Lufthansa hotline annoys customers: “It has to be a comedy show” – economy

Claus Kleber just got it. The Today Journal presenter wanted to fly to an appointment. Lufthansa cut its connection – can happen. But then? He dialed himself into the hotline queue three times, three times he was thrown off the line after a good hour. Kleber didn’t find it funny at all: “Hello, dear Lufthansa. Are you still alive?” He asked on Twitter.

Kleber’s story is one that many Lufthansa customers know from their own experience. The relevant complaint forums on the Internet are full of complaints. Practically everyone has someone in their circle of acquaintances who grumbles about the airline. Sometimes it is annoyances such as higher booking classes that make rebooking expensive in Corona times despite flexible tickets. Sometimes there are no suitable destinations or times in the flight schedule, which is still thinned out due to the pandemic. By far the biggest problem, however: As a normal customer, you can only reach Lufthansa with a lot of luck and even more patience.

For example, a customer who wanted to rebook a multi-stop flight and reserve a cradle for his baby said he spent a total of ten hours in the telephone loop. The German hotline could not be reached at all, he flew out of the English hotline five times after an hour. And when he finally got through to an employee, the connection was broken during the conversation. After all: at some point it worked. Another writes: “I waited a total of six hours on the hotline and still had no success in rebooking my flight.” A customer reports that she had to postpone a flight within five days because of a hospital stay, but did not get through to the call center despite hours of attempts; It was not possible to rebook the flight online. And a customer writes that he was put through on the third attempt after almost two hours on hold. The employee then claimed that she would not hear him – and hung up. He was then asked to take part in a satisfaction survey. “It has to be a comedy show,” said the man.

Lufthansa does not even try to deny the problem. “I can understand our customers’ displeasure,” says Carsten Wirths, head of the Lufthansa Group’s customer service department. “Unfortunately, we are currently not living up to our own standards.” Last year, during the various lockdowns, the call centers were not able to cope with the onslaught of many customers who wanted to cancel or rebook. After all, hardly anyone missed a flight back then, as most flights were canceled for months anyway. For most of the customers it was rather annoying how long it took Lufthansa to clear the mountain of due refunds.

80 percent more calls than before the Corona crisis

But the situation has been different since spring 2021. Air traffic has picked up again and many want to finally redeem the tickets that they have not been able to use since the pandemic broke out in March 2020. “As of May, due to the many changing travel restrictions, we were overwhelmed by a lot of calls that we hadn’t expected,” says Wirths. Lufthansa currently has 80 percent more calls than before the Corona crisis, even though there are still only about half as many passengers on the way. In addition, the calls take significantly longer. Because often, according to Wirths, the passengers have already rebooked their tickets several times, and the employees simply need longer to get an idea of ​​the situation.

But that assumes that the passengers get through at all. “The problem that the connection suddenly breaks has unfortunately increased in the last few days,” said Wirths. “There are very different reasons. We are working flat out to solve them.” But Lufthansa is not really to blame for all of them: Many mobile phone providers cut the connection after a certain period of time because they assume that it was set up by mistake.

The airline wants to at least tackle the causes that lie with Lufthansa within the next few weeks. “We assume that the situation will improve significantly in November,” says Wirths. The Group’s call centers currently employ 1,600 people, and another 500 are to be hired by the end of the year. In addition, it should soon be possible to change bookings on the Lufthansa homepage or in the app itself. It has worked before: users of the Lufthansa app received suggestions for rebooking and could simply select a new connection if a flight was canceled due to a strike or bad weather. “At the moment we have not yet found an optimal solution for complex cases,” admits Wirths.

The damage to the image is now considerable. Before the corona pandemic, Lufthansa boasted that it was one of the few airlines to be rated five stars by the quality rating agency Skytrax. Customer service even in the event of flight cancellations, a clear website, a functioning hotline – all of this plays a role in the evaluation.

Incidentally, the European Commission gives itself a good rating in terms of consumer protection: After the chaos of last year, after many meetings with the institution, the airlines have now committed to reimbursing ticket prices within seven days of cancellations. At Lufthansa, however, this would require customers to be able to assert their claims via the hotline in the first place.

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