We stopped flying on Lufthansa a couple of years ago. Once loyal customers, when we were faced with higher airfares simply because we were paying with American credit cards, we stopped flying Lufthansa. So, it’s not surprising to us to see Lufthansa continue ripping off its customers, this time with new additional fees if you pay for tickets with a debit or credit card.
The new charge Lufthansa and several other European airlines will be charging will go into effect in November, 2011. From then on, if you purchase Lufthansa plane tickets flying to or from certain European countries, you’ll be slammed with an additional fee – €5 on domestic routes; €8 on intra-European routes, and €18 on long-haul routes. Now if that isn’t an absolute rip-off, I don’t know what is.
The countries Lufthansa will be price gouging you for if you’re flying to them and pay with a credit or debit card (who doesn’t these days?) include flights departing from airports in Germany, Belgium, Finland, the U.K., the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in the UK has already come out against the practice.
So, if you are looking for airlines, flying to and from Europe, that are fair about the prices they charge their customers look at China Air, Air India, Etihad, Qatar Air, and Emirates.
We only fly these airlines now on flights to and from Europe and, 99% of the time, they are cheaper than Lufthansa or any of the other price gouging European airlines. Their services are wonderful too.
Disclaimer: This is our opinion and as a result of our personal experience.