What Are You Thinking Lufthansa?

I have written on this blog before about what a great person I am to have as a loyal and happy customer. Simply put, I LOVE to brag on companies I love doing business with. I brag regularly to friends about Chick Fil A for the values they uphold, the way they have practiced generosity towards orphans and at risk kids, and the place it's been for my brother to grow up as a business owner. I could say many of the same things about Vision Forum, LL Bean, Best Buy, and T Mobile. In at least one instance each of these companies has gone beyond their standard rules of operation and compensation for me in a situation were I was "done wrong" in some way by them. It might have been a faulty product, shoddy customer service, unclear rules, or some oversight on their part. I'm pretty understanding about "stuff" happening in business. I worked in customer relations for two years and know that there are times when a customer experiences inconveniences that are no fault of the vender. However, I don't understand at all when a company "does me wrong" and won't go to acceptable reaches to a) correct the situation and b) give me a reason to not even consider looking to take my business elsewhere.

At the same time I am also a terrible person to have as an unhappy customer. I talk just as much (some say more) about the companies I am not happy with as I do the companies I am happy with.

Well, Lufthansa German International Airlines now joins my list of companies I will no longer do business with. That's a shame too both for them and me. Due to oversold flights I and my family traveled on in 2006, Lufthansa paid out more than $6000 cash to us for flights we were voluntary bumped off of. That, along with the great on board service they have provided us and the easy interline ticketing from a Russian airline we fly from Novosibirsk to Frankfurt, is why it is a shame for me and my family. It is a shame for them because I travel a lot...my family travels a lot...the organization I work for sends lots of people to Russia and Ukraine year round and Lufthansa flies to a lot cities in both of those countries. None of that money though will go towards them because of the laughable way they handled a customer service dispute I filed with them in late 2006.

No need to bore you with the details of the case (email me if you want me to send you the letters I sent them and their responses to me) other than to say when a family of 5 traveling with 3 small children have their itinerary cancelled by the airline they have confirmed tickets on and that cancellation is discovered by the passenger and not the airline and then they reroute us on another airline with a stop along the way, a lost bag, and a missed hotel reservation in our layover city I am of the opinion that something above the bare minimum should be done to make that customer right. It has not and I am choosing to take my business elsewhere.

Indeed, there is a better way to fly and that way is...Delta Air Lines.