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Lufthansa makes dedicated staff look bad: The eTN Hero is Patricia Dzai of Swissport Johannesburg

April 24, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Lufthansa

“My personal hero today is Ms. Patricia Dzai. Patricia works for Swissport in Johannesburg, South Africa,” said eTN Publisher Juergen Steinmetz. Swissport is one of the largest aviation ground-handling agencies operating in countries around the world.

Major airlines hire Swissport to manage customer relations and logistics when it comes to baggage handling, including lost or misplaced items.

Lufthansa German Airlines’ ground handler in Johannesburg is Swissport. I recently traveled from Nice to Cape Town via Frankfurt and Johannesburg on Lufthansa German Airlines. I am a United Airlines Star Alliance Gold member and traveled on Lufthansa in Business class. Lufthansa is a member of Star Alliance.

When I arrived in Johannesburg, I heard my name called by Lufthansa’s lost baggage office handled by Swissport.

I was told my tube was still in Frankfurt, and they would put it on the next flight to Johannesburg. I explained it was of utmost importance to have the tube for an important trade show event, the World Travel Market in Cape Town, in the morning.

Patricia Dzai, the Swissport agent in Johannesburg, wanted to make sure this would be possible and sent an urgent message to Lufthansa in Frankfurt. The message said:

 

 

 

 

 

I was pleased to know my tube would go on LH 576 directly to Cape Town almost in time for the start of World Travel Market.

I went on to fly to Cape Town and received a text message in the evening saying my tube would be on the Lufthansa flight to Johannesburg, which was different from what Patricia had requested. Since it was late and the Swissport office in Johannesburg was closed, I was able to find a non-published phone number for Lufthansa baggage service in Frankfurt. Lufthansa, like most airlines, is hiding phone numbers to encourage passengers to communicate only by email.

I was told by Lufthansa Baggage Service in Frankfurt no such message to forward my tube to Cape Town was ever received by Swissport Johannesburg. The agent went on to say that passengers are often not told the truth by Swissport agents.

The Lufthansa agent in Frankfurt explained that his job was not to help me, since this was only handled in Johannesburg. I argued my tube is in Frankfurt and not Johannesburg, and the handling agent for Swissport in Johannesburg was closed.

The agent then said he was now doing a one-time exception for me and would reroute my tube on LH576 directly to Cape Town. He said there were 5 hours to get this done, still plenty of time according to him.

The next day I received another message telling me again the tube was on its way to Johannesburg instead of Cape Town.

I called Swissport in Johannesburg, and the news not could have been worse. They told me, apologizing, that my tube was still in Frankfurt for a second day, and they did not know why.

I again called the baggage-handling office in Frankfurt and was again told it’s all Swissport’s mistake for not telling them where to send it.

This time I was angry and called Swissport Johannesburg again. I asked Patricia why she was lying about this. I told her she never sent this request to Frankfurt, according to Lufthansa.

Ten minutes later, I received an email with a time-stamped screenshot from Patricia Dzai showing me exactly what was requested by her in the first place.

Patricia actually had gone out of her way originally to make sure I would be united with my tube on time and in Cape Town. I felt bad thinking she didn’t care and didn’t do anything, when in fact she did.

It shows that big companies like Lufthansa have a serious customer service issue. They hide behind a huge system and are trained to say it’s not their job and simply blame others for company shortcomings.

There was no way I could talk to anyone at Lufthansa about this, and my urgent email to them on the day I was trying to get the tube re-routed was just responded to 2 weeks after I was already back home in Hawaii. Lufthansa offered a 200 euro compensation.

No explanation was given and no apology for accusing Patricia Dzai and Swissport for not doing their job.

I finally received my tube on the last day after the trade show and took it back to the US unopened. When I changed planes in Frankfurt, I asked the agent working in the Senator Lounge to speak to a supervisor in baggage handling about this case and compensation. She told me I have to send an email, which I had already done days ago.

She gave me some chocolate and said they get customers’ complaints all the time and do their best to help and respond, but the back-up system by the airline is not there.

It’s all about a giant non-caring anonymous machine.

I extend my apologies to Patricia Dzai from Swissport, as I now understand she was also a victim of shortcomings created by Lufthansa German Airlines.

Patricia Dzai is the eTN Hero for today.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Starbucks Hawaii: Rotten food from the garbage and warm left over coffee

March 20, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Starbucks is not the only one to blame when human decency in America is under attack. Pearlridge Mall on the Island of Oahu is the second largest shopping mall in the State of Hawaii.  It’s far enough from the resort hotels, so visitors taking a bus or renting a car to explore the rest of Oahu don’t really find a lot of desire to visit Pearlridge Mall. This business center remains a very popular place for locals to shop, eat and to get entertained.

Tourism stakeholders love for homeless people to remain on this part of the island. After all, hungry dirty and mentally challenged people are bad for Waikiki, bad for white sandy beaches and terrible for tourism business.

Starbucks is a popular place not only in Waikiki but also in Pearlridge.

This afternoon a well-groomed and well-dressed lady is sitting on a chair outside and by the entrance of Pearl-Ridge Starbucks asking everyone walking by for a Dollar. She is very polite, humbled and obviously desperate.

Right in front of the Starbucks entrance is a not so well dressed local homeless man searching through the garbage can Starbucks customers fill up. After checking 3 or 4 thrown away cups, he gets lucky and finds some leftover coffee to drink and even a once delicious frappuccino drink with some whipped cream left. The coffee may be lukewarm, but no complaints here.

It’s 3 pm now, and the obviously hungry homeless man found a container with leftover breakfast, someone threw away hours before. It appears to be hash browns and eggs. The man tried to eat it but had to spit it out. Apparently, it was already bad.

Welcome to the State of Hawaii, welcome to where America needs to be great again urgently. This is a part of the Aloha State today in midst of a homeless emergency.

As long as homeless people stay away from Waikiki and the tourist beaches the world is ok. It enables hotels and resorts to charge $500 = $1000.00 for a room night, pay minimum wages to staff, and later wire all the profits to their mainland-based headquarters.

Laws and city ordinances give the police power to make it illegal to remain on beaches at night, sleep in cars or on public land. Homeless are turned into vagabonds having to move their shopping cards belonging constantly. They have no friends, they feel no Aloha.

On the other hand, tourism Business is good.

Unfortunately, minimum wages are not living wages and cannot buy a roof over someone’s head in Hawaii.

Hotels sometimes donate to the food bank or to other charity, but overall the attitude remains, “It’s not the problem of the Hawaii tourist industry to take care of the homeless and drug users.”

The State is wasting billions for a rail system that has been in the making for years. There is no money to fix the thousands of potholes everywhere on the island, and there certainly is no money to seriously address the homeless problem.

In 2015 homeless people had a solution: Get naked! 

WRONG, it’s everyone’s problem. It includes Starbucks of course.
Tourism is everyone’s business in a place like Hawaii, where this is the number one money earner and business. Where is the Aloha Hawaii is so famous for?

www.starbucks.com

 

Travel News | eTurboNews

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