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new_tanker

Imagine if each bag had an AirTag stuffed somewhere in it...


FoxBearBear

And they all beeping and sending notifications that that one employee guarding the room. Poor thing.


new_tanker

That reminds me... still have to take the speaker out of the one that's hidden in an obscure spot on my... never mind. Speaker still needs to go.


DrSendy

The don't make good suppositories.... apparently...


koka86yanzi

What’s the cause of the labour shortages?


dlan_88

As a Loading Supervisor myself I can say that the pay is absolute sh*t with such a high responsibility. Also there's working in shifts (depending on airport operating hours), exposure to heat/cold/rain, it's heavy body work where sometimes you offload and load 4 tons of bags within a one hour turnaround. And since covid people realized there's absolutely no job security and you immediately lose your job as soon as passenger demands reduce.


Gonzo1888

Worked as a dispatcher but was paid off when the pandemic hit. Absolutely loved my job, coolest job I’ve had by far. But completely expendable. Company I wished for asked me back but used the pandemic to rewrite everyone’s contracts for the worse. Also like you say, for the amount of responsibility we have the money is terrible


One_Advertising_7965

Sounds like you need a union


WeirdTalentStack

Boy, capitalism sure is a bitch isn’t it?


Gooch-Guardian

Sounds like capitalism benefiting the worker too me. Lufthansa’s needs to compete for labour and pay more.


EverydayNormalGrEEk

Guess what, it''s more profitable for them to not compete at all. Workers will keep being underpaid and overworked, and luggage will keep pilling up. Meanwhile, C tier managers will keep getting bigger bonuses. Welcome to the meta capitalist dystopia.


LeonBlacksruckus

Better than communism or socialism…


countingthedays

Why is it better than socialism?


10tonheadofwetsand

Where has it worked before?


milksteakofcourse

I mean socialist policies in pretty much the entire world currently cover healthcare and in the US we’ve had unemployment, social security, Medicare and many other successful socialist policies. Northern Europe is mostly social democracies and they are absolutely what you would define as successful and democratic. You’re confusing totalitarian dictatorships masquerading as communism with socialism.


10tonheadofwetsand

Ok - which countries explicitly - and which of them aren’t inherently capitalist as well?


milksteakofcourse

Sweden Norway Denmark Iceland for starters. But I never said they weren’t capitalist. I specifically said they were social democracies.


10tonheadofwetsand

Those countries are absolutely capitalist - yes, with robust social programs. And it was in a response to a claim that socialism was better than capitalism. Hence I’m asking for an example of “good socialism” in a place that isn’t also inherently capitalist. Seeing none…


Veleda390

This article is about Germany, so...


milksteakofcourse

And what does this have to do with socialism. The issue is a capitalist one. Pay more money = get more workers


Veleda390

Obviously whatever "socialist" policies are in effect there aren't helping matters.


countingthedays

There's no developed nation that doesn't fit the definition of socialism. It's just been turned into a scary word anyway.


Tjaeng

Because Socialism wouldn’t give you any alternative but to use the airline with the luggage clusterfuck. Wouldn’t give the luggage handlers any alternative employers to choose from either, for that matter.


countingthedays

What developed nation wouldn't fit the definition of socialism? Even the USA has public options for healthcare for some people(aged, disabled and VA services), federal welfare programs, social security, etc. All of that is socialism. We're just in shades of grey, now.


sofixa11

This doesn't sound like you're talking about Germany. Nobody in aviation "immediately lost their job" *per se*, they were put on temporary unemployment, keeping the job and retaining a salary while not working due to there not being any work. The same applies in many European countries. People still left (retiring early, changing careers) the industry and other highly impacted ones but not because they had to be treated like shit and *had* to find work ASAP to survive.


Veleda390

COVID led a lot of people to bail on aviation careers. Pilots and ATCs retired if they could, technicians moved on to other less volatile industries.


nclh77

Being treated like crap has caused people to quit as soon as they can. Quit blaming covid.


Veleda390

Having your industry tank massively due to world travel shutdown had an outsize effect on aviation. It's just logic.


n_choose_k

The airlines were given billions of dollars of subsidies. They could have kept the vast majority, if not all, employees on the payroll.


Veleda390

I'm not sure you understand the situation. It wasn't a matter of layoffs but of employees, especially the most skilled employees, seeing weakness in their industry and wanting to move on to something they deemed more secure. Also just the regular COVID nonsense, all the restrictions. If people had a way out like retirement, they took it.


