they were in constant pain, spent most of the day lying down, and would likely be on dialysis by the time the holidays came around in 2022.
After a lot of thought and conversations with family, I decided to fly home for Christmas at the last minute, spend time with my mother and brothers, and make a stop in Germany on the way back, before returning to Norway.

Let me stress that this was extremely last minute, I made the booking on December 20th, 2021 and the flight was on December 22nd, 2021. I had Lufthansa credit in my possession from a canceled trip to Portugal in the spring of 2021, when the Covid rates spiked, there were lockdowns put in place around the world, and that trip became impossible due to the risk.

Realizing that a last minute holiday flight would likely be expensive, I wanted to use the flight credit and specifically focused on flying Lufthansa.


Monday - December 20th, 2021:

I have always sourced for my own flights. Even at my old company (long before this incident), where we had custom travel software and agents that could do it for us, I would routinely find better and cheaper flights than what would come up in the organization’s system. They quickly got used to me calling them with the exact dates, flight numbers and price already worked out.

So Monday on the 20th I went specifically to Lufthansa.com to find the flights I wanted for this multi-city trip. Let me reiterate this again for emphasis, I went to your website to find the flights I needed. I know that sometimes going to aggregate sites like Kayak.com may occasionally show options which actually are already sold out.

Knowing this and realizing that I was doing it so close to the departure date, I did all my research beforehand, figured out what I wanted, and made screen captures (at least one I still have) - all from your organization’s website.

Then I called Lufthansa customer service directly and gave them the exact dates and flights I had found. The service charge for the booking was removed by the representative (because I had already done all the work) and my credit, which was the only reason I called - instead of just booking it online like I normally would, was deducted.

I gave the agent my credit card information and he told me the payment went through. Later that day I received a confirmation email of the itinerary I’d just booked. I still have this (and other related) email, which lists all of the flights individually and clearly says they are all confirmed.

Below is the original itinerary on the 22nd, copied from the Lufthansa email I received.


Lufthansa booking code: M******G
Ticket Number: 2*************6

Wed. 22 December 2021:

Bergen – Frankfurt
LH 877
Operated by: Lufthansa Cityline

06:30 Bergen (BGO)
08:30 Frankfurt (FRA) Terminal 1

Status: confirmed
Class: Economy Class (Q)

Wed. 22 December 2021:

Frankfurt – Washington
LH 9290
Operated by: United Airlines

11:10 Frankfurt (FRA)
14:15 Washington Dulles Intl (IAD)

Status: confirmed
Class: Economy Class (Q)

Tue. 04 January 2022:

Washington – Munich
LH 9281
Operated by: United Airlines

17:45 Washington Dulles Intl (IAD)
07:40 (+1) Munich (MUC) Terminal 2

Status: confirmed
Class: Economy Class (B)

Sun. 09 January 2022:

Munich – Frankfurt
LH 109
Operated by: Lufthansa

14:00 Munich (MUC)
15:00 Frankfurt (FRA Terminal 1

Status: confirmed
Class: Economy Class (B)

Sun. 09 January 2022:

Frankfurt – Bergen
LH 876
Operated by: Lufthansa Cityline

16:45 Frankfurt (FRA)
18:45 Bergen (BGO)

Status: confirmed
Class: Economy Class (B)


After receiving this, I immediately went online and tried to reserve my seats (which is another standard of mine - to always try and get window seats), but I couldn’t. The system said I could not check-in/reserve at that time.

When I called the Lufthansa customer service line back and spoke to a different representative, I was told I’d have to wait 24 hours before I could choose my seats. I thanked them and said I would do it the following day.

All of these things happened on that Monday (20th).


Tuesday - December 21st, 2021

After waiting 24 hours, the next day I found I still could not book all my seats. Given that this was a multi-city flight, I was unable to book any of the Lufthansa operated legs of the journey. However, the two longest connections were United flights. I’ve been a United Airlines member for more than 15 years (well before moving to Europe) and have flown with them extensively.

I logged onto my United Mileage Plus account and found those flights using the Lufthansa booking code. There I picked my seats, paying $100 for an outbound Economy Plus seat and selecting a (free) upgraded Economy Plus seat on the return. Again, I was only able to do this for the United legs of the journey.

Another issue I noticed was that I could not check-in for the flight on Lufthansa.com or the Lufthansa app on my iPhone, even though I was now inside of the check-in window. The first flight was early the next morning, so I focused on cleaning my house, packing luggage, and making preparations to get to the airport the following day.

