Lufthansa is celebrating 1 year since introduction of their FlyNet service. And because of that on all planes from May 17 to May 23 there’s free of charge wireless Internet. Service goes via Boeing (you may register at http://www.connexionbyboeing.com/).
The service is good, but neither me, nor my neighbour (who happens to work for Lufthansa!) could get the VPN running. In anycase, at least we are connected! Such a wonderful feeling. I bought a skypeIn account, and have it up and running, together with the X-Pro from www.sip2go.com, so I actually use the Internet connection to make/receive phone calls. Not bad for overseas 10 hours flight.
Of course, one has to keep in mind if traveling in economy class, that there’s always ground to get one of the 3M screen filters, which do not allow the person sitting next to you to sneak into your monitor:)
So, here I am, 3 hours away from New York, enjoying the German airways:) And although until recently I preferred Austrian, I think that for daily flights, it’s useful to get Lufthansa because of the Internet access.
Don’t use Lufthansa! I had such a frustrating experience with their online website reservation system and their customer service is non-existent. They don’t even have a phone number for customer service!!!
Here’s what happened-
I go online to buy 2 tickets in the evening (US time). Their website isn’t working. I waste about 2 hours trying to get it to work. No luck. So, I call tech support- CLOSED!
So i call telephone reservations- they have higher prices and cannot match the online price even though i tell them their online site isn’t working properly.
So, i send tech support an email about their website problem asking them to honor the price for the ticket on that day.
The next day, i go online and the ticket price has gone up $4 ($8 because i am buying 2 tickets). I call Lufthansa again explain the problems that i had and ask them if they will honor the price from yesterday. They said NO!
So, I asked to speak to a supervisor- they said NO again and gave me attitude!
So, Lufthansa made $8 more on my itcket but has lost a customer – a very unhappy one who has decided to tell as many people as possible about their terrible customer service! Don’t fly Lufthansa!
I had the utmost horrible flight with Lufthansa that I have ever experienced – by the way I fly very much each year – 12 overseasflights per year – avg 25 hours actual air time per trip. Last year I was in economy but exit row first set of seats. The video system had malfunctioned and was not working at all during the entire 10.5 hour flight. I was watching my laptop to view videos during the flight and had plugged it into a close electrical outlet by the exit door. I have flown the same style aircraft 100’s of times and never ever had an attendent say a word. When not flying business this seat is my preference due to most times the seat next to me will be empty on purpose by the airline to keep the exit clear.
I determined the reason the lead attendant approached me and insisted I not use the outlet was because other passengers were complaining about no movie and I was watching the third one of the trip about 3 hours out of Amsterdam. She said I could damage the plane and cause a malfunction causing the plane to crash. I was polite but had to insist my knowledge of the craft and the circuit is the same for bussiness travelers to plug into and they even use the outlet to vacumn the plane during stops. Before this confrontation transpired I had several conversations with another attendent and she was very polite and knew entirely that I had plugged into the outlet and never mentioned a word to me.
The crew leader attendent actually escalated the rude and unwarranted behaviour by telling me she was to write a report and I would have to be repremanded by the flight officers and detained by the security ground crew. I never even raised my voice but did ignore her after I complied and removed all my gear, stowed it and sat tranquile throughout the remainder of the flight. Needless to say – I stayed away from flying LUFTHANSA for over 2 years now and vowed I would not fly them again. Well – due to company needs I had to fly them just last month and I will return home on them in 3 days time.
I will fly business and not have the caliber attendent as last time. However – the attendent was the lead or highest rank attendent onboard and was a tyrant to her workers as well as the passengers. The boiling point for this person was when she exclaimed that this was not going to happen on HER aircraft and I politely corrected her that it WAS NOT HER AICRAFT and I AM THE CUSTOMER that by which she gets her paycheck. That was immediately after she told me she was to write up a report. I really was calm and polite throught most of the confrontation. I did ask her to ensure I received a cop of the report as well.
To sum it all up – a loose cannon was allowed to interact with the passengers and lacked the fundamental people skills to function as an attendent – AND – she was the crew leader.
I will still stay away from paying out of my pocket if any chance at all I will be treated rudely on a LUFTHANSA flight ever again.