Clever Germans: They'll Let You In, But They Won't Let You Out...
Written: Apr 11 '01 (Updated Apr 11 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great flight, great in-flight service, more leg room than most
Cons: On-the-ground service in Switzerland and Germany a nightmare
The Bottom Line: Although the ground representatives in Switzerland and Germany were rather rude and unhelpful, this is still a quality carrier.
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| shockwave180's Full Review: Lufthansa |
Last year I flew Lufthansa with my grandma to Switzerland. Our flight went from Detroit to Frankfurt, and from Frankfurt to Geneva.
The flight out was great...the trip back was worthy of an Alfred Hitchcock horror movie. (Well, I'm exaggerating a bit here, but it sure sounds dramatic, right?)
Anyway, on the 8-hour flight from Detroit to Frankfurt, everything was just peachy. In fact, I have absolutely no complaints about the flights themselves, or the attendants (which is kinda no fun...oh, well).
Affordable...
Their fares aren't bad at all. Lufthansa isn't the cheapest airline, but they're also higher in quality, so it's a very fair tradeoff. Coach class is usually quite affordable for the common man.
Leg Room In Coach...Is This Legal?
No, believe it or not, there is no international law prohibiting airlines from even giving you enough room to wiggle your toes in coach class...it just seems that way. But Lufthansa is above average in this category. While it's not as though you can fully stretch out your legs and relax (hey, we're still talking about coach here,) Lufthansa does seem to have more leg room than many carriers. Their business and first class sections have absolutely oodles of space, again, more than most carriers.
Flight Attendants Who Really Attend...You're Kidding, Right?
Nope. The stewards and attendants on Lufthansa are some of the friendliest I have ever encountered. They were very helpful, always accessible and seemed genuinely happy to be serving you.
Food
Lufthansa food isn't bad...it isn't good, either, but on a scale of Gag to 10, I'd give their meals a solid 6. (Pretty good for an airline, I'd say.)
Ahem, Beverage Service
Yes, on Lufthansa, you can get almost unlimited booze for free. The attendants are constantly wheeling carts down the aisles that are positively loaded with happy, liver-destroying toxins. Wine, beer, whiskey, etc...all can be had. At this point, some of you are shaking your head reprovingly...others of you are rushing to the phone to book your Lufthansa flight right now! (Now this is your kind of airline, right? :) My dear grandmother, God bless her, she isn't an alcoholic by any means, but she does like to let her hair down when she's traveling...she must've about sampled it all. She doesn't usually sleep much on flights, but she knocked herself out for a solid four to five hours. I laughed...
The Flight Home...What Flight?
Ah, now the trip home...well, we were supposed to depart from Geneva at 11:00 local time, make the 45 minute flight back to Frankfurt, then catch a connecting flight back to Detroit at 1:00. Well...as it so happened, a thick fog had blanketed all of Europe for the last couple days. No, I'm serious...all of Europe. Thousands of flights had been canceled. Our flight, meanwhile was delayed until about 12:20. My grandma went up to the Lufthansa counter and requested that they re-book a connecting flight for us, since we were probably going to miss our existing connection...it was going to be darn close, at best. But the lady at the desk wouldn't re-book us, insisting that we try to make our original connecting flight.
Well, as you've probably guessed, we missed our connecting flight by a solid 10 minutes. We had to go to a counter that was all the way across the airport to re-book...and by that time there was nothing left for that day. Not to Detroit, not to Chicago, not to Toronto, or anything remotely close. We had to spend the night in Frankfurt at an airport hotel that Lufthansa put us up in. (That part was fine, they were very nice about accommodating us overnight.) But the fact that it all could've been avoided if the lady in Geneva had simply been willing to re-book us made me rather angry.
So the next day, we were at the airport to catch a flight to Chicago (from which we would take a flight to Detroit), and the gate agents were some of the rudest I have ever encountered. My grandma and I desperately wanted an aisle seat, so we asked the agent if there were any available. She said that there weren't any, and there weren't going to be any. This was rather absurd because it was still nearly two hours before the flight, and people always cancel. So a half-hour later, we asked again. The lady became rather irritated and reiterated to us that there would not be any aisle seats available. This cycle repeated itself several more times, with the lady becoming more bad-tempered each time. After our last attempt (about ten minutes prior to boarding time,) we saw a couple rush up to the agent and ask if there was any way they could get on this flight. Yes, she said sweetly, some people have canceled, here you are, you're all set, and she hands them tickets. The smiling couple walk past us, and the man says, "Okay, great, honey, we have aisle seats!" Well, as you can imagine, at this point the official Department Of I'm Already Having A Very Bad Day was ready to intervene...foul thoughts transpired, dirty words were uttered under breath...murderous threats...you get the idea.
Anyway, we eventually got back to Detroit (After another 90-minute delay in Chicago) and collapsed. All because of one unhelpful representative in Geneva. Of course, I realize she was trying to do her job, but honestly, a blind monkey with half an eye could see that the chances of our making the originally-scheduled connecting flight in Frankfurt were slim to none. Oh, well...forgive and forget, I say. Unless, of course, I'm writing an Epinion about it...
Yes, I'm Done
In the end, however, the sub-par ground service didn't detract from the flights themselves...they were fine. The unhelpfulness of the Lufthansa representatives do, however, prevent me from giving this airline five stars. But I still recommend them; they are a well-above-average airline.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
shockwave180
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Member: Donny Baarns
Location: Sylmar, CA
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 28 members
About Me:
They may destroy our buildings, but they will never destroy our soul. God Bless America.
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