All of these things happened on that Tuesday (21st)


Wednesday - December 22st, 2021

This was the day of the flight. Given the early hour, I had to book a taxi from home to get to the airport on time. I found that both before I left home that morning and in the taxi on the way, I was still unable to check-in to my flight - either online or on the app.

When I arrived at the airport, I quickly learned I wasn’t the only one. I tried to use the self check-in kiosk a few times, before I realized it was a more widespread problem. I got in a long line at the counter and found out everyone there was on the same flight. None of us had been able to check-in online and were waiting.

The line was moving very slowly, but there was still plenty of time before departure. Occasionally, some people would take a really long time with the representatives before they were made to stand off to the side and wait.

When I finally got to the desk, I expected I would be through quickly. This was not the case. They went back and forth looking at my ticket (with three different agents taking part at different times) for more than 10 minutes, before I joined the small group of people standing on the side waiting.

They needed to move me aside, so the people in line behind me could check-in (as they’d done with the others). They didn’t/couldn’t give me any details about the issue. When I asked they just said, “There’s something wrong with the ticket.”

Eventually, everyone else checked in, cleared security, and walked to the gate. We were still standing there as the attendants made multiple calls trying to fix our (three of us at this point) problems.

They worked on it for a while, but eventually they ran out of time and the plane departed without us.

It was already a bit frustrating getting to the airport on time, watching others check bags, get ticketed, and depart with no problem - while we still didn’t even know why we’d been unable to get on the flight.

Remaining was a man who worked at the university here in Bergen (Swedish mother, American father - was traveling to Boston for the holidays), a woman who was traveling with a friend (there was a tearful moment when the woman she was going to catch the plane with couldn’t wait anymore and finally left the ticketing area to go through security - realizing her friend probably wasn’t going to make the journey with her), and myself.

The three of us stood by the counter listening to them talk to people on the phone about our problem, before (at 0645) they said that we’d have to rebook and the person who could do it wouldn’t come in until 0700.

The three of us went over to the seating area adjacent to the counter and waited. Sometime afterward one of the ticketing agents came over and gave the woman in our group a ticket on another flight to Frankfurt later in the day. I didn’t talk to her (the traveler) at length that morning and never found out if she was going anywhere beyond that. I did know that the other man in the group was connecting from Frankfurt to Boston, as I was connecting from Frankfurt to Washington, D.C.

The agent never said anything to the two of us after giving the woman her ticket. She just walked back to the counter. We assumed that she would return soon with tickets for us. We waited 10… 20… 30 minutes… Before the man going to Boston went to the counter to see what was going on.

I watched him talk to the ticket agent for a while, before I got up and did the same. When I got over there, he said that they would not be able to fly him out that day. If I remember correctly, he said that the first flight they told him they could put him on was Christmas Day.

Of course, I instantly became worried. When I asked the agent about my situation, she told me that I would have to call customer service and rebook the ticket. She warned me that there were no other flight options that day I would be able to take.

I went back over to the seats and prepared to call. The earlier confusion I had wasn’t subsiding and I didn’t feel like I was actually being helped or that they had any real interest in doing so: I still did not know exactly why I wasn’t able to get on my original flight. That if we hadn’t gone to the counter on our own to talk to them, we would have continued to sit there waiting (even though they’d already obviously had answers before we returned and they had not been busy at the counter helping other people).

At that time (and no point that day or any of the days after), no one from Lufthansa ever apologized to me for not being able to take a long distance, important flight home for the holidays - that I’d done nothing wrong in arranging, paying for, or arriving to. In fact, I was told that I had to rebook the ticket. The attendant at the counter said the original flight had never been reserved.

I was incredulous because I had gone through the process with a Lufthansa agent, the same person who told me the credit card payment had gone through, received the confirmation email (which, again, I still have) from Lufthansa, received the ready to check-in email from Lufthansa, could retrieve the booking on the Lufthansa app, your partner airline (United) was able to pull up the reservation using the Lufthansa code, I was able to reserve seats on their legs of the trip, and at no point that day, the day after, or the morning of the flight (until I was at the counter) - was I ever informed by Lufthansa that was anything wrong.

In all my travels I’ve never had a circumstance similar to this, where I couldn’t get on a plane through no fault of my own and the airline didn’t immediately apologize, arrange replacement flights (not even mentioning occasionally providing lounge access or upgrading the seating in an attempt to make up for what happened). The responsibility was apparently mine to fix.

