I’m back from my short trip to Frankfurt and I want to share the results of a little experiment I conducted yesterday and today with the good folks at Lufthansa. Bottom line: they all play by the rules. Whether this is a virtue or a folly will be discussed below.
I got in on a $263 r/t deal from Newark to Frankfurt in August. The ticket was issued by SN Brussels Airlines, but the transatlantic fights were operated by Continental and the intra-EU flights by Lufthansa. I had a United systemwide upgrade certificate converted to a Lufthansa standby upgrade voucher, and my goal was to standby on the non-stop Frankfurt-Newark Lufthansa flight today rather than connecting in Brussels.
To summarize: the answer was NO. Sort of. I flew home as scheduled, but there’s more to the story. I spoke to seven different LH ticketing agents about making the change (three yesterday and four today) and remarkably all came to the exact same conclusion: they could not alter the ticket because it was issued by SN Brussels.
Now I’m not an expert in code share flights, but that struck me as a little strange. What if there was a flight cancellation or delay in Frankfurt today? Lufty would not have had to seek permission from SN Brussels to make changes to the ticket. In fact, one agent admitted that once the flight goes under airport control, the operating carrier has the latitude to make changes to the ticket.
Nevertheless, each agent, some more professionally than others, refused to touch the ticket. One guy I spoke to this morning was about to do it–I could tell–but eventually grimaced and told me he just couldn’t do it. I get it–I understand. As one agent put it, "You’re on a very special ticket" and I knew my base fare registered as $0. But as another agent put it, "Well, you’re booked in V class, there is plenty of space in V class on our non-stop flight tomorrow, and the ticket rules state that a non-stop Lufthansa codeshare is a legal routing." But even she finally stated, "I just can’t change the ticket, sir. You’ll have to contact SN Brussels."
Now here’s where it gets interesting: the SN Brussels reservations call center is closed on Saturday afternoons/evenings and on Sunday mornings. Furthermore, they don’t serve Frankfurt and thus do not have a ticket office at the airport or even in the city. That left me with no way to get in touch with them before my flight back this morning. I told this to one of the LH agents who brilliantly stated, "That is a problem, isn’t it?"
To rub salt in the wound, there were plenty of business class seats open today on the n/s LH flight and my cert would have worked–my upgrade could have been confirmed immediately if I had only found an agent willing to (as one UA agent once put it) "conduct some hocus pocus."
Taking a step back, though, I cannot fault LH and I am certainly not angry at them for following the rules. Sure, they could have made an exception for me, as a top-tier status holder on an airline they own (bmi) flying on a their airplanes on a ticket from an airline they partially they own (SN Brussels), but in some strange way it was actually refreshing to be told no.
Compare my Lufthansa treatment to United, who (unlike Continental) treats their elites far better than most (or at least better than I) deserve. I’ve had similar experiences on United (ticket issued by US Airways with a mix of UA and US flights) and UA has never hesitated to change it. For example, LAX-PHL-BOS or LAX-LAS-IAD or LAX-IAD-MCO (first segment on UA, second on US) were all changed, by my request, to LAX-BOS, LAX-IAD, and LAX-MCO on UA-operated non-stops. Even an international LH ticket (IAD-FRA-GVA, IAD-FRA on UA) was changed to IAD-GVA on UA.
All of those changes noted above should have resulted in change fees, yet I did not pay a cent for any of them. Sometimes, I even have UA add segments (either for upgrade or EQM purposes) and even that doesn’t trigger a re-fare (or more aptly put, the re-fare is overridden by the agent). This "rule bending" has made me extremely loyal to UA and I can’t tell you how grateful I am that UA is not so unwavering in enforcing the rules that a flight with open seats that would get me home quicker in an upgraded class of service departs without me.
So what do you think? LH agents all seem to be well-trained and follow the rules. This means you know what you’ll be getting and you know that every passenger, regardless of their status, will be treated equally or at least according to the fine print of their ticket. On the other hand, ask ten UA agents a question and you might get ten different answers. But you can almost always find one willing to help you out and in the end, you get what you want and arguably, it isn’t costing UA anything.
I guess it’s telling that when it comes to everyone else I like the LH method, but when it comes to me, I prefer the UA method…
Living in Germany for many years I know Germans.. Germans play by the rules and LH most always do the same.. No matter what LH ticket I’m on I call the US LH number and have had them “conduct some hocus pocus” for me after a schedule change. But over all the TICKET people at LH all play by the rules, or call someone if they are unsure. I think they are held to the fire if they do something wrong.
@Damian: If these LH agents are fired for bending the the rules, I can certainly understand why they refused to help. At least all of them, though the lounge matron was a close call, were extremely professional and kind.
@ Matthew.. I do not know if they get fired but I’m sure they get a good “German Talking To”. I’m dealing with LH agents at FRA all the time and I can say over 90% of them want to help if they can and are the most professional out there.. But my favorite line of all time “This is definitely not possible” My other good LH agent story would be when I was on a UA “S” class to SFO, I went to the LH agent working the UA transfer desk in FRA term B, asked to use my System Wide.. She was typing around for about 20 min.. then some how just changed my seat to 9B. Now she did work some hocus pocus!
Did you have a story about why you should be accommodated on the direct flight or did you just ask if you could?
“…in the end, you get what you want and arguably, it isn’t costing UA anything.”
a. it is costing them decreased revenue! it reduces their total change fee revenue. right? it’s interesting.
b. hope you will post this interesting comparison on flyertalk.com
I have had my fair share of United agents “look the other way” and break some rules for me, and for that I am incredibly grateful. I must say, however, that the consistency of your LH experience is refreshing, and although it would mean less comps for me, I’m leaning heavily towards favoring the LH model.
@Fierindo: Nah, I could have made up a sob story but 1.) I didn’t want to lie and 2.) With LH, I don’t think it would have made a difference.
I just said I wanted to fly n/s (Makes sense, no? That what most people would prefer).
@Ken: You are correct and that is why I deliberately prefaced my statement with “arguably”.
I look at this way: even though I am costing UA potential revenue, I am not costing them anything out of pocket.
@Darren: I guess the key now is to see how CO handles things (loose in my experience so far, not counting my EWR-BRU incident Friday) and see which carrier’s method wins out once the merger is complete.
@Matthew- part of me thinks that for years to come, “old” UA agents will continue to do what they have always done and “old” CO agents will continue to do as they have always done. Younger less “set in their ways” agents will probably roll with any changes in policy and adopt them. With time, the older agents will slowly disappear.
Of course thats all just a guess on my part but it seems plausible unless the new UA mgmt decides to start heavily auditing their agents and handing out harsh consequences for any bending of the rules.
I think part of what makes the old UA great is that individuals were empowered to make judgement calls and do what they thought best “in the monment.” If coupled with the right attitude and motivation this could end up being beneficial to the airline and the customer in the long run compared to how LH does things. Sometimes however, it backfires when an agent has an attitude that they want to deliberately do everything they can to make your experience difficult and frustrating.
UA 1Ks are used to “special treatment” and trynig to take that away might hurt the new UA, wheras giving it to CO Plats who are not used to it would probably generate positive customer response from their best customers. I would argue that the stereotypical FTer makes up an extremely small percentage of the 1K/Plat ranks, and that how UA treats its 1Ks pays off in the big picture. Lately UA has cut the budget to the bone on almost everything possible, but not on its attitude toward 1Ks. I bet the number crunchers were able to find plenty of data to support this or else we would not see it happening.