Are brands allowed to reduce customer service over the holidays?

We all know how traveling during Xmas can be a pain both for travelers as for anyone giving service in the travel industry over the period. But as we also know it's an important income source, so brands and companies have to make a crucial choice between accepting their employees wishes and needs to celebrate and the level of service they want to give.

I want to share an experience I just had, to show how important customer service is at any given time and how dangerous it can be, to go to far in cutting them. If I pinpoint Lufthansa in this particular way, it is not to blame only them as it could be anyone, but to show the discrepancies between what they try to be and what they really are, how difficult it is to be consistent on a worldwide level and nevertheless how nonchalant these issues are taken today in an industry, where keeping your customer should be the N°1 objective.

The Story

My dad came to visit me in Mexico over the holidays and decided to book on Lufthansa as everyone in the family is quite fond of the airline and had over all very good experiences with them. At his age and being able to afford it, he booked a First Class ticket through American Express Travel Services and set off to a seemingly simple journey from Zurich to Frankfurt to Mexico on December 22nd. At Zurich Airport he was told that there was computer system failure in Frankfurt and that his flight might be delayed. Still he took off and arrived three hours delayed to catch his connecting flight, which curiously had taken off without incidents, despite the system failure. Ground staff rebooked him on the next flight, that went out from Munich and connected him with yet another approach flight. Needless to say that it would have been so much easier to send him directly from Zurich to Munich instead of having him come to Frankfurt but let's skip that and also the fact that his first approach flight from FRA to MUC was cancelled too. It just shows how painful and long the flight was, even in First Class.

Arriving in Munich and finally ready to embark on the flight to Mexico, he asked ground staff is his luggage was still on, which was confirmed. Imagine his surprise, that arriving in Mexico City, his luggage was missing and not to be traced. Hi was given a baggage missing report by the ground agents in Mexico and told that his luggage would arrive on the next flight from Germany that evening. So we decided to wait for this flight and the luggage to be delivered that same evening to us. It didn't!

So I had a look at the form and found out that 1. there was no report number and 2. no phone number to call to get information. So I tried to call Lufthansa and that's where the nightmare began. All numbers given on the Lufthansa site for Mexico didn't answer, calling Mexico City Airport we got two other numbers that also didn't answer. As we didn't have a report number we couldn't find anything online and calling in Germany they told us that they could only trace baggage in Europe but not for international flights.

Basically we had nothing, no one from Lufthansa answering us in Mexico and no way to trace it online. At that stage we decided to call American Express Travel Service to see if they could help. They managed to get hold of the tracing number for the baggage but also couldn't get us any further, but at least they reachable and helpful.

As per phone nothing could be done, we decided to go to the airport and see if we could get hold of someone at the boarding gate. We are now December 25th and to our surprise the gates were deserted and only a security guard in front, that informed us that on December 24th and 25th there were no Lufthansa flights arriving or departing. Imagine our surprise as on one of these flight, as we had been told, my dad's luggage should have arrived. We still tried to go to the airline's office at the airport, but there as well no luck, it was closed (which makes sense as there were no flights). Basically for 48 hours no one was reachable in Mexico, not by phone, not at the office, not online.

On the 26th we got a call from the airport telling us, that my dad's luggage had arrived on a KLM flight! This information was still not available online. Finally the luggage got delivered on December 27th!

My concerns

I do understand, that in a very competitive environment airlines try to cut cost as much as possible. I don't blame Lufthansa for not having flights on the 24th and 25th. I took them and know, that they are basically empty.

What I don't get, is the following:

1. Knowing they didn't have flights the next two days, why did ground staff at Mexico City Airport still told my dad, his luggage would arrive the next day? Just to get rid of him?

2. Why was nobody reachable for 48 hours? Even if there are no flights, at least someone should attend passengers that are in the country.

3. Why are online tracing methods not more effective? on DHL or Fedex you can basically follow a package on each step of the way, why are airlines not using a similar system?

4. Why could no one help us, even at Lufthansa Europe?

I guess, that a lot went wrong on this occasion and Murphy's law played to its full extent, but still Lufthansa got one chance to make it right, once the holidays were over and everything was back to normal, by taking the lead on communicating what had happened and apologizing....but nothing happened.

