Lufthansa

As a very regular customer of Lufthansa I am normally a fan and very happy with the service they offer and provide. Unfortunately my last flight: Frankfurt/Los Angeles (LH 456) was an exception. Having been offered a complimentary upgrade to Business Class at the gate I was then downgraded on board back to Economy with minimal apology nor effort to find a suitable alternative. (I understood the issue as the Business Class seat had in fact been sold to a passenger on Business Class standby but given my status and the value of business I give LH every year it was disappointing). On this occasion the situation was made worse by a particularly difficult neighbor and some average service on board. As I said not a normal experience with Lufthansa but frustrating all the same.

1st class on FRA-EZE-FRA Boeing 747-400 with only 8 seats which are a rather good option - chair plus bed aside. Service is good but not excellent. Choice of and beverages is just ok. Have travelled them before a few times with this configuration and it is to my liking although not a suite is as good as! Skilled staff but oldie planes. Check in disastrous on all occasions lounge in FRA splendid in EZE and Sao a disaster! Not as good as flying Swiss international.

I took the flight to Orlando from Frankfurt and back from Charleston to Munich. Sufficient space in Economy. There could be some better variation in food selection. Free drinks is much appreciated. Inflight entertainment could do with a wider selection of recent movies.

Sao Paulo to Frankfurt and on to Madrid. Checked in for my flights and was treated in a courteous and friendly manner. Chaos at Guarulhos due to the construction work ahead of the World Cup. Our gate remained occupied by a TAP A340 with a delayed departure leading to being bussed to our 747 parked at a remote stand. Pushed back from the stand about 1.5 hours late and waited in a long line for take-off. Nice reception on-board and seated in a center aisle with the middle seat free. The service was excellent and the food of a decent quality with the usual drinks and wine of your choice. I have to say that I find the LH business class seat lacking in comfort and as it doesn't go flat is quite hard to find a comfortable sleeping position. It is time for a revamp of that seat. The entertainment selection is good and I particularly like one of the radio channels. Headsets are decent but not up to the Bose quality used by other carriers. This is an 11 hour flight so plenty of time to relax. Breakfast was good and I find the cabin crew to be of a consistently high standard. Fix that seat and this is a very competitive product.

LH457. Departure and arrival on time. Confusing boarding practise in Los Angeles. Narrow seats not comfortable. Meals on board OK. Service average - recommendation only if LH is less expensive than competitors (Singapore Airlines / Emirates).

26/1/2014 LH 438 Frankfurt - Dallas. Very dedicated service and personnel when the cabin is not full service becomes slow when Fist Class is fully booked as there only is one person serving. Great Food and wine section and good media service. Still too many planes around which have the old setting in place not on the last trip which was great.

Boston to Munich LH425. Reliable friendly in-flight and check-in staff. Poor SMS system for flight updates. One SMS informs customers that the flight is late another one about 1.5 hours later told customers the flight will be on time. When arriving at the airport it was late again. They are still doing averagely when it comes to pampering of their top status customers. There is hardly ever a complimentary upgrade while my US colleagues on US carriers get upgraded 75% of the time on long haul flights.

LH429 CLT-MUC A330: Flight very cold but service food and beverages ok. New Policy for Miles a little bit complex for economy class: too many classes and you can't select the right one when you book a flight.

LH419 January 23. Washington to Frankfurt. Plane was half empty so it was a very smooth and quiet ride. Always pretty satisfied with the efficiency of Lufthansa although they could improve the quality and seating space.

I fly Lufthansa a lot long distance. Overall a very solid impression mostly on time friendly and competent staff. Quality of meals has decreased in economy as has seat comfort but that is normal these days. Major complaint on LH456 (FRA-LAX) on a 747-8: The touch screen user experience was ridiculous some input takes 10-20 s to be processed. Not only the case in my seat but pretty much everyone I observed had this problem.