Lufthansa Review

Overall Rating

Well maintained airplanes and some of the worlds best pilots.

I found some of the upper management arrogant.

I have flown Lufthansa First Class from LAX - FRA and FRA - LAX at least a dozen times now. Even though their First Class cabin is not as modern or as luxurious as some of the other European/Asian airlines, they have always provided great service and the new First Class Terminal in FRA is top-notch. Being in the aviation business myself I feel very comfortable on their flights knowing that I am flying on a well maintained and well crewed aircraft. But my last flight was a complete disaster. Ground crews in Europe were on strike, so I made a point of calling Lufthansa 1 day before my flight and re-confirming at check-in in LAX that the flight was to be operated as normal. Which I was assured it would. Once the doors closed and we were taxiing for Take-Off the purser came around to us and informed us that due to the strike the First Class service would not be as it normally is which was a complete understatement. There was no service whatsoever. We were served what they called food, but I could not call it that. It was so bad that I could not even touch it. My wife did eat a few bites of her meal and was ill for the remainder of the flight. No amenity kits, very little drink selection, and no food on a 11 hour flight which cost me over $17,000 per ticket. The return flight from FRA - LAX was back to the usual level of high service. Once back in the US I wrote a letter to Lufthansa explaining my situation. I received a letter back about 2 weeks later saying that what happened was not their fault and they gave me two $50 duty free vouchers for use on my next flight. I was even more appauled by their arrogance than by the horrible flight. And not being Lufthansa's fault was inaccurate as well. I know that they could have easily ordered catering in LAX, LAX was not on strike....neither were the catering companies at LAX. And if a company doesn't settle their union issues and knows that there will be a strike, how is that not their fault? All I would have asked is for them to have been honest with me when I asked them twice if the flight was being operated as normal. In this case, I could have chosen to deal with it or taken another airline. But they chose to mis-inform me and wait for the airplane to leave the gate so that their passengers had no other choice and they could still collect 100% of the revenue for that flight. I am so disgusted by their business practices that I would never fly on another Lufthansa flight ever again.