air travel nightmare - Gainesville - TravBuddy

This letter is for your information; if you choose to share it with others I have no objection.

On December 15, 2006, a group of about 35 passengers, including me, boarded the morning Lufthansa flight from Munich to Sarajevo. After two attempts to land at Sarajevo had to be aborted because of dense fog, the pilot flew us to and landed at the airport in Split, Croatia.

Once in the terminal, we were told that a bus would arrive shortly to take us to Sarajevo. However, after some moments the pilot appeared and said there would be no bus, that we passengers had the “choice” of returning to Munich (with no promise of food, shelter, or rebooking) or of remaining in Split on our own, to fend for ourselves.

This of course was not a choice at all; it was an ultimatum, and it was clear to the passengers that Lufthansa and the pilot just wanted to be rid of us. So we were abandoned in Split.

What the pilot and Lufthansa did was a clear violation of the EU document “Why Passengers’ Rights Matter” which outlines airlines’ obligations to passengers:

"Air passengers are in a weak position to defend their rights. For example, when booking a flight, they have to accept conditions laid down by airlines; they cannot negotiate their contracts - and rarely know them. When their journeys do not go as planned, perhaps because of denied boarding or cancellation of a flight, they rely on the good will of the carrier to continue their journey or return home. In such cases, passengers are badly placed to look after themselves, particularly when far from home." [http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/passenger_rights/information_en.htm]

Lufthansa did not live up to its contractual obligation to find a way to transport the passengers to Sarajevo, nor did it offer “good will” to help those of us who were “badly placed to look after themselves, particularly when far from home.”.

Had we been cattle or strawberries, we passengers would have been better cared for than we were. The ugly possibility exists that Lufthansa abandoned us because we were mainly a planeload of Bosnians returning home for the holidays, and not residents of a more “respectable” part of Europe.

Needless to say, I have filed strong complaints with Lufthansa about its unacceptable treatment of passengers on that flight. To date, the airline has not addressed any of the passengers’ concerns, but attempted to buy my quiescence with an insipid, irrelevant reply and check which did not even cover my share of the cost of the bus we passengers chartered on our own to finally get to Sarajevo. I returned both Lufthansa’s reply and check as unacceptable, and am awaiting round 2. Stay tuned.

Readers should be aware that such shabby treatment at Lufthansa’s hands could happen to them, as well.

Yours truly,




Richard K. Scher, Ph.D.