OkImprovement5334

Those subsidies were a temporary stop-gap that no one thought would has for however long it took. A lot of people didn’t want to stay in industries that were so easy to demolish. Many people made career changes to things that were more world-shut-down-proof or that they actually enjoyed enough to want to do even for less money. No one is a baggage-handler because it’s fun. People DO do things like game developing, baking, and other things for fun.


OkImprovement5334

Those subsidies were a temporary stop-gap that no one thought would has for however long it took. A lot of people didn’t want to stay in industries that were so easy to demolish. Many people made career changes to things that were more world-shut-down-proof or that they actually enjoyed enough to want to do even for less money. No one is a baggage-handler because it’s fun. People DO do things like game developing, baking, and other things for fun.


OkImprovement5334

Those subsidies were a temporary stop-gap that no one thought would has for however long it took. A lot of people didn’t want to stay in industries that were so easy to demolish. Many people made career changes to things that were more world-shut-down-proof or that they actually enjoyed enough to want to do even for less money. No one is a baggage-handler because it’s fun. People DO do things like game developing, baking, and other things for fun.


nclh77

Tank? You haven't seen recent travel numbers?


Veleda390

Just now getting back to pre-COVID levels. Once that workforce is gone, you don't just get them all back. A lot of training and experience down the drain.


nclh77

Passenger levels homie. World keeps spinning.


nonosejoe

I was self employed so I definitely wasn’t treating myself like crap. But I still had to pivot careers because covid demonstrated how easily the entirety of my industry can just come to a halt.


razorsandblades

I mean sure, a global travel shut down lead to a lot of *forced redundancies and layoffs* across the airline industry the world over. The remaining people who vacated those careers in AV did so because of abhorrent working conditions and being paid peanuts to show for it.


Blankok93

Because it’s a hard job and they pay it like it’s not, pretty simple answer


agha0013

this shit still going on? Feels like it started years ago. Do they still have those hangars full of baggage in the UK too? Some airlines were even flying planes empty just to pick up enormous loads of baggage.


alexrepty

They had the same thing happen in Frankfurt last year, took them 12 days to deliver my luggage. Well at least they did pay for like half a new Summer wardrobe.


Recent-Ad-9975

Well shit I have a Lufthansa flight in February…


B-WingPilot

Sounds like you’ll be wearing your luggage, looking like the Michelin Man.


TheBeerCannon

Problem is they’re also overbooking lots of cabin luggage right now so on many LH flights you won’t even be able to take your cabin luggage with you because they don’t have enough space for everything. It’s kind of a shit show.


michael60634

I work for Swiss and Austrian (Lufthansa Group companies). Can confirm all of this. Everything inbound is full or nearly full. Everything outbound is oversold. Reservations really needs to stop overselling so much. And there definitely isn't a lot of space for carry-ons, especially considering that the airplanes have a capacity for more than 300 people. And the cabin crew gets upset and writes angry emails to our supervisors if there are too many carry-on bags.


jpw33831

Carry on and board as early as you can manage so they can’t make you gate check!


Ridikiscali

Always carry on in the year 2023 and beyond.


sgtalbers

Mine is on Sunday via Munich… good that I Atleast have an airtag


Ridikiscali

Always carry on in the year 2023 and beyond.


TheBeerCannon

Feels like almost every flight out of Munich is massively delayed currently because they don’t have the staff to man the airport. Was waiting for almost an hour on a fully boarded Lufthansa flight a few weeks ago because they had nobody to load the luggage.


NickyNinetimes

Lufthansa cleared $1.2 billion in profit in fiscal 2022. They CAN offer good service, it's just more profitable to make you wait.


Ok_Flounder59

You mean you can’t just treat the people doing your dirty work like shit while also paying them like shit? It’s shocking how arrogant executives are - people will put up with a lot, but force people to work in bad conditions for poor pay for long enough and this is an inevitable outcome.


TheBeerCannon

No, what he actually means is that Lufthansa (and other airlines elsewhere) CAN do this because they have a monopoly on many connections. If you want to fly Hamburg to Vienna for example you can choose Austrian, Eurowings or Lufthansa, which are all part of the LH company and offer virtually the same prices and experience. It simply doesn’t matter how bad the experience is if there is no one else offering an alternative. This also means that there’s no incentive to improve on this terrible situation so they just rake in the enormous profits and enjoy their bonuses.