Their reaction

As Lufthansa didn't deem it important to follow up on the issue, I did and sent en email to customer services asking for an explanation on what had happened. I got a response two days later and I only post a few sentences to give you a feel of their approach:

"we cherish this opportunity to respond to your concerns."

"We were very sorry to learn that Mr. Werner Hirschi's baggage did not arrive punctually following his flight from Munich to Mexico on December 22, 2017 and would like to apologize for this unlucky occurrence and for any unpleasantness caused. Unfortunately, baggage irregularities do eventuate from time to time with all carriers, despite the efforts of all concerned.

However, as per our record, the passenger's luggage has been delivered on December 25, 2017."

"If Mr. Werner Hirschi was obliged to purchase some necessary items while waiting for his baggage, we will be happy to reimburse his interim expenses. In view of this, kindly allow us to explain our adjustment policy. We will be pleased to reimburse 50% for clothing and 100% for toiletries and underclothing."

"This procedure fulfils the legal rules and regulations."

At that point I was just plain disappointed. In my opinion you have to take these kind of complaints seriously and respond with the necessary care, above all in the case of your most loyal and top tier customers.

The phrase that they cherish the opportunity is just empty after you read the rest of the mail and understand that they really don't. Why do I say that:

1. It wasn't me on the flight, it was my dad but at no point they seemed to acknowledge that.

2. I don't care that these things happen, I want to know what they do so they don't happen.

3. The delivery was not on December 25th, that's when it was sent on KLM. It was delivered on the 27th, so it just shows that Lufthansa doesn't care when it's solved for the customer, but only for them.

4. "if he was obliged to purchase"? Seriously? Who travels with 5 days worth of clothing in their hand luggage?

The one the brought me from disappointed to upset was that the procedure fulfilled the legal requirements. This basically told me that they didn't care about their customer, that they just did it because of legal requirements. They don't cherish to respond to my concerns, they do it because they have to.

Are brands allowed to do that?

If you ask me, then clearly they don't. I'd even say, it's the best way to lose your loyal customers. This case shows me, that many brands and companies are still more focused towards the inside, fixing problems, than towards the outside fixing their most valuable asset, which is customer relationship.

Lufthansa is not the only one and I'm kind of sad that it happened to them, as I really like(d) the airline.

What is most important, is to understand the concern of your customer in any given time and to respond to it. In our case my father couldn't care less about the cost of toiletries or clothing. He travels First Class! He wants to know what happened and how Lufthansa is going to make it up to him.

To give you a simple, quick and good example of a reaction, here's a second case we had during our holidays. On a flight on Interjet within Mexico our plane couldn't take off because of a technical failure, so we had to disembark, wait and arrived finally with three hours delay to our destination. To my surprise on the same afternoon (!) I received an email from Interjet with an apology and a free ticket for the trouble caused. Would I fly again with them? You bet!

What happens next?

You can imagine that I didn't leave it there. I wrote back to Lufthansa, this time being more specific about what I expected, as apparently they didn't seem to catch it on the first time. Here's an extract of that mail:

"You state that you are willing to pay for the clothing and toiletries and I thank you for that, but as you write yourself, it is your legal obligation to do so and again I would have expected more from Lufthansa, than just the legal obligation for a First Class passenger.

To be a bit more specific I would expect a commercial gesture of Lufthansa for the following reasons:

1. His flight was 12 hours late and he had to endure a trip from Zurich to Frankfurt to Munich to Mexico that lasted over 24 hours. A system failure that apparently was at the origin is not a higher cause as a snow storm, but a regular business irregularity that happens and for which LH is responsible.

2. His baggage was 5 days late and it was impossible to get hold of someone in Mexico for 48 hours as I explained above.

You can imagine that my dad doesn’t care about the bills of the clothes or toiletries to be paid, but as regular First Class passenger of different airlines he wants to see, that his claim is being taken seriously and that he gets an answer at the level of the trouble he went through for this trip."

I'm still waiting for their response!