Update: We’re now checked in and have been upgraded as a family to Business class. Thanks to Lufthansa for getting on the case and putting things right, and for everyone’s support.
Twenty-something-hour double changeover flights with an infant of crawling age aren’t something you want to take too often. So when you do, like, say, when you’re moving your home across 9 timezones, you tend to plan ahead. As in, making sure you have a bulkhead seat with a basinet. Even if it means paying more to shuffle flights around and make sure you get there with a shred of sanity intact.
Image: CC Ricardo Ricote
So when you turn up for your 9am flight, and there’s a strike somewhere at the other side of the planet in an airport you’re passing through for an hour, you assume you’ll be somehow accommodated. Maybe there’ll be a slight delay. A change of flight a bit later in the day maybe. You’re flying Lufthansa, and your friends have recommended them. It’s all good.
Unless you find, having shuffled through the security theatre, that the ominous “cancelled” appears just in time for you to arrive at your gate. And then you wait. And wait. And two hours later you wait some more while first and business class customers are individually addressed and taken care of. Without so much as an announcement to anyone else (i.e. economy scum) in the room. As your child screams and writhes and wonders, much like you, what exactly is going on here and why you’re standing stock still in a crowd of people scratching your head.
Three hours later you’re told that there’s another counter that might be able help to you out a little quicker, so you hike over. With the buggy, the kid, the finger-garrotting luggage. And you get ignored and told to wait your turn while five people help out a single old guy and pretend you don’t exist. You stand. And you stare. And you sweat. And you console the kid. And you get to speak to someone, who, while they’re “trying” to address your problem, stops trying for twenty minutes a pop to deal with two other customers who are evidently less hard work.
A couple of hours later you’ve explained how you have two cases, three boxes, hand luggage, a buggy, and an infant without any lactose-free formula or food to last more than a day. You’ve politely declined the separate (enjoy playing pass the infant) leftover seats on a four changeover, four security check flight that will take you thirty-five hours to get to your destination, starting sometime tonight. And the one where you get to change airlines, recheck in your country-moving baggage, and one of you gets to go ahead while the other waits on standby in Copenhagen, with no offer of help at the final destination to somehow get your baggage out of the airport. Mother, baby, two cases, three boxes, hand luggage. Where’s the problem?
Six hours in, you politely, and then not so politely, suggest that some sort of minor upgrade or compensation might be in order given that you’re being offered ridiculous flights with significantly worse seats and endless flight times. And, you know, you actually paid money for this trip, and, erm, reserved your seats a month or two ago. Tears are shed. Not just by the kid.
There’s a brief flicker of hope about an Air France flight. Half an hour later, you’re told it’s full. Naturally. Too late, you’ve already been handed off to a different airline, a different person. Time to go back through immigration and security with all your bags. Time to wait for a bus.
Eight hours later you’re shipped off to an airport hotel by bus, your request for some assistance with your kid’s dwindling food and drink is brushed off with “ask the hotel”, which is miles away from anything resembling a shop. The hotel has nothing, your kid starts choking on the inappropriate food they have, even though you’ve tried to mash it up as best you can. Tough luck on the lactose-free milk, he’ll be ok. What’s a bit of dehydration, malnutrition or explosive diarrhoea among friends?
The best part. They’ve now offered you the same flight you should have been on this morning, only tomorrow. Suddenly this is possible. Eight hours later. After the other enticing options you were presented hours ago.
But here’s the doozie. You get to come back and do the same thing again, after another 5am rise, tomorrow. There might be a strike. You’ll have to wait and see. There might be a ticket for you. You’ll have to wait and see. You might get to fly. You’ll have to wait and see. Your kid might get seriously ill. You’ll have to wait and see, The lease you’re signing tomorrow? Tough luck. The hotel you’re paying for in Edinburgh? Your problem. The car hire paid up? Suck it up.
Have a complaint? Lufthansa would love you to post or fax them about it.
This generous offer is their way of demonstrating that:
Lufthansa regrets any inconvenience to its passengers caused by the strike measures and will do its utmost best to minimize the impacts
They’re just a little reticent about mentioning that this doesn’t apply to you if you’re flying economy. And if you’re merely shuttling an increasingly despondent eleven month old around along with everything you own on a humid Tokyo day, more fool you for choosing Lufthansa. Get your pen and paper out and whack some feedback in the post. It might pass the time while you’re waiting on another possibly nonexistent flight at the airport tomorrow with your kid. Or the day after.
You’ll have to wait and see.
Reblogged this on Paolo Belcastro.
Wow, what an awful experience but I see Lufthansa responded to your tweet. I doubt you’ll hear anything more from them though.
Hope you and your family have a better experience at your destination!
Thanks, Donncha. I’ve responded to the Lufthansa social media team, but after today’s experience aren’t holding our breaths. We live in hope of being able to at least leave tomorrow
Reblogged this on Yes, It's Broken.
Reblogged this on Egill.
I see where you’re coming from – have travelled long distance often enough plus you have the kid. But – the cabin crew going on strike is out of their control. The union only announces details 6 hours before they’re going on strike. There are thousands of people stranded and all of them want help immediately and at the same time. Really, I get what you’re going through and I have been in your shoes. In hindsight, though, it’s just a huge mess. They can’t offer you better/faster connections because there are non available. It is customary practice to let those planes not affected by strike take off (usually they are also fully booked). Only if there are a few remaining seats can those stranded board. So it’s either the next possible option (usually with crappy connections) or, at best, a flight the next day.