Before I called Lufthansa customer service, I went back to the counter to talk to the agent (who was still talking to the man looking to go to Boston). I asked for her name (because I wanted to be able to tell whoever I talked to on the helpline - who at the airport had been dealing with us (there had been two gate agents working on it at the beginning, but this woman had taken over after the other passengers had checked in - it was the same person who had given the female traveler in our group her new ticket).

I wanted to be able to give them a name if they had any questions because, again, I still had no idea what was wrong - so they could potentially talk to her and speed up the process (as it was already an hour and a half after the flight had left).

She asked why I wanted her name. I told her. She said they wouldn’t need it. I said they might not, but I wanted it in case they did. I started to think she didn’t want to give it to me because she believed I was going to say something negative about her - which was not my intent (but made me upset that this was the response I was getting).

I asked again and she said it’s not important. I literally replied, “It’s important to me”. She stood there (the gentleman from Boston was right beside us during this whole exchange, hearing it all) and I said “So you’re not going to give me your name?”

She said, “No”.

Not only was there no apology, not only was I being made to correct a problem that wasn’t my fault, when I simply asked for the name of the Lufthansa agent who had been working on the issue since the beginning (she was one of the agents checking people in), it was flatly refused. I had not asked in a rude or unprofessional way, yet was not even given a tiny detail which might have helped me in the next stage of the process.

This was already arguably one of the worst travel customer service experiences I’d ever had, at that point, and it was going to continue to get worse.

When I called customer service and explained what was going on, they could not explain to me why I had been told that I’d paid for a trip but had been informed after the flight had departed that it wasn’t actually purchased.

Later, after talking to them, I went online and checked my credit card statement and saw that the cost of the seat upgrade had been charged, but there was nothing for the flight itself. This was upsetting, because I had been told that charge had gone through (and nothing from the credit card company about any rejections). All of the emails that I received afterward did nothing to dispute this. I received no warning from Lufthansa in the time between the booking and my flight. Of the extremely limited details I received at the counter, the only thing they would say is that there is an issue with my ticket. They didn’t say I supposedly had no reservation.

It was confirmed that there was no way for me to make it to Washington D.C. later that day. The customer service representative I was working with started to look for alternatives and put me on hold. Of course the call was dropped as I waited and I had to call back again, wait to connect, and explain everything to a new representative before proceeding.

They said the best they could do would be to put me on a flight departing on the 24th. I then got even more bad news. Far from having any sort of upgrade, the option they presented would only be worse. I had purposely booked a stopover in Munich on the return (wanting to see dear friends in Germany). I was told on the call that it would not be possible to do. This made no sense to me as this was on January 4th. I could understand things needing to change at short notice, this close to the holiday, on the outbound - however I was doing the exact same set of flights, same times, two days later for that leg of the journey.

Afterward, I looked and saw there was still availability on the United flight from Washington D.C. to Munich on the 4th and the Lufthansa flight from Munich back to Bergen on the 9th. I just simply was not allowed to make the same reservation back I once had over the phone less than 48 hours before. I asked if there would be any more charges or changes and the representative said no.

I wanted some time to think about it before I confirmed, so I decided to go home first. At this point, I had been either standing at the airport counter or sitting in the waiting area for more than three hours. I was frustrated, aware that I couldn’t travel today (wasting the first vacation day I’d taken from work), getting upset, and just wanted to leave. It hit me at that moment that because of what happened, I had also lost money.

Because the first flight to Frankfurt on the 22nd was at 06:30, there was no way I could take public transportation or the airport shuttle and get there early enough (from my home in the city center). I paid 482 NOK for the taxi to the airport that morning - which was wasted.

Also, in accordance with the USA regulations at the time, I needed to have a negative Covid test (within either 24 or 48 hours, I can’t remember) before departure. I’d paid 1,195 NOK for a test and certification document the day before (for the flights on the 22nd) which would be useless by the 24th. Plus, add the shuttle bus service I took back home that morning (159 NOK) and I spent 1,836 NOK - for nothing.

Seeing as how this could have (and should have) been avoided, I believe this amount should be compensated back to me by Lufthansa.

After arriving home, I called again and completed the booking (which I received the confirmation email for later that evening). I made sure that my credit card had been charged and then looked over the booking to double check everything. That’s when I noticed that they’d made another change to the itinerary that they didn’t warn me about. There was no checked baggage included in the booking on the 24th.


