My first international flight was by Air India, in which everything (I mean the service) was like a formality/burden and dint leave any positive impression on me. There after, I traveled in the American (AA), Cathay pacific (worst airline), KLM, United, Indian airlines (international) , Singapore airlines and latest was by Lufthansa.
When the travel executive of our office sent me my travel itinerary (to the States), I observed that all the flights were by Lufthansa, on which somehow I didn’t have a great impression .I picked up the phone and angrily asked her “are you going to decide, which airline I will be traveling?” for which she replied in a relatively calm tone “yes sir, we decide your airline, hotel and credit card, any more questions?”
There I was in the airport, all packed up for the Frankfurt flight and the news came that it got delayed by 2hrs due to heavy snow in Frankfurt . I started to wonder how I was going to take all the connecting flights and cursed myself for giving up so easily on the choice of airline.
The check in process took a little over 2hrs and the staff was neutral like my travel executive( non friendly , somewhat rude) and don’t bother to answer your queries, for example when I requested the guy at the counter to put me towards the front of aircraft(to feel less turbulence), he simply handed over my boarding pass with looks which conveyed ‘you don’t make choices’, and started attending others.
I started to feel exhausted as it was 2 am , standing in the long queue and the 2hr delay caused me a little anxiety as there was very little gap between the connecting flights.
The boarding started and at the entrance of the plane , two well carved statues were there, no wait a minute, they were the flight attendants, yes now I see some movement and observe that they are assisting some executive class passengers and Non Indians ( I think only in America there is no racism or at least you are treated equally with respect ).
As I went inside the plane and my mood was lifted instantly when I saw the spic and span inside and roomy seats. I sighed with relief as the interiors comforted me and gave me a touch of assurance that things will fine. An age has come when one has to make friends with laptops, cars or other nonliving things.
A little later two well built, tall, serious looking Flight attendants emerged with food and drinks .By looking at them one may suppress every urge to speak and simply take what is given( may be that’s the idea). They will do a better job as debt collectors , what are they doing here ?.Now I know from where my travel executive is getting all the training from.
The food(vegetarian) was good and very Indian(rice with paneer preparation) , however if you frequently travel by this airline , you will observe that there is no change in the menu .
I dared to open my mouth and asked the macho man “can I have some coffee please?”
MM:“I have coke and water”
Me: “Thanks, but I want coffee”.
He grumbled and went away , but to my surprise , he came back with a cup of coffee a little later. I wished that there was some animal testing available before I drank the coffee.
The check in process in Frankfurt to Chicago was smooth and they have upgraded the flight to Jumbo jet which covered the distance in 8hrs instead of 10 hrs which made us reach the destination a little earlier than the schedule.
Overall, the Lufthansa is a very reliable airline with good aircrafts and bad cabin crew.
Will I travel in Lufthansa again? Yes I definitely will. What is more important to me is comfortable flight with good seats and adhered schedules. Travel in Cathay pacific/Air India to know this.
There were no baggage issues, though we had a through check in.