I went to US for a week on business trip in the first week of Feb. Unfortunately booked return tickets of Lufthansa to fly. Fortunately, nothing bad happened in the flights from Delhi to Chicago via Frankfurt. Here goes the woeful account of happenings during my return trip which made me to decide not to fly Lufthansa again and recommend everyone I meet to do so.
- Feb08, 09 – Flight no. LH9151 (Chicago to Frankfurt) operated by United UA940. There were only two meal choices, well somehow I coped with that. Then, since V-day was nearing and out of my busy schedule I could not buy anything to gift to my wife so I thought why not to buy something on board.
There were a couple of cool stuffs indeed on skymall. To my agony, the flight attendant never bothered to respond to my requests. It didn’t happened once or twice but thrice and there was no turbulence or meal servicing going on to keep the stewards busy not to attend the guests. I decided not to go for fourth time.
Feb09, 09 – Flight no. LH760 (Frankfurt to New Delhi). Flight landed at Delhi on time at 1.15 am on Feb10th but to my surprise the luggage didn’t arrive. It was not only me but about 20 guests most of them foreign nationals and about 4 Indians. I didn’t know that worst was to follow.
The baggage service staffs immediately swung into action not because of dutiful attitude but realizing that lot of foreign nationals were affected. You will get to know the reason further.
Documentation of mishandled property started for each passenger one by one in queue. Along with the field staff, Mr. Mathur, duty manager on the day himself got involved in filling out forms for passengers and communicating like a true legal personnel.
There was absolute chaos as there was luggage, trolleys and people all around and so the queue was not a queue. To my surprise, the staff did not attend Indian passengers in sequence but as last priority after foreign nationals. My colleague had to bear the discrimination more as the report under documentation was left uncompleted to take up the same for a foreign national who got missed out initially.
- Mr. Mathur gave the assurance that the luggage would be coming by next flight in 6 hrs and be delivered to the addresses provided by the passengers. He disbursed a toiletry kit and Rs 4000/- as compensation to cater to immediate needs of passengers of clothing/toiletries purchase.
Indian passengers were not given any kind of compensation nor were we interested in asking for it (may be the Manager would have been interested in pocketing it). This is coz consumer laws are too strong in other countries.
When my form was being filled-up Mr. Mathur was scolding his staff before us for not connecting the compensation amount to a German Senator (also the victim) before he lost his patience. He never bothered that few Lufthansa customers were still there, ain’t it unprofessional, must not be of concern to him as we were Indian passengers. At last, we were done and were able to check-out at 4.15 am. No, it was not a weekend but an office day.
In daytime I got a call from Lufthansa baggage service to inform me that my baggage has arrived but has been retained by Customs as preventive. This was coz I had declared some electronics items (digicam, ipod) though it was declared used and value well within norms. I was told that I would need to come to airport to get my baggage cleared and that if I come before 1.30 pm or after 9.30 pm there would be someone from Lufthansa to attend and assist me in clearance process. I was in office and chose the second option, after 9.30 pm.
I arrived at the airport at 10 pm and had to struggle to locate Lufthansa customer service office. I was told over phone to come to Arrival section but it was actually in Departure section. Room No. 23, Departure section. Time 11pm.
The lady at reception did offer to assist me but was too busy. Apparently, a personal call and she was booking a ticket for the person. It had to be a long call and several rounds of iterations in the booking being done. She asked for 5 min from me and I was waiting since 15 minutes. She sensed that I am running out of patience and urged the caller, loudly and unprofessionally, to cut it short. The caller didn’t and I ran out of patience urging the lady to attend to me as it was late night and my wife was home alone not keeping well.
Finally, after another good 10 min at about 11.25pm, she got up to explain the process to get my baggage. I lost patience again telling her that I had chosen the time as I was told to be attended by some staff and not to understand the process. When she insisted that there is none as it was flight time, I asked her to request to her Manager to provide the resource. The Manager on duty came out to board and arrogantly told me “we do not provide such services or personal escort”. I had to loose my temper but understanding that nothing could be done at the moment I chose to do it all myself after venting the flare out.
I was paid 1000/-, 400/- for clearance from Central Warehousing Corp. godown where mishandled baggages are held and balance to compensate for parking and conveyance. No, the staff was not bothered to provide this proactively but did so only when asked for. During this process I got to know the airlines also provides a compensation of Rs 2000/- for economy class passengers for mishandled baggage till the baggage is delivered. I remembered how proactively Rs 4000/- and a toiletry kit were being given to all foreign nationals but nothing for Indian passengers.
Finally, I was home at 1.30 am on next day Feb 11. It took 3 days for me to cope with the sleeplessness caused by jetlag and aggravated by Lufthansa and I am writing this down on weekend sitting on my bed in fever.
I pledge, I would impact the revenues of Lufthansa by atleast 100 times of this flight by not choosing to fly again and asking my colleagues to do so. Lufthansa, there’s no bitter way to fly