Worst Airline to fly with. Review on Lufthansa

My experience with Lufthansa has been that it's the worst airline you can travel with in this day and age. All the cribs about Indian Airlines or Air India pale in seriousness and severity compared the Lufthansa.

This I found was mainly on the Asian routes, i.e. to Chennai and Bangalore which were the routes I travelled. However they have much better crew, seating space and service on Germany-USA routes.

My first flight with them was marked by them dropping the contents of an overhead locker on the people sitting below. Most of them were my friends, Indians. They were offered a snooty 'sorry' and the stewardess stretched out her hand for the passengers to pick up the stuff and hand it to her.

Later on she forgot to serve meals to some passengers, mainly the Indians. When we enquired, we got another snooty ''Oh, is it ?'' and this was followed by them serving dessert to the passengers.

After meals are served the stewardesses vanish and if you ask for coffee or water they tell you to get it from the galley yourself. And this is what all the passengers ended up doing. The galley became an area where people were chatting over the drinks they served themselves.

On arrival at Frankfurt, one of my friend's baggage had the base and wheels smashed. After hauling them up for it, they replaced it with my friend paying 30% of the cost.

This has repeated till recently when I checked in to business class. On arrival in Germany, I found my suitcase all shrink wrapped so that I could hardly recognise it. This was a surprise to me but I thought it must've been a complimentary service since you see this offered in airports. So after reaching my house in Germany I left the suitcase and went to a friend's place for dinner, planning to unpack after that. Later that night when unpacking I realised that they had ripped my suitcase right around and had also smashed the base. Don't ask me why. I was refused compensation since I had 'left the airport'. This was the most unethical, slimy culture I've ever seen.

On another later trip when I returned from the US to India on Lufthansa, I found my suitcase was missing at the baggage claim. Having had previous bad experiences, I lodged a complaint with the Lufthansa staff here and got an acknowledgement for the same. When they delivered it, it was ( no prizes for guessing) smashed at the base and ripped around. The solid handle was also ripped out at the rivets. I was fed up to the top of my head with this.

RESULTS:So I bombarded the station manager and others with stern letters and proof of the damage. I was ready to go to a consumer forum and the papers but they had the suitcase returned to me in original condition after repair. My claim for reimbursement for essential clothes and items purchased while the suitcase was lost was also paid. I haven't travelled Lufthansa since then.

Whatever happens, with Lufthansa, please check your bag before you leave the airport. Remove any patching or shrink wrapping they may put since it is usually to hide the damage they do to your bags. Get an acknowledgement of complaint and file the complaint as well. If possible, take pics of the damage to back it up.