Day 26 - The wonders of Lufthansa

Tallinn airport is probably the nicest airport in the world. It’s a really quirky little place with plenty of space and light. It has multi-coloured chairs of all different shapes and sizes, it has bookshelves with books for passengers to read while they are waiting and little funny inspirational messages decorating the toilets, like reminding you to check your fly is done up on the way out. If you imagine how an airport designed by IKEA would look, then you get a good idea of Tallinn airport. On top of all this it has very reliable, fast, free Wi-Fi, a godsend for frequently flyer screen addict. Especially when you find yourself with about 4 hours to kill because of the times of the buses. 

I was sure that a four hour wait in an airport was going to provide fodder for this blog, that writing the blog today would be like taking candy from a baby. (Actually have you tried taking candy from a baby, not as easy as the proverb would have you believe, they can be strong little blighters when they have something they like and if you do manage to wrestle it from them they then howl like a demented wolf.) Anyway a nice café, good coffee, free Wi-Fi, rugby on the internet, the time was flying by, this wasn’t going to plan. I was getting worried that there would be nothing to be grumpy about, nothing to complain about.

But of course I am flying with Lufthansa, so there is always something to complain about.  Now until recently Lufthansa were my favourite airline, reliable, friendly, efficient. But in the last 6 weeks they have managed to lose my luggage, delay me so I miss my connecting flight and not answer any of my correspondence. (July 14^th I sent my first complaint to them and since then I have had nothing but automated replies. In fact my colleague thinks I am having an affair with someone called dono treply.)

So today again they managed to be late getting us on board. Now lateness happens, I don’t mind that. What I do mind is the lack of information, the lack of communication - the you’re not boarding on time but we are not going to tell you why not or tell you when we will board attitude. Silence radiates from the people behind the desk, speech bubbles hang empty, (passenger) ignorance is bliss is their motto. It shows that the customer is not important, that we are expendable, replaceable just an ever expanding bum on an ever shrinking seat. Nowhere was this more evident than when the captain came on the Tannoy once we are safely on the plane and announced that despite our lateness and our concern about connecting flights, under no circumstances should we ask the staff about whether or not we will make our connections. What? Really? He may as well have said dear passengers, we really don’t give a flying fuck about you, in fact our job would be much easier if there were no passengers. So just be quiet like good little minions, do as you are told and whatever you do don’t bother us.

So thank you Lufthansa, you may have become lousy timekeepers, second rate baggage handlers and have crummy customer service but at least you provide me with plenty of kindling for this blog.