Sharing my experience Lufthansa / Singapore : letter

the_edventure

My posts are being deleted immediately - any idea why?

the_edventure

@all - any idea how i can a) link directly to 'my posts' when i log-in, and b) how do i have emails letting me know that someone has posted a reply?

richardw

Perhaps delete names and e mail addresses from your posts they aren't needed.

bagand96

@all - it's weird; i didn't remove any letters; i will post them again if i have time, but bagand96, your summary of the situ is bang-on.

Hmmm not sure why they may be removed, perhaps as richardw mentioned it may be because of personal information posted.

On the subject of getting emails when people reply - after you have logged click on the thread from the forum. you need to look at page one, and your first post. Direct above your first post is a "Thread Tools" button. Click this, then a little pop up appears, and click "Subscribe to this thread". A page then loads that will give you options to receive an email every time somebody responds, or a daily, or weekly round up.

Regards the situation. Its a difficult one. The airline, under the EU legislation is required to inform you of your rights, and provide the assistance listed in the regulations (i.e. a hotel). I guess they neither informed you of your rights, or provided the hotel.

The difficult thing is what happens when they don't provide the assistance. Unlike the compensation amounts, which give a clear monetary figure, the Legislation doesn't mention what happens when the airline doesn't provide assistance that is due. You could have paid for a hotel yourself, and claimed back from Lufthansa, however you didn't so its not really worth discussing.

I would write another letter to them and simply state, that under EU legislation they were obliged to provide you with XXX (quoting the legislation) and they didn't provide you with it. Make it short and simple. See what they say then.

You can also make a formal complaint about them not following the regs. You have already mentioned the AUC, however they are the UK authority - I'm not sure what interest they will take. You could try them, however they may just give you the contact details for their German counterpart, they may forward the complaint on your behalf. Don't know until you try.

Voyager2002

bagand96 wrote: »

You can also make a formal complaint about them not following the regs. You have already mentioned the AUC, however they are the UK authority - I'm not sure what interest they will take. You could try them, however they may just give you the contact details for their German counterpart, they may forward the complaint on your behalf. Don't know until you try.

It is worth writing to the AUC: a supportive letter from them might be useful in court proceedings at a later stage. And yes, they are able to forward your complaint to their counterpart in Germany.

the_edventure

Letter today from Lufthansa:
-
Dear Mr Hoskin,

Thank you for your further e-mail dated 02 March 2011. It was with regret that we read of your dissatisfaction with our response to your complaint. I’m sorry you feel that our reply was insufficient and that your concerns were disregarded.

We are sincerely sorry that your flight was diverted and appreciate your frustration when looking for an alternative solution. We realise that our passengers want to face the minimum of disruption in the event of a flight irregularity and we strive to fulfil this expectation. We are sorry that you feel you did not receive the high level of customer service which Lufthansa aims to deliver.

Our staff does its utmost to maintain the superior performance for which Lufthansa is known; however, many factors can affect operating conditions, and it is therefore impossible to guarantee flight schedules. We understand your disappointment when the diversion of your original flight resulted in a missed connection; therefore a EUR50 voucher was issued as our gesture of goodwill. Please note that this was an ex-gratia payment of goodwill, and was not compensation. In the event of an irregularity, Lufthansa is responsible for rebooking of passengers on the next available flight as well as for any resulting transportation, lodging, or meal expenses; financial compensation is excluded from carrier liability.

Kindly allow us to explain that airline liability is regulated by law and is limited. According to EU Regulation 261/2004, where flight delays are caused by situations out of our control, we are not liable to pay compensation. However, in the event of a departure delay of over 2 hours, we are required to offer our passengers refreshments and 2 telephone calls, in relation to the flight distance and waiting time. We were pleased to note that you were offered a meal voucher at Frankfurt airport. We regret that you feel that the value of the voucher was not sufficient to cover the meal costs of your family. If you incurred further meal or snack costs as a result of the long delay, please forward us details (including receipts if possible) and we would be pleased to consider reimbursing you. We will also need you bank details, including account number and sort code as well and bank name and address. If you wish for us to make a payment into a non-British bank account, we will also need an IBAN number and BIC/Swift code.

We would like to say how sorry we were to hear that you were not provided with hotel accommodation at Frankfurt. We can only imagine the stress and discomfort this must have caused you, especially considering you were travelling with a small child. We would like to assure you that our staff try to provide hotel accommodation whenever possible, and would never refuse to do this simply to save the company money. If Lufthansa staff provided you with incorrect information this would have been as a result of the staff being in receipt of misinformation themselves, and not a deliberate attempt to mislead you. Please accept our sincere apology for the ordeal that you experienced at Frankfurt airport. For your future reference, passengers are welcome to check themselves in to a local hotel, and then request we reimburse them with for cost of the hotel stay. We would gladly consider reimbursing the hotel fee, plus the cost of transport to and from the hotel, and any meals eaten.

We would again like to take this opportunity to apologise for your experiences whilst flying with Lufthansa, and for the poor response you have received from our staff. We hope to see you on board one of our flights again soon and that you will give us the opportunity to regain your confidence in our services.

Yours sincerely,

cactusdust

Seems like a very reasonable reply given the circumstances..