Star Alliance reviews and complaints
flight cancellation and re-routing
Turkish airlines a member of star alliance cancelled my flight and re-routed to another city. They refuse to support my transportation to final destination in any way. And I am supposed to find my own way. Company refuses to help. Customers are forced to take an unacceptable flight route or wait for another 48 hours. All star alliance does is to direct you to the airlines which ignores you at the first place.
Country of complaint: Turkey
ZIP: 34000
Website: thy.com.tr
jet airways
In the 30 years and over 1 million miles I have flown, my recent flight from Bangalore to Delhi was the worst experience of my life, due to the thoughtless and ignorance of the Jet Airways staff. I started my flight May 16th Reservation on United ticket E18J2V. The flight was delayed due to congestion in Delhi and re routed to Jaipur, where we were parked on the runway for 2 1/2 hours waiting in a hot stuffy plane (In other parts of the world this practice of leaving passengers on the runway is illegal, but Jet does not care). Finally we arrived into Delhi 3 hours late, and I had 20 minutes to connect to my United flight. There was nobody from Jet at the gate to help delayed passengers, so I hurried through security to find a monitor to get a flight update. I finally found a monitor in the international departure lounge which showed my gate was closed and I missed my flight. I called my travel agent, and they informed me that there was a Lufthansa flight in at 2.45am and Jet could lock me on this, or I could purchase a ticket for $550 and they would settle up later. I had an important meeting. Jet refused to lock me on Lufthansa, as they said there was not enough time to switch bags, and would not allow me to buy the Lufthansa ticket. They then proceeded to re issue me a Jet ticket in W class (economy) despite my United class ticket was C (first) for the next day. I was then lead around the airport for 5 hours while arrangements were made to get me to a hotel. At 5.15am I arrived at my hotel and was woken at 9am by housekeeping. I did not have my bags and the hotel did not have a laundry service that could do my shirt before 8pm the following day. The next day I spent 1 hour on the phone with United as they worked to un-book the Jet ticked and reissue me a new ticket in First class. They were totally baffled as to why Jet did not just lock me on the following day and not issue an economy ticket (probably Jet makes money by this deceptive practice). I was only able to get part of my ticket in first class as it was too late by the time United changed and the plane was full. I will never fly Jet air again, I will not encourage any of my 300 Bangalore staff to fly Jet, and will be reporting this incident to Star Alliance in the hopes Jet gets kicked out. The staff at the airport were disinterested and joked around, not paying any attention to customers I finally had to stand blocking the counter to get help.
Country of complaint: United States
Address: Mumbai
Website: jetairways.com
vip lounge in sao paulo
I am a diamond member of avianca amigo program and I went through one of the most embarrassing situations of my life as traveller in the guarulhos, são paulo star alliance lounge on february 3, 2016. I was received with my daughter and son at the entrance by an attendant named jenifer. I showed my card and she informed me that I was only allowed in with one person. Because my card was still a gold one, I asked her if, being a diamond would make things different, as I had already gained the diamond status.
To my horror and surprise, jenifer answered that no and that that lounge was made for business people, not for kids nor for handicapped people. I was shocked. When my 16 year old son asked me if that made sense, she said that he was underage and should not be participating in the conversation.
I asked of the supervisor and then jenifer threatened to call the federal police, which by the way she faked, and never called.
I would like to know if this the kind of training the receptionists are given in brasil. I think beyond a politeness issue here, star alliance has a legal issue with this receptionist.
Country of complaint: Brazil
Address: Sao Paulo International Airport, Guarulhos Sao Paulo Brasil
Website: staralliance.com
online check-in
I booked a flight on Lufthansa from Toronto to Paris. I was informed that the flight is actually operated by Air Canada, which is okay. Lufthansa sent me an email to tell me that I had to do the online check-in through Air Canada. However the booking reference number provided by Lufthansa does not work on Air Canada. I tried the online check-on for both companies and it was not possible to connect. I found the Lufthansa general inquiry number but when I tried that, the message was that they are only open during normal business hours - that was not satisfactory since I was trying to do a 24 hour advance check-in for a 7:30 pm flight just after 7:30 on the previous day. I finally found another Lufthansa number at which I eventually was able to talk to someone but they could offer no help other than to try to contact Air Canada. In desperation I called the Air Canada reservations number and after several routings through the menu was able to talk to a person. She was actually quite helpful and was able to give me the Air Canada reference booking number from my e-ticket number. This all took about 45 minutes and fortunately I was able to check-in and still get a good seat.