Lufthansa booking code: M****G (Unchanged from 1st booking)
Ticket Number(s): 2***********1, 2*************6

Fri. 24 December 2021:

Bergen – Frankfurt
LH 877
Operated by: Lufthansa Cityline

06:30 Bergen (BGO)
08:30 Frankfurt (FRA) Terminal 1

Status: confirmed
Class: Economy Class (Q)

Fri. 24 December 2021:

Frankfurt – Washington
LH 9290
Operated by: United Airlines

11:10 Frankfurt (FRA)
14:15 Washington Dulles Intl (IAD)

Status: confirmed
Class: Economy Class (Q)

Wed. 05 January 2022:

Washington – Frankfurt
LH 9051
Operated by: United Airlines

17:30 Washington Dulles Intl (IAD)
07:10 (+1) Frankfurt (FRA) Terminal 1

Status: confirmed
Class: Economy Class (T)

Thu. 06 January 2022:

Frankfurt – Bergen
LH 876
Operated by: Lufthansa Cityline

16:45 Frankfurt (FRA)
18:45 Bergen (BGO)

Status: confirmed
Class: Economy Class (T)


Of course, not only did my original flights on the 22nd have the Munich layover that they said couldn’t be duplicated, but it also had a checked bag. When I called Lufthansa customer service back, I was told that the reservation couldn’t be made with that included. I would have to pay extra baggage fees (which according to the itinerary, had to be done at the counter at the morning of departure). They said it could not be done online.

At this point there was no way I was going to risk going to the airport with a bag to check (but a ticket stating otherwise). If there was any sort of issue, there is no way I could have gone home (even by taxi), switched to a carry-on (even if it was prepacked), taken a taxi back to the airport, and returned in time to make the flight. Not to mention that sequence, counting the bag fee, would be hundreds of euros - on top of what I would have paid (again) for a new Covid test and the initial taxi to the airport.

I was scheduled to fly to Washington D.C. and spend two weeks in the Baltimore/Washington area, in late December/early January - with only a carry-on bags worth of clothes? Add one sweater and a pair of jeans and that little suitcase would almost be full. Even if I bought clothes while I was there, I’d still have the same little piece of luggage - which would have no room to actually bring them back in.

I got off the phone, keeping the itinerary the same. But I was very upset by then. Lufthansa was letting me down at every turn. I was trying to get home for the holidays to see my mother and brothers. Originally I wasn’t planning to go for fear of putting the youngest and my mother (both in vulnerable groups) at greater risk - with me possibly bringing the Omicron variant back (at the time, it was not completely clear what the variant mortality rates were). But given that he was in the end stages of kidney failure, and in constant pain - we figured it was potentially worth the risk.


Thursday - December 23rd, 2021

As much as they wanted to see me, after hearing what I went through the last two days, how it seemed to keep getting worse and worse, and how it was already tarnishing the trip home - my mother and my little brother both reached a point where they both said to not come… That I should just switch the trip to a later date. I struggled with this a lot, but on the evening of the 23rd, I felt that they were right and decided to move my flight again.

As always, I went to Lufthansa.com and I found a flight in late March. The itinerary I put together was cheaper than the one that was currently booked and also had checked bags included. As you might imagine, I was not interested in paying any more than I had after everything that had happened. I didn’t bother trying to duplicate the Munich layover - as the dates were no longer ideal for it. I had everything ready before I called Lufthansa customer service.

By the time I’d talked to my family, came to this conclusion, researched new flights, and called the helpline, it was already late. There was roughly an hour or so before the customer service center was supposed to close.

The person I talked to took the new arrangements I’d found and when she entered them into the Lufthansa system, came up with a price that was much higher than what I’d found on the Lufthansa website. And this was before taxes and other fees were added. I purposely worked to avoid this and couldn’t believe that moving the flight months later - in a way that should have made it cheaper (not during a holiday and traveling midweek), somehow made it more expensive.

During the conversation, it was explained that because of the flight class of the “original” rebooked flight, it could not be changed in a way that was the same or less expensive than what was booked on December 23rd. After everything that I’d already encountered, it still managed to get worse. I told the Lufthansa representative that it was mind boggling that someone could go to the website and buy the exact same flight, notably cheaper than someone who’d already had an existing flight with the airline and wanted to move it.

The fare difference she quoted was hundreds of euros more (especially when a change fee was added). At this point it had become plainly obvious that no one working on this at Lufthansa was interested in doing anything to try and make up for the horrible experience I was having. Not with words or giving me any sort of breaks on any part of the rebooking.