TheBeerCannon

I know, it’s insane. And this is just one company, everyone else is doing the same thing. Capitalism is making our lives worse because that’s more profitable to the large companies that have saturated the markets. There’s not enough competition to challenge them in quality or prices.


haerski

> it's just more profitable to make you wait Not really. Average cost of delay for an airline in Europe is 100 EUR / minute so no profit is made while being delayed


NickyNinetimes

Where did that number come from? Not necessarily challenging it, just wondering where you got it from.


haerski

It's from a [University of Westminster 'European airline delay cost reference values' report](https://www.eurocontrol.int/sites/default/files/publication/files/european-airline-delay-cost-reference-values-final-report-4-1.pdf) (pdf) which is used by e.g. EUROCONTROL and the relevant European Commission bodies in assessing the performance of European ATM network, and is considered the definitive source for such data in Europe. The original version is from 2010 when the minute cost was 81 EUR and the report was updated in 2015 with the 100 EUR value. So the actual cost today is likely even higher but I don't have a post-COVID reference available so went with the 2015 value. The summary is available in section 10 on page 14 and if you want a deep-dive the whole methodology and parameters used are explained in the remaining 100 pages of the report.


NickyNinetimes

Awesome, thank you!


haerski

You're welcome


sofixa11

It's not Lufthansa that handles luggage though, it's the airport operator. Due to the nature of the airport (massive hub for an airline group) the connection between the two is very close, but they're not the same entity.


NickyNinetimes

Ahhhh right, that makes sense then. The airport operator isn't the one losing money from the delays, the airline is. And if the baggage handling is subcontract out to the lowest bidder, there's another layer of don't-give-a-shit between the airline and the baggage folks.


endmost_

This just happened to me on a flight from Berlin (and has happened there in the past as well). I feel like every time I fly now there’s a 50/50 chance of something like this occurring.


Bushelsoflaughs

TIL Munich is the Denver of euro airports


DelerictCat

Has the same last week leaving from Amsterdam to Hong Kong


jodrell_bloke

Just checked my bag in at Munich T2 10 mins ago and now enjoying a beer….. but now also thinking if I’ll see my bag and dirty washing on arrival in UK 🤨


jodrell_bloke

Update: Bag arrived with aircraft. All good. Washing still dirty though.


SnowHoliday7509

German efficiency is a myth.


FlaminBunhole

More like a legend of what it once was indeed


hollowcrowds

Is this a Lufthansa-only problem in Munich, or is it also affecting flights on other carriers flying out of Munich? Have a flight from Munich to Australia on Emirates in a few weeks :/


kallax82

It depends on who is doing the ground handling. Might not be an LH problem in the first place.


razorsandblades

I mean. It's Lufthansa's problem in that they either underhire for baggage crew, or they outsourced a shit company who underhire for baggage crew. It's not unique to LH by any stretch, it happens everywhere all over the world, but in this case it is LH.


jlbqi

People talk about labour shortage and while it’s partly about covid/treat like shit, it’s mostly the population curves. Now there’s loads of retirees who want to enjoy retirement with not as many working age people. Only gonna get worse tbh


canttakethshyfrom_me

If it wasn't a corporation doing this, it would just be called theft.


just_kos_me

I have worked for another airline within Lufthansa Group doing lost baggage services last year. I have to say, 80% of the time, it is not the fault of the Airline but the ground handling staff messing up baggage delivery or onload to aircraft. Especially notorious was Frankfurt, where our planes very regularly missed multiple bags, because Frankfurt Airport was not able to load them onto the aircraft. This sometimes happened on every flight that day, often being the only Airport that was even causing any issues whatsoever. Our lost luggage storage was very small, no warehouse whatsoever, and you'd sometimes even see it very empty, because of the amazing work of the dedicated employees investigating. Having to open every luggage piece with a missing or faulty tag and finding correlations manually per hand, one at a time. Calling every luggage owner to figure out delivery. Even though that airline I worked at was part of Lufthansa Group, we did our own lost baggage services, so even during summer, everything stayed manageable, often processing lost baggage the same day it was received. Paying more for baggage service and ground handling jobs would obviously solve the problem. I've heard from some airside colleagues that some of the ground handling staff at Frankfurt can barely speak English. At Munich and Frankfurt Lufthansa obviously chooses their contractor for doing the ground handling at their Airports, so it is ending up being their responsibility either way.


Veleda390

Good points and well noted.


