Lufthansa – An Example Of Why They Are My Favorite

by Lufthansa Flyer | Nov 18, 2011 | Trip Reports | 0 comments

You have probably already figured out based on the title of my blog that I am a fan of Lufthansa. Over the course of the years flying with them, the reasons for my loyalty have grown with just about every flight. Most recently, I added yet another reason to my list. We had something happen to us that had never happened before, and again Lufthansa demonstrated why they are among the elite airlines of the world.

It all started on our return journey from our visit to Italy in October. On the morning of our departure when we arrived at the airport we proceeded to check in with one of their check-in agents at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport.

The agent had informed us that our flight was extremely full and even though we were flying a business class segment to Frankfurt, asked if we would mind checking our bags to our final destination in the USA to alleviate their concern of too much carry on luggage for this flight. Mrs. LufthansaFlyer and myself pride ourselves on our ability to travel without the need to check bags, but in this instance it actually sounded like a good idea. I figured I can save the dreaded ” :)Do You Know Who I Am 🙂 “conversation for another time and we wouldn’t have to roll our trolleys through Frankfurt or Chicago. The only downside was the fact that we would have to wait for our bags in Chicago after completing immigration through the Global Entry Kiosks.

Since we had to spend the night in Chicago anyway before flying home the next morning we figured it was not a big deal so we checked our bags. No problems with the bags getting to us Chicago and everything was going smoothly.

Once we checked in at the Hyatt Regency near O’Hare, my wife opened her case to get out a few items and discovered that a travel purse that she had packed was no longer in her luggage. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy, especially since in that travel purse were copies of our passports and credit card data. The credit card part was easy, a couple of calls to Amex and Chase solved that problem. My wife however still had that sense of being violated by the fact that someone decided to help themselves to her stuff. In all of our years of travel, we’ve never had anything removed from our luggage, so that sense of vulnerability was new.

I suggested that I’ll contact Lufthansa when we get home to let them know what happened and determine if there’s any recourse. I suspected that someone in Rome screening the luggage either forgot to put the purse back, or decided it would be a nice addition to a wardrobe for someone. Since the screeners in Rome were not Lufthansa’s employees, I was expecting a response suggesting that I had to take up the claim with with Fiumicino since their employees would have screened and handled our luggage.

After communicating to Lufthansa what had happened to us with our lost/stolen item, I received an email a couple of days later profusely apologizing for our inconvenience and experience. The email also informed us that a check will arrive at our home shortly to cover the cost of the missing item.

I was honestly quite surprised. I know that Lufthansa provides an excellent passenger experience but this just adds to their resume as far as I’m concerned. Even though technically it was not Lufthansa’s fault that our item was removed from our bag, they still extended the offer to compensate us for the value of the item.

While no airline is perfect, its an experience like this along with others over the years (holding planes for us, automatically rebooking flights when they anticipate delays, booking hotel rooms automatically when connections to the states were missed, etc. etc. etc.) that continues to reinforce my loyalty to Lufthansa.

We’ve had other experiences with other carriers, both US based and foreign, that do not begin to come close to the great care that we receive from Lufthansa. Because of these experiences and being treated so well by them that I will often fly out of my way just so that I can sit on one of their aircraft. Job well done Lufthansa and Vielen Dank!!