I was on a business trip to Canada and had my tickets booked with Lufthansa in business class.
Trip was Delhi - Frankfurt - Toronto - Montreal - Frankfurt - Mumbai. This was my first trip to Canada during March 2008(around the famous snow storm last yr). The Toronto - Montreal was on Air Canada and with my prior exp on the USA domestic flights, I didn’t expect much, you can say I was mentally prepared for a bad treatment. It is a different story that I didn’t expect it to be a nightmare.
Anyway I will discuss that some other time but it is about the exp on my way back that I would like to share, Lufthansa & Air Canada have code share agreement, so my flight from Montreal to FRA was actually a AC flight. The horror began there!
At the time of check-in, I was told that business class was over booked so they can book me on the next flight next day and will provide me a hotel but they can’t guarantee me a confirmed ticket for the following day on FRA-Del flight. When I told them that my visa doesn’t allow me to stay in Canada for another day, the lady at the check-in called her manager and they discussed in French(Montreal is a French colony) for about 15 mins. After that the lady told me that it was not her problem and she definitely can’t help me with the Visa. Although it was known to me but she was very rude.
When I told her that it was not my problem that airlines is overbooked and demanded a boarding pass as I had confirm ticket, if not then she should upgrade me to first class, I was told the flight didn’t have a 1st class! After a long discussion, I was offered a seat in economy as a favour(of course when I complained at FRA to the Luft customer care they refunded me the fare difference, gave additional 600 Euro and a complimentary ticket to anywhere in Europe from India)
The plane was really small, so I understood why they didn’t have 1st class.
Fortunately flight was delayed only by 1.5 hrs due to snow on the runway, in a way it was a blessing in disguise as I had a long halt at FRA.
The air hostesses were very rude and expressionless. I was told that AC has the policy not serve wine in economy, they can only provide beer and whisky and that too was rationed to 1 drink per leg?
Meals were served only demand as it was a night flight across Atlantic and that was also ltd to some snakes difficult to digest.
Welcome to FRA! No staff from AC to guide where will you find the connecting flight. If the Luft personals wouldn’t have helped me I would missed my flight.