It’s an acrostic: spell out the first letter of each word in the sentence…
Isn’t that a palindrome?
For what, not being able to listen to the incredible on-board programming? For landing at an airport that they don’t own and don’t run because it doesn’t have a jetway? For not having a cabin amenity (seat-back TV’s) they never promised?
Maybe they can send him a CD of the on-board programming so he can catch up on his conversation-German via headset and call it even.
No, a palindrome is a word, phrase or sentence which is spelt the same way both forwards and backwards. “A slut was I ere I saw Tulsa” is a palindrome.
I guess you didn’t click on the link. It was a joke.
Ah, “remote gates” - European airports seem to love them. 5 trips to London in the past three years, 4 remote gates, one actual “normal” jetway arrival. That was a good one, since while leaving the plane, I managed to grab one of those hot pink Fast Track customs passes - seven minutes from door of plane to smoking area outside - thank you jeebus!
I don’t mind Frankfurt as an airport, Milan Linata has the same bus thing, and it sucks, but the world’s worst airport has to be Abu Dhabi. Bad enough the flight from there to Toronto leaves at 0200, they cram an entire planeload of people (A340-600, so about 286 passengers) into a little room built for maybe 200 people, and then do “free for all” boarding which leads to a massive stampede to the door, and the worst bunching up of humanity that you’ve ever seen!
Yes. Who else might responsible for it not working? President Bush? Angela Merkel?
Who chose to land there and in those conditions? I’m pretty sure that airport has jetways but they did not use them because it is cheaper not to use them. Assuming it’s a tiny, regional airport with no jetways, I am sure there is a better, more expensive one nearby. If the ticket was extremely low-cost (which I doubt with Lufthansa) then one might not be surprised by this (and even when I fly Ryanair I have always used jetways). In any case there is nothing wrong with letting them know you were not happy with it. It is not a claim, it is a complaint, which if polite I see nothing wrong with it.
Why not? It lets the airline know what customers want and prefer. When I write the airlines I let them know I value being able to plug in my laptop. How are they supposed to know it if I don’t tell them?
I have received discount vouchers several times and I have been upgraded to first class several times. YMMV.
No, no! It was a pun!
To be fair, I think that Lufthansa (being Germany’s major airline) has more planes at Frankfurt than the other airlines and the jetways just get used up. Nothing much to do about that, I don’t think, but since I was in a pissy mood and already had some other stuff that was giving me the “red-ass”, I just threw that in as well.
It was an e-ticket and I paid 698.00 bucks for it.
I stand by all my other bitchin’ though. Germany’s premier airline needs to upgrade, big-time!
Quasi
Oh, OK. No, I didn’t.
Right, busing you to the plane happens all the time at major European airports. I did a one day trip on KLM on a few years ago, and had to do it eight times in one day – round trip with a connection, four legs altogether, and there was a bus on both ends of each leg.
Ed
This sums up Lufthansa, regardless of class traveled. I had an unpleasant few years of flying on account of LH being the only way out from the location I worked in, to our home. Spending 15hrs in Frankfurt airport each way did not help much either, the lounges are less welcoming than the flight attendants. Thankfully I am now out east, where admittedly the hassle of flying is no less than in europe/us, however airline staff are at least pleasant about the whole deal. Contrasted against the hostility and less than subtle implication that any delay/inconvenience is all my fault for flying in the first place, that you get in Europe/US.
I think your bitching is totally fair. When I buy a ticket I expect full service. It is the airline’s job to make sure airport installations are Ok etc. It is not my job. When I go to a restaurant I want my meal well done and not some lousy excuse of why the guy didn’t deliver or the cook’s mother in law is sick. That’s their problem, not mine. And if enough people complain to Lufthansa then Lufthansa will feel the pressure and put it on whoever is responsible for the airport being such a dump. Complaining is the last right and recourse we have as customers and as citizens.
Having said that, I will add that Lufthansa is one of my favorite airlines because I always got top notch service and never had any similar problems. But if anyone has had them then I believe it is their right, and even their duty, to complain, loudly and clearly.
> The flight attendants were impatient, and unhelpful.
> This sums up Lufthansa
I have never had that problem. To me that sums up Air France where, not only they are proud of the usual French rudeness but they train their Chinese staff up to the high levels of French rudeness one has come to expect from Air France.
If it were up to me Air France and Alitalia would cease to exist tomorrow morning.
I haven’t flown with this model, so I can’t comment on this, but it sounds unusual.
That should have been fixed, I agree with you.
As others have already said, that’s common in busy European airports, since far more planes are lifting off than gateways available. (In Munich, which I toured recently, they have a plane liftoff every 2 min.). It’s true that cheap companies like Ryanair or easyjet tend to use cheaper airports without amenities (usually old military airports), but Lufthansa doesn’t use buses on purpose.
This simply surprises me. Why should full service include individual monitors?? Full service means flying you (and your luggage) to your destination, with a schedule that’s often and to many cities (unlike the cheaper airlines, which only fly to the major holiday cities, and only a couple of times a day, while Lufthansa offers hourly flights).
Same for selling food - easyjet does that, since it’s a cheap airline, but last time I flew with Lufthansa, I got the sandwich free. But it may also depend on time of the day - I think I had the breakfast flight; later flights get probably no food. Of course, I was only hopping from Munich to London, a bit over 1 hr.
And by not including expensive amenities not necessary for travel, Lufthansa doesn’t have to charge more than (their already expensive because of the many, many flights) prices.
As for flight attendants, I never needed special service, and I always found them friendly in the normal way. Maybe it’s a culture thing - you expect constant fake smiling that’s customary in the US, but not done in Germany? Here, friendly service is tone of voice and competence, not grinning like a lobotomy patient.
Is that like a friend in Jesus?
I’m not sure, but I think this is because many airports are relatively small and space-constrained, and are handling more traffic than they can easily acommodate. Some of them are also ancient underfunded shitholes (aka Milan Linates) and have found it easier/cheaper to go from 1950 bus to plane -> 1990 bus to plane rather than installing jetways.
I’ve never really had any beefs with LH apart from that one time I arrived at FRA at 2230 or so (in something big, like a 340) and they kept us waiting for 30 minutes before telling us that no-one couldn’t find the keys to the jetway and we would have to bus it. :rolleyes:. But that was probably a Fraport fuckup rather than LH.
Shockingly enough, Europe does not end at Dover, although the people in parts beyond are often quite uncouth, and sometimes don’t even speak English!
London-Moscow is four hours.
Madrid-Paris or Madrid to any central European city is just under two hours. On the map I see it’s about 1100 Km so the speed is a bit slow for a jet. I guess they’re trying to save gas. Madrid Warsaw is 2300 KM so you do the math. Madrid - Moscow is 3500 Km. Lisbon-Moscow is 4000 Km which is almost exactly the same as Washington DC to San Francisco.