I hope someone at Lufthansa and UNITED is listening and can help me here. I would be extremely grateful. The situation is still not resolved yet (May 11th 2:20am).(May 11, 21:38) after a total of 2 days.
Here is my account of what has transpired over the past 48 hours.
I never would have imagined Lufthansa Customer Care could be so deceptive, unfair and utterly helpless to serve their customers.
It all started so conveniently and easy.
Yesterday, May 09th, I booked an online flight for my two chilren (12 and 7) overseas for a whopping 1415€. After the booking my 12 year old, who is considered a full-fare adult in the Lufthansa Booking, said she did not feel comfortable with changing planes in Frankfurt and being responsible for her 7 year old sister. So I called Lufthansa Customer Care, the only number I could find, to book the Unaccompanied Minor (UM) service (for 100€ per direction). The hotline cost 0,14 €/Minute. The friendly agent (Ayden) in their Istanbul Call Center helped me and booked the UM Service, taking down all the necessary data within 20min. Great! Easy. Very professional and helpful agent. He then sent me an e-mail confirmation with the details of the flight (a “Flight Information”).
However when I received the confirmation via E-mail there was no written confirmation of the UM Service. So I called back. The second agent, whose name I negleted to write down, was also very helpful. She confirmed that the UM Service was booked. However, she noticed that the flight was booked online. I told her it was. She then said this was not allowed and she would have to cancel the booking and re-book the entire thing, and that the first agent must not have known, and it was clearly his mistake. I said, ok, no problem. Then she said, but it will cost you 1485€ plus €30 for the cancellation, i.e. 100€ in total. I asked why, saying it was not my fault, this was a fault of Lufthansa. She agreed. I did nothing wrong. She said she could understand my frustration and it was clearly a Lufthansa mistake but she could do nothing. By now it was after 11pm and I was very tired, so I stopped venting my frustration after a few minutes and realized it would be best to accept the offer and then go to bed. So I did. She sent me another confirmation, again without any confirmation of the UM Service, which I forwarded to all the relatives my kids are visting, because their plans were contingent on the kids’ flight plans. The whole call lasted over an hour and cost me roughly 9€.
What a relief after all that expensive phone time.
The next day, May 10th, around 11:25pm in the evening, I received an E-mail from Lufthansa Customer Service, saying I need to call back. The only number to call was the cost-based number (01805-805 805) at 0,14€ / Minute. And I was on my mobile phone, but I have never received such a mail requesting me to call back. Why couldn’t they call back?
So I called back, and the Agent first put me on 12min hold and when she returned informed me that the partner airline, United, covering one leg of the journey did not allow the UM Service and the only other flight available cost 500€ more. SO why didn’t this appear when I booked it the previous night? And I thought the StarAlliance and Partner Airline is supposed to bring benefits to customers!!!
WAIT, I said! So you are saying, now, after a second Lufthansa mistake, I have to pay 500€ more for a different flight. But why did no one tell me yesterday!! The agent, Frau Yildilim, was also very nice and agreed the mistake was caused by Lufthansa, only she could no nothing with her system to change it. I demanded to speak to a supervisor, but she said there were none. She offered to write the internal customer support and get back to me in 2 days. I asked if she could send me a confirmation of our agreement and phone call. She said she did not have that possibility and that every call is recorded.
I am speechless. So now after having spent a total of about 3 hours on the phone with Lufthansa, because of their admitted mistakes, at a phone cost of around 60€, and now facing a ticket price 500€ more expensive than the one I booked, plus having to pay for the 30€ cancellation fee, I can only say, thanks Lufthansa for being so customer friendly. I will make sure everyone knows about this painful event. I will warn friends and family about your poor service and how you exploit your mistakes in order to earn more money on your hapless customers.
I am extremely unhappy and truly shocked at what I have been through and would warn all of my readers to avoid Lufthansa if possible when dealing with Unaccompanied Minors. I have since been told, that Swiss Airlines is much more accomodating, although it is part of the Lufthansa Group.
Please Help Lufthansa!
Jackson Bond's Blog 
There is no point in threatening LH with Swiss, as Swiss is LH.
