Don't Mention The War.... (Lufthansa)

Member Name: raynor238

Product:	Lufthansa
Date:	17/08/01 (730 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It didn't crash

Disadvantages: See above

A couple of years ago we were lucky enough to be invited by a friend to his wedding in Egypt. As we were rather skint, and also saving for our own wedding, we had to decline his invitation. Our friend, who was earning a small fortune as an ex-pat professional in Cairo generously offered to pay for our flights as an early wedding present.

It was left up to us to book the flight, but as it was a gift, we felt obliged to search out the best available deal.

We had choices from:

Direct from Manchester - this was extortionate, and through Emirate airways, who we used for our honeymoon in Sri Lanka, and who later proved to provide fantastic, luxurious flights.

Sabena - changing at Amsterdam, and Egyptian air to Cairo. Middle of the road price, but long connection times.

Lufthansa, changing at Frankfurt, refuelling at Zurich, and then to Cairo. This was reasonably priced, but the flight times were a little inconvenient. We booked it.

Our departure was scheduled for an 8.30am slot, and we were informed by the tickets that we needed to arrive 3 hours beforehand. We thought this was a little earlier than usually required, but this was a scheduled flight rather than charter, and as such unfamiliar, so we just did as we were told, and followed their instructions to the letter.

Our journey to Manchester was easier than expected, so we arrived a little after 5.00am. The airport was deserted, and the Lufthansa desk closed, with its shutters down. We waited, and waited, and eventually, at 7.10am, the shutters were lifted, and the desk opened. At this point, a number of people were gathered, and we had all formed a semi-orderly queue.

I know that a queue is a peculiarly British phenomena, so was pleasantly surprised to see the majority of German passengers all following the queue procedure. The ones that weren't were the clerks behind the desk. A young woman came out, spoke to everyone in the queue in turn, a
nd then duly separated us into German and British passengers. All the Germans were then dealt with first, and we were all forced to wait till last.

It had reached 8.00am before we could make our way to the terminal. When the plane arrived, the lady at the desk again spoke to virtually everybody waiting, and once again separated us into German and English groups. Our group was held back till last, and it wasn't until after the scheduled departure time that we were seated.

All this xenophobic behaviour had seemed strange, but when the plane took off only 20 minutes late, we put it all behind us, after all, we were on holiday.

But Manchester Airport was only the beginning...

On the plane, the entire group of English passengers (there were 12 of us) were seated right at the very back, in the smoking area, whether we wanted to smoke or not. I don't know if we were seated together to give us a chance for social interaction, or whether the rear of the plane gives the most uncomfortable flight, so that was where we were dumped.

Included in the price of the flight was the cost of all food and drink. To be fair, I do have a little bit of a reputation when it comes to free drink. I have had more than one very embarrassing incident involving alcohol, but this was so early in the morning, that a glass of orange juice, or even a bottle of water would have been nice. It took six attempts to actually get a drink from the hostesses. I kept calling them, they kept saying 'OK sir', I kept waiting politely for 10 mins, before calling them again, until eventually a drink arrived.

The food was a traditional Bavarian dish of veal & noodles in a cheese sauce. You had to close your eyes and imagine a cold pasta salad in order to convince yourself that what you were eating was intended to be cold and congealed.
The reason it was cold was the fact that we were once again left till the very last. I am unsure as to wheth
er or not we would have received anything unless the gentleman in front hadn't have queried the lack of food.

By this time, most of us were getting a little cheesed off , and murmurings were starting to emanate from the small Britannic enclave at the back of the plane. The final straw for the first leg of the journey was when we were totally omitted from the distribution of the smelly face towels at the end of the flight.

At Frankfurt airport - which was being thoroughly modernised (and resembled a bombsite), we were again separated, and herded into a small room where we were called one at a time like schoolchildren into an office where we were given a pass that allowed us to move to another terminal. We had to wait 3 hours for the connection, stood at the departure gate, as all the seats had already been taken.

The next stage passed totally without incident. The cabin crew were friendly, courteous, and helpful. It wasn’t till we landed in Zurich that we realised we were on a connecting flight contracted out from Swissair.

The final leg of the journey went much the same as the first. We were pushed to the back of the plane, only this time our companions were not only British, but Egyptian, and also many other nationalities travelling on from Cairo further East. Again we were ignored, but we were not nearly as badly treated as the other nationalities on board. We were getting used to the lack of courtesy by this time.
The in-flight meal was ridiculous. We laughed at the time, but it must have been awful for all the Muslim passengers. The dish looked like pork, and even tasted like pork, and it wasn’t until you scraped the plate clean that a label became apparent, informing you that the food was actually reformed ‘something’ (we thought that it might have been the German equivalent of Quorn) that was Halal.

We had a fantastic holiday in Egypt, but we were lucky we had a friend over there who
knew the airport systems. If he had not rung the airport, confirmed our flight, and argued in Arabic with their clerks, then apparently we could have had over 24 hours to wait at the airport before our return.

The return journey - not much different really. The crew proved that their colleagues behaviour was not a one-off. This time, we only stopped at Zurich for refuelling, and were told to remain in our seats. The only people allowed to leave were the people changing planes. When there was only about 20 of us left, 2 stewards came down the aisle, spraying everything with an aerosol. I am allergic to aerosol sprays, and when they covered me with the spray, I had probably the worst allergy attack of my life. I went into spasms, and stopped breathing for much longer than is normally healthy for a person. I quickly got over it, which is how I usually suffer, and was disgusted that the stewards offered neither assistance nor apology.

Even more annoying, was that after about 3/4 hour, other passengers started boarding the plane, many of whom I recognised from the first leg. Half of these passengers were carrying shopping bags with ‘Zurich International Airport’ written on the side. This left me very puzzled as to why we were retained on the plane in the first place.

The first thing we did on our return was lodge a complaint, but in our reply from Lufthansa, there was a succession of denials and accusations of exaggeration. At this point we just left it alone and just put it down as a bad experience.

It was a major surprise to me how antagonistic the staff at Lufthansa were towards the British. I thought that this sort of xenophobic behaviour was actually exclusive to the British. I know that there is an old historical rivalry, and that the football mentality seems to generate an international discord between us, but in my dealings with the German public, both through business and socially when on holiday, has led to me dis
believing the prejudiced views which are commonly held in this country.

Summary: