Hi from the Lufthansa Lounge at Newark Airport! As I wrote about a few days ago, my dad and I are supposed to fly Lufthansa’s new Allegris A350 first class tonight, which is the whole point of this trip. Well, that won’t be happening as planned, at least not as intended. This has been quite the fascinating saga so far, so let me update y’all, as this is happening live…
Houston, or Frankfurt, or Munich, we have a problem!
My dad and I are off on an adventure, and we’re supposed to fly Lufthansa’s Allegris A350 first class tonight from Newark to Munich. Long story short, we had confirmed business class tickets, and I paid $1,990 per person to upgrade us to first class. I did this for a couple of reasons:
- Due to my mom’s terminal cancer, I haven’t traveled much with my dad in recent years (I instead prioritized travel with her), so I wanted to treat him to something nice, and make up for all the trips we haven’t taken
- There was a blog angle to this, since we could try both the standard Allegris first class seat, plus the Allegris first class double suite, in the center of the cabin, which I know many OMAAT readers are mighty curious about
Not that it should matter, but just to clarify, I used Lufthansa’s instant upgrade feature, which is always available as long as the “A” fare class is available. So this wasn’t some airport upgrade confirmed just a few hours before departure.
My dad and I met up at the Lufthansa Lounge Newark this afternoon. We checked into the lounge with our first class boarding passes (I was assigned 1A, my dad was assigned 1D), and the agent even invited us to use the first class dining section.
About an hour later, I returned to the reception desk of the lounge, and asked the agent if she could print our boarding passes. She looked at her screen in a confused way, and then said “the system shows you as being waitlisted for first class.”
I figured she must just be looking at something wrong. I told her I was confirmed in first class, and showed her my mobile boarding pass. She picked up the phone, and once that phone call was complete, told me the news — my seat, 1A, was inoperable, and I wouldn’t be able to sit in it.
The other first class window seat was occupied, so she told me the other option — I could share the center suite with my dad! One of the bizarre aspects of the Allegris first class product is that there are only three first class seats, and the center suite can be shared by two people, if they so choose (but at no point are any passengers ever supposed to be forced to accept that — it’s entirely discretionary).
The center suite looks rather tight for two people. I ideally wouldn’t share it with Ford (compared to two separate first class suites), let alone my dad. So I told her that we weren’t really interested in that, essentially having us go from two suites to one suite. However, she explained that the only alternative was being downgraded to business class, and receiving a refund of the upgrade cost.
Of course it wasn’t her fault, but I asked for her to have a manager contact me, since that’s not really acceptable:
- It’s just plain bad customer service to not offer any sort of compensation when someone is involuntarily downgraded
- The European Union actually regulates what compensation passengers are entitled to under EC261, as those who are downgraded are entitled to a 75% refund; however, of course this gets a bit tricky when you upgrade to first class with cash, if you redeem miles, etc.
This is just not good customer service. If I wanted a business class seat, I wouldn’t have paid nearly $2,000 per person to upgrade us. I paid the cash upfront, and the upgrades can’t be refunded back to the original form of payment. Meanwhile if Lufthansa wants to cancel the upgrade on me, they think they can do that without any downside.
The situation went downhill, and then slightly uphill
While waiting in the lounge, I eventually got a call from a phone number from Germany, and answered. The person identified herself as working for the HON Circle line. Wow, this is Lufthansa’s top service line, surely I’m going to get great service… right? Sadly, this conversation did not go well.
At first, she explained that seat 1A was broken “due to electronic motion,” but said that it wasn’t a problem, as she could assign us seats 1D and 1E. Those two “seats” are in fact just the double suite, which simply isn’t a decent alternative, but she didn’t seem terribly understanding of why that might not be an appealing option.
As an alternative, she said one of us could be downgraded to business class, and receive either a refund of the upgrade cost ($1,990), or €2,000 cash compensation. I expressed how that didn’t seem like a very generous upgrade offer.