Dude,What part of travel agency you dont understand. All airlines are in business to make money..Hook or by Crook… IF you have your kids traveling alone, get your behind to a travel agency and buy the tickets properly. Part of this is also your mistake. Online booking works for single sector/business travel…But I feel your pain!!!!
this is not correct. if a company allows you to book a stretch for eg childeren, it seems quite normal to me they have automatically a CHML … which is not always the case
I suggest showing up to a ticket counter at the actual airport at one point before the flight. Sometimes speaking to an agent in person allows a whole new dialouge to happen, and you may receive different results. In many cases the duty manager there would have the same authority as a call center. Bring all original purchase documentation with you and assuming mistakes are proven to be mistakes, you get similar customer service as you would in a supermarket. Given the current nature of air travel, everyone is on edge. However, you need to keep the ball in your court as much as possible in order and excersise a “take it or leave it” attitude. I hope you will have better experience in air travel in the future. 🙂
I would like to express my frustration and solidarity with your story. Surely, a senior Lufthansa staff member can resolve your issues. Good luck and here is hoping Lufthansa will accomodate you and make necessary changes. Why is the call centre NOT in Germany?
@Christopher
In Europe most companies have their Call Centers in Low-Cost Countries (Ireland, Eastern Europe, Turkey or even South Africa) for reasons of cheap labour costs. It is not unusual, you can talk in your mother language as they have multilingual call agents.
How can you take your kids on a half round the world journey all by themselves? It´s not Lufthansa! It´s you!!!
And how did you make the booking? Online! Oh, I forgot to ask my child if its ok to deal with a change at Frankfurt. Come on!!!
Un-be-lievable. And now: please world look what Lufthansa has done to me…
you are ridiculous
I had a more or less similar nightmare with United recently – but it ended up being primarily with United’s Asian call center rep’s, and not with the airline as a whole. I *was* at the airport as this was happening, and an agent recommended I ask to talk to a rep. in the US, as they – she said – frequently have problems with their Asian rep’s giving incorrect info, making mistakes, etc…. Getting a rep. in the US *was* possible, but it required patience and persistence. When I got one though, they resolved my problem immediately and sensibly. Maybe you could achieve something similar w/ LH…. Good Luck!
I had a very deceptional experience with LH this past month with the costumer care.
I was in a trip from South America to Beijing-Hong Kong-Thailand and then back home via Frankfurt.
My nightmare starts when I was in Guangzhou for work and I had a flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, i wanted to change my flight to an earlier day but all flights were fully booked because of the fair going on, so i asked if coud I cancel that part of my trip and go to Hong Kong by train and continue all my flights as shedulled, (I was booked in First Class in almost all flights only the shorts ones were in Bussiness) she said It was no problem, (I called directly to germany just to be sure)
Then when I was in Hong Kong to be sure I called to LH HK and they told me that I had to reissue my ticked (nobody in Germany told me that) she asked for a local number just in case but since I was a First Class Passenger should not be anythuing to pay or problems, then in an hour they called me to told me that I have to pay for each passenger more than US$4000 I told them that first class tickets I can change dates etc with no extra charge and that ammount is not logical, she called me againg and told me that the only way that I could continue my trip.
Then I called Germany againg, to make the story short I was more than ” hours 45 min in the phone from Hong Kong to Germany, I explained my problems to 5 differents people and nobody understanded what the problem was, finally I asked for a supervisor, she answered the phone in a rude and impolite way, yelling at me and she did not want to hear me, she continue to say that the error happened when my travel agent made a mistake issuing the ticket and that the problem, and that I have to pay or no fly, I told her, first you anre nobody to yell to any passenger and i vcannot Imagine if a First Class Passenger recieves this treatment what can expect people from econnomy class, then that she should lower her voice and let me speak, she continue yelling and I told her, my travel agency is a Lufthansa City Center in My country, she put me on hold, and after 25 minutes she answered againg ando told me , YOU ARE A LYER, your travel aggency is not a LH City center, I was on shock how LH could treat a costumer like this, at that moment i was already really angry, and she told me call your country and there should help you, and those days was eastern in my country and was Holidays, I called on thursday and all offices even the LH offices in my country were closed until monday, thanks god that my next flight was next week after that.
My travel agency on monday resolved everything and i did not pay even a cent.
