A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a case about a flight where Lufthansa sold and assigned an inoperable, non-reclining business seat to a passenger and now denies any compensation.
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You can access Lufthansa here.
Email From the Reader:
I recently flew SIN-FRA on a Lufthansa 747-8. I had pre-selected the seat when I booked the ticket. During check-in at the airport, I was given the selected seat with no mentioning of any problems.
I boarded the plane, found my seat and that’s when I realized that the seat was defect. It was not possible to recline or change the seating configuration in any way. A sticker with the word “INOP” had been placed on the control panel of the seat. The sticket was starting to wear off and I suspect this seat had been defect for some time already. The headphones were dirty and had the ear-cover of a previous passenger still mounted to them.
The crew informed me that this was a full flight and neither relocation nor upgrading was possible. So I took my seat and flew the 13+ hour flight on it.
In my opinion, this was worse than flying in economy. At least the economy seat reclines a little bit.
So I contacted Lufthansa to request a compensation or partial refund. Their first response was a very standard and impersonal apology with no mention of any compensation. So I wrote them back:
Reader’s Follow-Up Email to Lufthansa:
Thank you for your quick response and for taking action to hopefully have the seat repaired, avoiding future passengers’ discomfort.
I understand that the full flight made it impossible to change or upgrade my seat, and the crew did their best to minimize the damage.
But this does not change the fact that I had to sit in a defect Business Class seat on a 13 hour flight, causing a substantial discomfort that does not live up to the standard of the travel class I had paid for.
For this reason, I request adequate compensation (for example: an upgrade voucher, the equivalent value in Miles & More award miles, or a partial refund) and would appreciate if you honor the high standard that your passengers are promised.
Thank you very much for your consdideration.
Lufthansa’s Response:
Thank you for your email dated January 13, 2023.
We are very sorry that your journey did not operate as per schedule. We understand your frustration with this occurrence, as we are aware of how stressful every change to your journey can be. You rightly expect to be kept fully informed when a flight does not operate as planned. Therefore, we want to offer our sincere apologies for the same
However, as per our records, we will not be able to comply with your request of compensation. Please accept our sincere apologize for the same.
In spite of the unfortunate experience you had, we would be pleased to welcome you on board a Lufthansa flight in the near future.
Reader’s Thoughts:
Do I have any options, or should I just bite the sour apple and move on?
Side note: this was my very first Lufthansa business class experience and the first impression is: never again!
Lufthansa knew that the seat was inoperable and should not have been sold or assigned to paying passengers using cash or miles. The reader could have perhaps asked the crew to see if there were any nonrev passengers (airline employees) in the cabin whose seats could be reassigned.
The reader had three options:
1. Fly in the operable business seat
2. Request to be involuntarily downgraded with adequate compensation
3. Request to be rebooked in another airline in business
I know that options 2 and 3 are difficult, especially 3 because they will likely lead you to arrive at your destination with a significant delay.
The reader now has three options:
1. Do nothing and let it go
2. Open a case with Soep in Germany
3. Hire a lawyer and take Lufthansa to court
Opening a case with Soep likely gets Lufthansa’s attention, but I am unsure if it yields an acceptable level of compensation. It is almost surely something other than those two “sorry emails” from customer service.
If the reader, however, is German, Austrian, or Swiss, as their name suggests, they should hire an attorney and go to court. I would consider this inoperable seat a downgrade where Lufthansa is required to refund 75% of the segment value.
The reader took a photo showing that the seat was clearly marked as inoperable, and thus, it should not have been used. This was negligence and bad faith on Lufthansa’s part that the lawyer needed to argue in court.
Conclusion
Lufthansa’s current business-class product is very dated compared to other airlines and should be avoided unless there are no other direct options or the price is very competitive.
The main selling point of a business class is to have proper sleep on board in a lie-flat seat. The reader was denied this when Lufthansa decided to sell this seat even when it knew it was broken.
I am not sure if the person replying to the Lufthansa consumer complaints understood the issue, as it looked like a standard copy/paste reply from an outsourced shop.
Engaging Lufthansa through Soep and/or a lawyer will get attention to their team in Germany and will lead to a better outcome than this: “We are sorry.”
