'Messy breakup': Travellers in Germany frustrated with ongoing Lufthansa strikes

Flight passengers coming to or from Germany, and particularly those flying with Lufthansa or one of Lufthansa Group’s many airlines, have faced serious disruptions due to a series of worker’s strikes since February.

Two unions representing different groups of workers – the pilots’ union (Vereinigung Cockpit) and the cabin crew workers union (UFO) – have both organised walkouts to put pressure on Lufthansa Group as they demand better working conditions and improved pension benefits.

Employers at the airline have so far refused to meet the unions’ demands, resulting in escalating strikes. And with both unions targeting the same airline, disruptions have quickly stacked up.

This week a pilot’s union strike on Monday and Tuesday was immediately followed by a cabin crew strike on Wednesday and Thursday, which then overlapped with yet another pilot’s strike on Thursday and Friday.

Amidst all of this the airline announced on Thursday that it will close down its regional CityLine airline, citing struggles with mounting fuel costs due to the Iran war – and yes, also all of those strikes.

READ ALSO: Essential articles to understand how the fuel crisis is affecting Germany 

Meanwhile, for Lufthansa’s passengers, back to back to back industrial actions have amounted to a week of travel chaos – with hundreds of flights cancelled and more than 100,000 people affected on just the first day of strikes alone.

We asked readers affected by the related disruptions to share their experiences.

‘Lufthansa has been ghosted’

A cancelled flight, and especially one cancelled at the last minute, is always a stressful experience. But for frequent flyers, repeated disruptions are especially hard to take.

For John, who lives in Düsseldorf, enough is enough.

He described his most recent experience flying with Lufthansa as a “messy breakup”, adding that “Lufthansa has been ghosted” and that the experience had caused him to realise “Frankfurt isn’t the centre of the universe.”

In other words, it sounds like John will be going out of his way to avoid flying with Lufthansa in future.

He says that going forward he plans to pivot to flying out of Amsterdam, Paris or London, which are “all a quick one-hour flight from Düsseldorf and far less likely to ruin your week.”

READ ALSO: New low-cost rail services launch between Berlin, Hamburg and Amsterdam

Phil Greenall, who says he takes around 50 return flights each year for business, has seen two trips disrupted by Lufthansa strikes since February. 

During a strike in mid-February, his Thursday morning flight from Birmingham was rebooked to the last flight on Friday, but concerned he could end up stuck over the weekend he chose to rebook his own travel on a flight from Manchester.

This week he faced further disruptions, again on a quick round trip from Frankfurt to Birmingham. In this case his outbound flight was cancelled, effectively scrapping the whole trip for him. But he noted that “while my return was briefly rebooked, it was then also cancelled within minutes as the strike was extended”.

Greenall suggests that his confidence in flying with Lufthansa has been shaken by these experiences: “Reliable transport is fundamental to doing business. At present, that reliability feels increasingly uncertain.”

Rebookings

In fairness, not everyone’s disrupted flight experience has left them with such a bitter taste.

While it usually adds a bit of inconvenience and/or stress, in some cases having a flight cancelled and rebooked can be handled by the airline relatively smoothly. 

“Our flight on Friday, April 10th, was cancelled. We didn’t apply for compensation as we were rebooked on an early morning flight the following day,” said Linda Knoll from Lancashire, England who lives in Bavaria.

Jeff Glasson, an American living in Munich, had a rougher time when a business trip to Oslo was disrupted at both ends.

“I was able to change the outbound flight to leave a day earlier, but I had to book on a different airline for my return,” Glasson said. He noted that the costs of his cancelled flight versus his rebooked one were similar, so it wasn’t worth claiming compensation.

He added that if he had let Lufthansa handle the rebooking, “I would have arrived home 36 hours later and (claimed) hotel, food, and delay compensation.”

READ ALSO: New Paris-Berlin night train to include three extra stops

On claiming compensation

Credit where it's due – thanks EU! – passenger rights in Europe are designed to ensure that airlines don’t leave travellers stranded. Generally, efforts to rebook passengers are made, and additional accommodation, food and travel costs are covered in the meantime when necessary.

That said, from the passenger’s point of view, airlines sometimes pull some dubious tricks to avoid paying compensation immediately – leaving travellers on the hook to cover themselves until they can get home and make a claim.

Also, the process to make a compensation claim can stretch out for weeks and be quite laborious.

Joseph, who was affected by a Eurowings cancellation on a Monday and offered a rebooking five days later, said he was told to book alternative flights himself and claim the money back via email. 

He said he was “doubtful” about that claim process based on an eight week wait to hear back on a prior email inquiry.

Greenall called Lufthansa’s customer support experience “extremely challenging” and noted that the airline's chatbot “provided no usable assistance and crashed multiple times.”

When he tried to file a claim at home, he said “the website failed repeatedly over several days” and he ultimately “submitted a formal claim by post”. One month later he said he has so far only received “an automated response advising me not to follow up due to high volumes”.

John, who has ‘ghosted’ Germany’s largest airline, put it like this: “Lufthansa might throw €600 your way, but let’s be honest, that won't even scratch the surface of the ‘stress tax’ and extra bills you’ve paid.”

READ ALSO: What are your rights in Germany if your flight is delayed or cancelled?

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our survey! Have you experienced severe are or rail travel disruptions in Germany? We'd be glad to hear about your experience in our survey.