The other problem was when I was back in Frankfurt in the First Class Terminal, I asked to make a complain, I explained a lady what happened to me, and she told me to fill out a form, and then in less than 48 hours I should be contacted by someone , is more than 10 days I am back home and nobody called me or contact me by any way.
Then this lady went to her supervisos and then she come back and told me, since your problem was very big wait that someone is comming to talk to you directly since you are in Germany, well I waited 3 hours and before boarding the plane I asked what happened? and she told me with a smile, someone will contact you by phone in 24 to 48 hours for sure, and I asked what happened with the person that was coming to speak with me, and she told me with a smile ohhhh he was in an important meeting.
So I will never fly LH againg in my life, they should learn how manage costumers and be sincere and more educated.
Sorry for mymistakes when i wrtite but English is not my First language.
Simple as this – you shouldn’t be booking your kids to travel alone online. UMNR bookings aren’t easy and never have been with quite a bit to do by airlines in terms of paperwork for obvious reasons – you’d leaving your little kids in their care. The major fault of the airline is allowing bookings for kids < 15yrs online…they just should reject the booking immediately so that some online hero can't try and self-manage something that should only be done by an agent or direct with the airline over the phone.
Here’s a Lufthansa customer service story for you: http://allbillnobull.net/2011/07/lufthansa-sucks-pass-it-on.html
I had similar problems before. Beeing a kid that always loved to travel my parents allowerd me to visit family all over Europe and later on host families all over the world. I have to say I had good experiences most of the time, since the people that helped me arround were always friendly and did the best they could possibly do. I can reccomend the UM service from Air New Zealand aswell as Quantas….If you have the possibilty to fly with them book it!!!But I also made some bad experiences and suprisingly I made them when I was 13 and 17 ,so both times a fully paying adult fare ticket t but that didn’t matter to them. When I was 13 I flew with Lufthansa to London. I flew there before with Ryanair and I knew where to go, but the stewardess stopped me and said that I am under 18 and I had to stay with her until someone picks me up at the pick up area from Lufthansa. I told her that I would meet my uncle outside but she clearly didn’t care. My unlce didn’t knew that I was inside so he waited outside at the meeting point. I tried to call my uncle but it didn’t work ( later it turned out that it was my mistake since I forgot to dial the area code 😉 ). I had to stay there for 1 hour until my uncle found me and I wasn’t really happy about that. In the end Lufthansa even asked my uncle to pay the UM fee but he refused to pay and in the end they let me go without paying!!!!The other storry just happened to me recently. I’ve booked a flight to Ghana with Ethiopian Airlines. I do not require any special service…I don’t want to sound arrogant but I have a lot of flight experience and I often know more than most of the adults do and I never, ever got lost at the airport before. First of all Ethiopian Airlines insited (via e-mail) that my dad has to come to the Airport since he is the holder of the credit card we used for the booking of my fligtht. My dad can’t come to the Airport because he is working and it’s a 4 hours drive to the Airport. I called their call center in Ethiopia (it was a german number but somehow they conected me to Ethiopia) and talked to a number of agents and finally they said that I could fill in a form with my dads signature+ I need a copy of his passport and his credit card!!! I thought everything was okay now ,but because it was a codeshare flight I had to pay the UM fee no matter if I wanted accompany or not!!!! They even wanted to let my father sign another form when I was at the airport but I convinced them that the original form was also valid…I was just angry at this moment because I could not understand how they could possbily think that my dad could turn up before the flight. On the flight back the same thing happened again but this time I managed to talk me out of the fee aswell ( I was very desperate since I did not have enough money for the fee:D ) Over all my experiences I have to say..discussing things in person makes things easier but sometimes isn’t possible. About the other comments: I don’t see any danger in letting children over 5 fly alone since it might be even saver than most other places. The only thing that worries me is that they might not be able to speak the language in the destination or transit country and that might be a problem. I made the experience that some elderly people needed way more assistance at the airport and because I always arrive way to early at the airport I love to help them checking in at the electronic check in and help them to get arround because nobody from the Airline cares about them ( I guess losing a minor seems more drastic to them than forgetting about some elderly people that missed the flight). I know that all airlines work for their money and averything that goes beyond money seems like a problem but to be a good airline they need to go beyond that point and start working customer friendly!