It was a long fight that Lufthansa fought before they were allowed to swallow Swiss, the second try at a Swiss national airline after the horrendous management mistakes by the SwissAir board. But they won: at the end of March 2006, the merger is supposed to be complete.
Sitting once again on a flight to Berlin, operated by Swiss, I am beginning to wonder whether this merger will be completed in time. I am undoubtedly spoiled as a regular Lufthansa flyer, so several things annoy me every time I fly Swiss (economy class, of course):
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After boarding is complete, I sometimes walk to the business class purser and ask for today’s paper. Since I usually fly in the evenings, Lufthansa stewards never deny this request for they are not going to need the paper anymore — there’s nothing more boring than old news.
On Swiss flights, I always get a categorical “no” as the answer, the reason being that only business class passengers get papers.
It’s worth to note that Lufthansa has shelves with papers in the gate area, so I only rarely have to ask the in-flight crew, usually only when the Financial Times wasn’t available for grabs. Swiss doesn’t consider this an important service.
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Cheap economy tickets are not rebookable. However, I cannot afford to spend twice or thrice the amount for a ticket, just to be flexible.
I have often arrived at airports early. If I am on a Lufthansa flight, I can usually get switched to an earlier flight for free, or for the rebooking fee of 35 EUR.
Swiss has never made a compromise. I have had to spend additional nights in a place just because there weren’t any seats in my booking class, even though the flight was nearly empty.
I know that Swiss is actually performing according to the rules. But one reason why I like Lufthansa so much is because they often bend the rules to please their passengers, no matter whether they are students or high-shot managers. Since Swiss wants to see themselves as the luxury airline, they have no concept of people who can’t afford to pay shitloads. Typical Swiss, in some ways.
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Lufthansa serves meals even on short flights if you fly between 18:00 and 21:00 hours. Swiss offers sandwiches whose consistency suggest they should be used to lessen the impact in case the airplane goes down, not eaten.
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Lufthansa has great Florida orange juice. Swiss has some cheap crap from the supermarket.
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Lufthansa serves free alcoholic beverages (incl. beer). Swiss charges Swiss prices (4 EUR for a 0,33 litre can of beer).
I suppose I could list more examples, but then I’d just get more aggrevated. Thus, instead, I ask the crew for another sandwich, in case they have any leftover. Who cares about cushiony sandwiches when you’re hungry, right?
“I am sorry, we cannot give out more than one sandwich per passenger”
This is the last flight of the day to or from Berlin. Are you going to recycle the sandwich and serve it to the morning passengers?
Another fun tale about Swiss: their homepage is utter crap. First, it thinks I am Italian, despite my browser sending en,de,fr as preferred languages. Second, there’s no way to change the language, it seems. And third, see for yourself: book a ticket to Budapest this coming weekend and state you are a student. You’ll be asked to pay 150% of the price that a regular (non-student) passenger would pay for the same flight.
So, Lufthansa, are you aware of the amount of homework you have to do?