Airlines are required to offer food and drinks and hotels in this case. Seems like they did just that, although you’re right, they don’t only have to provide food for adults but also for the kids/babies too.
I am hoping for you that you’ll be able to catch your plane tomorrow. This, however, is not in the hands of Lufthansa. Where those strikes will continue depends on the union and Lufthansa management. Been there, done that, it sucks.
Thanks for your reply. I’m going to go ahead and assume that just because searching against your email only turns up a German-language legal forum and you seem to have an in-depth knowledge of the protocols and responsibilities of airlines, it doesn’t mean you’re necessarily a Lufthansa sock puppet. And if not, my apologies, I appreciate your support and rational, measured response. To address your points, regardless:
I appreciate that strikes are often short notice, but please note the second half of the post title. It’s not about what happens when something goes wrong, but about what a company attempts to do “minimize the impact”. While we stood waiting for hours and were brushed off in favour of several others who arrived at the counter after us, in the middle of being “helped”, the potential crappy flight we were initially offered (and accepted, despite the lack of concession for our situation) went from being available to being no longer available. Cue more waiting, cue more requests to wait again while they searched for something suitable and ignored our repeated questions about whether our son’s milk, which was and is of limited supply, might be something they could in any way help with. This was never resolved after asking several people. If working for Lufthansa is anything like being their customer when something goes wrong, I can understand why they’d go on strike.
First and Business customers were informed (while we stood waiting for hours) and then dispatched to their destination very promptly. Before we received so much as an announcement. By the time we’d gone through the hours more waiting and failure to respond to our growing concerns, a lot of other people were dealt with and offered solutions promptly. As I mention above, we tried to be as flexible as physically possible, but after the first subsequently fallen-through offer the flights suggested were ludicrous and we were only told we could travel on the same flight after eight hours of negotiations with a crying child in hand. Eight hours that could have been spent in a hotel if we’d been offered this solution in the first place. Having an infant was not only not taken into account, but seemingly cost us time while other customers were dealt with after the representative had started to (finally) help us.
Yes, after eight hours we were doubtless growing tiresome. We were given a voucher for food and drink which expired the same day and then ferried at high speed through security to arrivals where this couldn’t be used. And yes, after asking three to four times, and more than one member of staff, our requests for baby food, somewhere to buy baby food, and our possible need for non-lactose formula for our kid were all ignored and then ignored some more. I’m sure the legal requirements were almost ticked, however.
Here you sound remarkably like their representatives. I guess that means they can’t make sure we’re treated well or put on another flight, possibly after another eight hours in an airport with an infant with no supplies with an alliance member or otherwise and could be stranded here again at more expense and time while Lufthansa management ignores the problem with a beady eye on the bottom line. The strike may be out of their hands, the end user experience is NOT.
If they knew six hours before, why did they allow the passengers through security and to the gate before making them wait before announcing the cancellation?
Surprising, Lufthansa has been one of the better airlines when it comes to dealing with messed-up flights (as you know, I encounter a lot of these).
The only flight I’ve taken with them before was notable for the quality of cabin crew interaction. I’d heard good things about this before and made reservations on those grounds. Won’t be doing that again.
Reblogged this on a fiend of awesome and commented:
Flying pretty much always sucks. It sucks even more when the airlines don’t give a damn about their passengers and instead just engineer despair.
Thanks Jackie. Agreed, we weren’t relishing the idea of twenty-odd hours with a restless infant even before this started.
A very similar experience for me – I was travelling with two small children, my husband, and I have a broken foot – no help at all from Lufthansa. The staff on our scheduled flight knew that we were waiting, as I had offered to check in the stroller and notified them about my foot. Thankfully, I never checked it in, so at least we had that when we were forced to stay overnight in Frankfurt. To top it all off, our bags went missing. Three days without any bags, and the last one arrived today, day 5! Lufthansa’s response to my facebook post was to please be patient – my patience wore thin! They advised me to check online for the baggage status. This was no help, as the status was not updated for three days. They advised me to call the baggage services number I had been given. This was no help either. This was a pay by the minute service, staffed by rude, unhelpful people at a call centre in another country, who could only tell me what I could see on the online site. One person responded to my tears with a phone number for lost and found at Heathrow – the number did not work. Another told me the bag was with the delivery company, again giving me a number that did not work. I emailed the delivery company through their site – the email came back – not found. My frustration levels were sky high. Lufthansa also advised me to contact customer relations. I did, but still no response from them other than an auto reply saying thank you for your feedback. I am very concerned about our next flight and wish we weren’t flying with them!
Hi Kate. I’d say I’m glad we aren’t the only ones, but I really aren’t and your experience sounds truly horrifying.
Thanks Michael. I’m in complete agreement with your earlier comments – it’s not really about the strike, but the lack of support and terrible service from Lufthansa afterwards. I really hope you get upgraded after this!
Thanks, Kate. Hope your situation improves very soon.
Oh, noes! So sad to hear this, Michael. Sending positive thoughts for a strike resolution and an upgrade for your family.
Thanks, Lori. Here’s hoping:
Brutal — hang in there …
Thanks, Ranaan!
Seems like bad publicity and cash are the only way to get things done with these “people”. Their policies should give priority to infants as well as the rich and business class types. Hopefully their promises will bear fruit and we will see you tomorrow. Hope your blogging has done the trick. This airline joins the Irish one on my avoid list. In fact, I don’t really want to fly at all.
Customer service matters, and it often matters most when times are tough. It’s only stories like this that let you know a company’s true colors—which you might otherwise take for granted if you’re lucky to have only taken trips where there are no complications like a strike.