Her response? “It’s your opinion.” She explained that in her opinion, this offer was very fair, as I was getting back what I paid for the upgrade in the first place. What utterly awful customer service. Like, I understand if there’s nothing else she’s empowered to do, but basically telling me “it’s [my] opinion” isn’t exactly what you’d expect from the highest levels of customer service at an airline.
While I was on the phone call, the agent from the lounge came to fetch me and presumably had an update, but I explained I was on the phone with a Lufthansa representative. So the second I hung up, I went to go see her. At this point, the lounge manager, Sebastian, was there as well.
He was super professional — obviously this situation is no one’s fault, and I understand they’re all working within certain systems, and don’t have that much authority. What shocked me is that he said he was told by the HON Circle line that we had accepted the downgrade and that we were briefed on the situation, long before the phone call I had just gotten off of. This is 100% inaccurate — I had no clue about the downgrade, and hadn’t been contacted by any method that I could see.
He was super apologetic, and explained that he was ultimately limited in what he could do. Eventually the duty manager, Lloyd, also showed up. Honestly, Lloyd and Sebastian were great, unlike their HON Circle line colleague. I appreciate they were honest with me.
Lloyd understood how sharing that double suite didn’t interest us, but also explained that he was limited in terms of the authority of what he could do. Usually I don’t like to agree to something I’m not 100% happy with, but I also didn’t want to entirely leave this up to a customer relations communication after the fact, where I could see myself being in a never-ending communication loop, and not getting anywhere.
So we accepted the €2,000 compensation, and we downgraded my dad to business class. In virtually any other situation, I’d of course put my parents in the more premium cabin, but literally the reason I took this trip was to review Allegris first class. So my dad is 100% okay with it, and we’re going to be doing some nice things for him when we get to Europe. On top of that:
- My dad was booked into one of the business class suites, which at least offer a bit more space (I specifically asked for this)
- The duty manager will request with the crew that he can have the first class meals with me; after all, the food was catered for everyone, and I am in a double suite, so…
Funny enough, you guys are actually sort of getting a review of the Lufthansa Allegris double suite experience, even if that wasn’t the initial intent.
What an underwhelming customer service situation
Sebastian and Lloyd at Newark were both professional, and clearly did everything they could to help, so kudos to them. However, big picture, what an underwhelming and frustrating situation:
- You have a nearly new plane with just three first class seats, and one of them is inoperable, and that’s kind of an issue; c’mon, Lufthansa, do better!
- Lufthansa knew the seat was inoperable (after all, the plane was coming from Munich), but didn’t inform me; I only found out when I asked to have a boarding pass printed, and the agent was confused
- The lady on the HON Circle line provided horrible customer service; I understand if she’s limited in terms of what she can do, but when I expressed I wasn’t pleased with what was being offered, she became combative rather than apologetic
- I also don’t appreciate the HON Circle agent reportedly telling the Newark ground staff that I had been briefed on what happened and accepted the downgrade, when that’s just patently false
- This Allegris double suite concept is so dumb, and there’s no better example of that then basically trying to squeeze two passengers into this space when one seat is broken
- It’s disappointing that Lufthansa doesn’t give its duty managers more latitude in terms of how they can fix a situation
It’s not surprising, but as you’d expect, the level of customer service between Lufthansa Allegris first class and Air France La Premiere first class is just night and day. And that’s fair, because Air France is priced higher. But if Lufthansa wants to get out of British Airways’ league and into Air France’s league, this is a prime example of the kind of service you don’t provide.
Bottom line
Our Lufthansa Allegris first class adventure hasn’t exactly gone as planned, due to an inoperable seat. Seats break (ideally not on nearly new planes where a cabin has just three seats, but I digress), though it’s the way that airlines handle it that matters.
While the Lufthansa ground staff in Newark did what they could, the lack of proactive communication, the rude HON Circle line agent, the attempt to push us into a double suite, the misinformation about us having agreed to the downgrade, etc., all don’t exactly seem like stellar customer service.
Anyway, it is what it is. Stay tuned, because it should be an interesting night of flying, and I can’t wait to experience this long (long, long, long) awaited product!
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