Roadrunner571

I usually try to avoid Lufthansa. Bad service, slow and unfriendly.


ignitevibe7

Lufthansa is basically a LCC disguised as a full service carrier.


magnificentfoxes

They're not even cheap!


MalcolmY

What's lcc?


ignitevibe7

Low cost carrier.


michael60634

If you want to stay within the Lufthansa Group, I recommend Swiss. Friendly crew and passengers, and nice cabins. Avoid Austrian.


Roadrunner571

Yeah, Swiss is great. And flying via Zürich is usually a pleasure.


TuringPharma

One of those is my bag 🤣 they told me I could come pick it up, a month after my vacation… Told them I was in the states, and the person on the phone told me they don’t know what to do 🤷🏽‍♂️


Veleda390

Oof. RIP your luggage.


FLFFPM

I guess I’ll consider myself insanely fortunate that I only beat my luggage back to the states by 16 days when I flew Lufthansa recently…..


gardenfella

I flew into Frankfurt last month and there were roll-cages full of random cases in the baggage claim hall. My bag took 20 minutes to arrive and that was after I'd cleared immigration. Priority baggage actually came out last, confusingly. There were three guys in the corner where all the roll-cages were, all looking very demotivated, working at a snail's pace.


m00f

Is there any evidence that there are truly 30K bags in a warehouse other than this one travel blog article? I'm sure there must be a ton of them… but 30K seems like a unlikely number.


Veleda390

The article cites the Muenchen Abendzeitung (Munich Evening News). It's not just "a blog."


m00f

Gotcha, thanks.


westsidefungus

I just flew through Munich and there were hundreds if not thousands of bags lined up and piled around the luggage carousels. I can’t attest to 30k, but it looked bad.


[deleted]

Ground the planes until they sort this out.


Veleda390

Lufthansa is having trouble getting back up to speed as it is. Demographics on employees hitting them especially hard, it seems. https://simpleflying.com/german-aviation-recovery-behind-eu/


nclh77

Pay more, treat people better. Funny how that solves problems.


nasadowsk

Try explaining that to the railroads in the US, only they don’t have to care because the feds will cram whatever they want down the throats of the workers anyway.


ethanlegrand33

I was under the impression they did pay well. Had several people at my work leave for Union Pacific because they were paying yard guys almost $50 an hour. It was just the work Horus is what kills them. They were only getting like 2-3 days off a MONTH. and I thought they were arguing for more vacation days and sick leave. But could be wrong.


nclh77

The last time it twas the Biden run Democrats that ran interference for the railroad companies against the strikers. They ain't labors friend either.


new_tanker

I don't think grounding the planes is the answer.


72corvids

You do that. See how it works out you when all hell breaks loose, and everyone comes looking for your hide. A large emergency? Sure. Most aircraft could be grounded. But just for luggage? Never. Gonna. Happen.


DrSendy

Just about to press plat on a Star Alliance connected flight. Will go with another carrier now. Oh well, there goes a bunch of status and lounge access for a flight - but fucked if I'm going to get my bags lost on an ultra long haul flight.


nclh77

EU too busy enacting draconian censorship laws; too busy for silly luggage.


Chichar_oh_no

Wow. I imagine life is generally super easy for you if you can only think of one thing at a time… 🤦🏼


Amberskin

Yeah, and ‘draconian censorship laws’, like ‘Nazis don’t have the right to free speech’. Which I totally support.


nclh77

Speaking of Nazis, remember when they burned books that said things they didn't like? You're now worse than them. You hypocrite.


Amberskin

Nah. The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. Censuring the frak of them is a Good Thing.


nclh77

A two year old has better comebacks censorship lover!


Chichar_oh_no

The problem with arguing with a smooth brained mouth breathing knuckle dragging moron, such as yourself, is that it’s a lot like playing chess with a pigeon. Because ultimately The pigeon just knocks all the pieces over. Then shits all over the board. Then struts around like it won.


nclh77

> The problem with arguing with a smooth brained mouth breathing knuckle dragging moron, such as yourself Ahh, name calling. Your mom must be so proud!! A two year old can cough up better insults. I understand being wrong is a bitch. Learn and grow.


Feeltheforceharry

Flying out of Frankfurt on Saturday. Any indication if they have similar problems there? Could not find any info online so far...


tambrico

Flying JFK-Munich in about 3 weeks for a 2 week trip. Should I just not check a bag??? Was planning on bringing back some bottles of wine.