Paul Embs

Ok - sharing my experience with @lufthansa: I booked Lisbon to Miami, round trip, connecting through Frankfurt. Five days in Miami, hotel already paid for. I was traveling with my mother, who is older. It started with a 3 hour delay. Then they boarded us anyway. Once we were inside the plane, they announced a technical problem. We sat on that plane for 2 hours. No updates, no water, no food. Nothing. Then they told us they had to change the aircraft, and we'd need to wait another 3 hours. We waited. And right as we were about to board the second plane, they announced the flight was canceled. The only rebooking offered was the next day, late afternoon, routing through Canada (if I recall correctly) and then to Miami. With a short trip that made the whole journey pointless. (Hotel was paid in advance though) So we were stranded in Frankfurt overnight. Because of their voucher rule, where accepting the rebooking means giving up your right to a refund, I had to pay for the hotel, food, and everything myself. My mother was exhausted (literally fell asleep in the airport coffee shop) The airport was its own disaster. Staff sent me from queue to queue for hours, unhelpful and almost amused by it, only to eventually tell me to handle it online. Then another three hours just to get my luggage back. I decided it wasn't worth going anymore. The next morning I bought my own flight to Norway and gave up the trip entirely. Then the refund fight. Lufthansa tried to charge me for the Lisbon to Frankfurt leg, as if Frankfurt was somewhere I had chosen to fly to, at a bizarre price almost equal to the entire Lisbon to Miami round trip. They only offered to refund me "the difference." I never wanted to go to Frankfurt. It was their connection, on a journey they canceled. It took months and a long chain of emails, but I eventually got the refund. The reason it worked: I fought the entire thing over email using ChatGPT. That is the actual state of customer service in 2026. You don't win by being right, you win by having the patience of a machine. I still lost money, days, and a trip with my mother. But I got the refund 🫠 (at least) And I had a good time in Oslo (a bit different from Miami tho)