Elderly Couple Suffers Poor Service From Lufthansa, Airline To Pay Rs 55K In Fine

While booking a flight, no one expects to find a wet seat or dripping water onto it. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to an elderly couple, Joju Dominic, 69, and his wife Jasmine, 65, when they boarded a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany, in 2023. Throughout their 10-hour journey, the couple experienced poor service from the airline and its staff, according to a report by The Times of India.

Lufthansa Airline And Its Delinquency In Services:

The senior citizen couple was travelling from Chennai to Vancouver, Canada, via Frankfurt, Germany. In June 2023, they started their journey to Frankfurt from Chennai airport. The flight was late by around 90 minutes, and finally, when they boarded the flight, they were surprised to see that the seats were wet and water was dripping onto them from the cabin bag compartment overhead.

They informed the flight crew, but they didn’t offer any solution and reportedly asked to deplane if they wanted to. They were also asked to use blankets to manage wet seats. They were later offered an alternative seat, but they suffered until it happened.

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Due to the inconvenience and airline delays, the couple missed their connecting flight to Vancouver. The couple took up the issue with the airlines, which again was considered after the couple had to argue with the airline. Subsequently, they were accommodated on a later flight. However, their ordeal did not end there. The constant delays of flights led them to miss their already scheduled ferry in Canada.

Their overall experience turned traumatic, and instead of being a positively memorable experience, it turned out to be a harrowing one. 

Notably, this senior couple booked the return journey with the same airline, and their experience, even while returning was full of unexpected situations and discomfort.

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When Lufthansa’s return flight took off, after some time, it faced a fuel leakage issue and it had to come back to Frankfurt.

At the Frankfurt airport, the airline staff asked them to approach the customer service centre for help, but according to them, the staff there also didn’t of much help and treated them insensitively.  

The ill-treatment did not stop there. The airline initially refused to accommodate them on the rescheduled flight. Finally, when done, the airline did not provide the pre-booked wheelchair to the senior couple, despite their request. As a result, they had to walk around 2 kilometres to the lodging.

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To make matters worse, their medical supplies ran out during this ordeal. The couple also stated that their overall experience with the airline could not have been worse. They found the food provided during the flight delay to be inadequate as well.

After reaching home, the couple filed a case against the airline asking for a compensation of Rs 3.5, the cost of their to and fro tickets.

The court has asked the airline to pay Rs 55,000 to the couple as compensation for the mental harassment they had to go through and the cost involved in suing the airline.