It took a while to get to this point. In part because at first she didn’t seem to want to go into detail as to why it was more expensive. It was easy to tell that the Lufthansa representative became less helpful and shorter (verbally) as the call went on and it got closer to the time the helpdesk was supposed to close. It was at then she said something that immediately changed the tone of the conversation and the way I regarded your airline. I also suspect it’s why I was treated how I was on all the calls I made after not being allowed to take that first flight the morning of the 22nd.

She said that the Lufthansa system had me listed as a “no-show” for the 0630 flight December 22nd. Two things happened after she said that. One, I got genuinely upset. I was not a no-show for the first flight; I wasn’t even late for it! They had to move me out of the line, so the people behind me (who all made the flight, not rushing in the least) could check-in and board! To have me designated in the system that way, was a lie.

It was then, I started recording the call. I still have the audio of last 27+ minutes of the conversation between myself and the original representative (who I got to admit again that I was categorized as a “no show” in the Lufthansa system) and the manager I requested afterward, when I grew tired of explanations that didn’t always add up, and that it became apparent that she just wanted to get off the phone.

Eventually, the manager asked if I was going to pay hundreds of euros extra to change the flight to March, or keep the existing ticket and leave early the next day (with the severely compromised rebooking).

A bold request considering how I’d been treated at the airport, kept discovering detrimental details to my new tickets after the fact, and had not a single person apologize or strive to make things better.

I told the manager that I was not going to give them any more money to change the flight. It felt like I would be rewarding the company for not acknowledging its mistakes, not valuing me as a customer, and then actually managing to benefit from it even more in the end.

I made the decision knowing that I could basically be throwing away the money I paid for the flight. I didn’t, and still don’t, know if what I paid can be used anymore (since I actually didn’t show up for the flight on the 24th). At least now what’s in the system is actually true. Part of me would like to simply be refunded, given my experience… Though I would settle for being able to use the money I paid on a future trip(s).

Oddly, I noticed that I received an email from Lufthansa during the days I spent writing this - saying that I should make any potential Covid preparations for my upcoming trip. The flights in the warning are for March 23rd (the day I was going to switch to before hearing about the exorbitant price increase and declined).

I will log onto my Lufthansa account and check this, once I finish writing. However, I am betting it is just a mistake. In fact, if they have changed it - it would have been done after the last thing I said was that I didn’t want to do it. I guess I might need to check my credit card to see if I might have been charged as well!

As you can imagine, given the last conversation I had with your customer service team, there was no reason to believe that the date would be changed: no vacation days have taken, no planning done to handover current work projects, or to ensure I’d have time with my family back in the States (that they’d be free). It would almost be a kick in the teeth to find out this was done and never be told (though again, I doubt this is the case as there never was any confirmation email from Lufthansa about the March dates I was planning to switch to).

After the fact, I’ve talked to friends who have surmised that either the first flight at 0630 on December 22nd was overbooked or that I was originally issued a ticket that shouldn’t have been given. Sadly, I will never know if the flight was full when it departed - despite the fact that there were supposed to be at least three more people aboard. The subsequent downgrades of each rebooking attempt lend credence to the second theory, but I find it hard to believe I would be able to arrange something on your own website and that one of your employees would also be able to successfully enter it into your system.

Regardless of the reason, it does not excuse the repeated and extremely poor customer service that followed.

This needed to be written. Being realistic about where I live, where I need to travel and the options I have at my disposal, I understand there is a fair certainty I will need to fly Lufthansa again in the foreseeable future.

More than two months after the worst travel customer experience I’ve had in my life, I will admit that how hard I will try to avoid your airline and what I will tell friends and colleagues about your company - depends on how you respond. At the very least I will post this to a few different locations/people at Lufthansa (in hopes of guaranteeing something more substantive than an automatic reply/form letter) and probably a couple of outside places (like AirlineComplaints.org) as well.

Of course, I can provide any of the official Lufthansa correspondence of everything I have referenced above.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
M.

Note: I logged into my Lufthansa account, added the original booking code, and it does now show the booking with a departure in two days which I have neither expected, planned or prepared for! Finding this out now, this way, is beyond surprising.

I literally have an audio recording stating that I was not going to pay to move the flight right before it ended and the manager left the call. I find it astounding that this somehow could be done after repeatedly being told on the last phone call (on December 23rd) that I would need to pay hundreds of euros more to do this.

There was no call or confirmation email sent to me saying this was done (until the week before). It is highly improbable that I’ll be able to get this time off on such short notice, so I will be contacting Lufthansa customer service after work today.

I hope you also find all of this quite unacceptable.