Dear Lufthansa employees,

In general, it is known that “airliners” like to hover above things, and that things don't look as bleak up there as on the ground. However, sometimes it's a good idea not to lose close-up vision of what's happening on the ground.

A few days ago, an acquaintance had booked 2x business class tickets for himself and me via the booking system and accidentally entered the same name on both tickets. Since I work in the airline sector myself, I had agreed to take care of the problem.

No problem! ... I thought and called the well-known number. After several (sometimes contradictory) choices, I ended up in the final queue. Lufthansa employees used to be able to comment condescendingly on the accessibility of fellow providers such as Air Berlin or Germania. Today, the Lufthansa Group aircraft are the monopolist on many routes - but there can be no question of accessibility. If you are used to being on hold for 5, 10 or a maximum of 20 minutes on a hotline, Lufthansa doesn't even suffice for 50+ minutes.

This problem has not only existed since the pandemic. However, the accessibility of Lufthansa collapsed completely with Corona. A number of corporate departments were simply closed due to the flight break, the employees were sent home, while the inquiries in the call center exploded.

I ask myself the question of whether a company of this size can simply react too inflexibly to situations for employees with a temporarily non-existent task to simply be entrusted with another task (e.g. as a call center agent)? ... or to put it more critically: Are the concerns of the passengers simply not given such high priority - even though the passengers actually contain the business purpose?

After several days of being unavailable, I came across various forums and FB groups on the Internet, in which countless posts reported about the same problem. Even on the actual Lufthansa Facebook page there are posts about the unavailability of the call center. However, those responsible for social media do not really seem to touch the “cries for help” there either, since these posts are neither commented on nor deleted.

In one of the posts, a user practices “constructive criticism” by suggesting that Lufthansa transmit a caller position report – or an expected remaining waiting time – to the waiting loop ... as is usual with other companies. As an answer, another user writes that the software is probably not designed to transmit position reports in the 1000 range - or remaining waiting times of several days...

In another forum, a person seeking help writes that he tried the call center at around 03:00 a.m. because at that time, at least in continental Europe, the call sequence should not be that high. He came through even after a few minutes, but the connection broke again after another minute. I also tried it at night, but had the same experience. A redial ended in a "dead" line.

Now I'm still (almost a week later) ... or a week before departure with the same problem! The accessibility is not only unsatisfactory for me, but also for a large number of other passengers, who have to spend hours in the waiting pattern without a solution. I imagine the appreciation of a service provider towards the customer differently. The only thing that remains for me is the realization - to ask the acquaintance to question the choice of airline before booking...

This guest comment was written by: Frank Benz.

Frank Benz is co-founder and CEO of blackforest AVIATION GmbH. A company that focuses on customer aircraft demand management and trading in inflight supplies. Before that he was employed as a cabin crew instructor and president of the employee representatives at belair Airlines. This was followed by activity as Charter Sales Manager at SkyWork Airlines in Bern until it ceased operations. In addition to nature and traveling, his interests lie primarily in civil aviation in the D / A / CH area.