My husband and I recently had an unfortunate experience with Lufthansa. At the Philadelphia International airport, the ground staff refused to board us because we didn’t have a current visa stamped on our passports for Frankfurt. We completely understand that this was our mistake. we should have double-checked the visa requirements before our trip. However, the issue that upset us most was how the situation was handled by the staff. They told us they would mark it as “boarding denied due to visa issue”, but instead they recorded it as “no show”. Because of that incorrect entry, our return flight was automatically cancelled as well, which caused additional stress and expense. Mistakes can happen, but we expected more transparency and accuracy from a reputed airline like Lufthansa. It would have made a big difference if the staff had been more careful and considerate in documenting the situation correctly.
During booking, I kept trying submitting my payment from the Mexican website and it didn't work. After I had the idea to change it to the Canadian website, it worked but I had to be charged the equivalent of 50 CAD more. I received the clear instruction that I would only be able to check-in at the airport and that it was impossible to select a seat 24 hours before departure, that I had to pay 144 CAD to do so, although not only was I able to check-in 24 hours before departure, but I could have selected my seats for free then. All in all, I almost threw $200 out the window due to misleading information. Besides, the app kept crashing, the information to get to the gate on the app was inaccurate, my gate was switched and I was only informed once in the air (luckily I had noticed the departure pannel), I was not addressed in my language beforehand and even if I tried I was immediately answered in English (which meant the crew understood but didn't want to answer accordingly), there was only one snack & beverage service on my medium haul flight and no beverage service on my short haul flight. To be fair, the planes were comfortable, the crew apart from the language issue was helpful, dynamic and engaging, the plane was clean and the directions were clear and direct. United has a lot of potential to be one of my favourite airlines, but the devil is in the details and a lot of them missed the target.
Better WiFi. I cannot understand that in 2025, United is so behind on a technology that is now a necessity and still painfully unreliable, slow and keeps disconnecting.
How cheap can Lufthansa get? Are they becoming Spirit airlines?
Lufthansa was great from Lisbon to Frankfurt. The United Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Denver was very cramped. In that tight space, when the seat in front was fully declined I could barely move. I'm a fairly small person, I can't imagine what a larger person would feel like.
Everything was good, except the seats in economy were so close together, you could barely get out when the seat in front of your was reclined. If the airlines keep jamming in more and more seats, it will become intolerable. I will look for another airline that considers customer comfort and does not keep adding more rows of seats for more profit.
Great service on board. Boarding a bit slow due to process. Food was pretty average.
Very small cramped plane for an international flight. Everything else was good, but it was maybe the smallest comfort-wise I've ever been on for longer than 3-4 hours and the trip was 7.5
Inoperable monitor left no entertainment for 9 hours. The crew was not helpful. Food was awful.
Flight was delayed 3 hours. No food and drink vouchers was provided. They offered a mini pretzel bag and water .