Given all the promotional hoopla from Star Alliance, having this kind of run-around is just intolerable. I will make it a point, whenever possible, not to use either of these airlines. If someone from Star Alliance actually reads this complaint, it shouldn't take that much effort to provide passengers with either a single reference booking number which works on both airlines or to provide both booking reference numbers.
Country of complaint: United States
coercive flight change / missed luggage
Me and my wife Had a confirmed reservations with Egypt air on return flight to CAI no TK9292 at 08:00 am 2nd Aug 2015
But we surprised that we were in waiting list and we stopped and forbiddened to enter the airplane without any reason which led to miss the flight and obliged to catch the flight on 16:00 coercively.
Which was not accepted by any means.
And we astonished that our luggage due to that, were missing till this moment
And this will be my second complaint
We took flight number MS738 on Sunday 2nd Aug 2015 comming from IST to CAI
We reachied cairo airport but our luggages "3bags" still missing till this moment.
we created a Service ticket number: CAI MS 2760#
And still waiting...
Company Business Name: Egypt Air
Country of complaint: Egypt
Address: Cairo, Al Qahirah
Phone: 00201001007837
calling an award ticket free ticket and humiliating in front of checkin customers
I use AMEX to collect points;
I used my points an bought a ticket to my frond to use from Ottawa to Ho Chi Minh city with ticket number (Aeroplan MJMJKM)
Flight was an awar dticket and was corresponding to the $100.000 spending plus the $700 Airport taxes;
Problem 1: Air Canada said, you only have 1 luggage right with 32 kilo because this flight is to Izmir. They charged us $50 for the second luggage.
Q: Why does it differ if I stay 1 night or 8 nights to chaneg the luggage size
Biggest Problem: I was at the airport checking in for Izmir Istanbul part of the flight;
The personnel of Turkish Airlines asked me to limit my luggage to 1 piece because it is going to Istanbul. My friend tried to explain it is a ticket to Saigon (Ho Chi Mich ). They said because it is FREE ticket you have limited capacity. He had to go down to 23 kilo 1 piece. More important he was humiliated in front of the crowd waiting for checking by having a free ticket and asking too much; Connection is to Bangkok with the same airlines (Turkish Airlines). How comes they dont see the full picture?
How comes they call it a free ticket and humiliate you in front of people;
I also used that airport for my trip. They also gave me a hard time. They aslo said it was free ticket and asked me to limit my luggage.
They gave me electronic ticket instead of Boarding Pass. And Police at the Passport control said, i cant believe how this company operates. How can they give you an electronic ticket instead of Boarding Pass. He mentioned this is one of several issues he faces daily by the Turkish Airlines.
I am a Proud Turkish and happy to see the advertisements of Turkish Airlines.
But Turkish people has educations and personnel problems and they can not be happy if someone is having a free ticket and they can not.
Also the hostess at the airplane is most of the time rude.
I am ok with Air Canada but I want Turkish Airlines to be penalized and suspended for the Start Alliance even it helps me a lot with my connections
You can reach me at through the Air Canada ticket number I gave above. Please access my records from there;
MBT
Company Business Name: Turkish Airlines
Country of complaint: Turkey
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
pricing
I compared Star Alliance fares for a 'round the world trip beginning on April 13, 2010, from San Diego, California, USA, to Shanghai, China. Second segment was from Delhi, India, to Tbilisi, Georgia, on June 15, 2010. Third segment was from Tbilisi, Georgia, to Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 24, 2010. Final segment was from Copenhagen, Denmark, to San Diego, California, USA on July 25, 2010.
Although I am a frequent flier member on more than one of the Star Alliance participants, I was very disappointed to find that I could arrange my own flights, with various airlines (all dependable and some Star Alliance members) to cover the same destinations on the same dates for approximately 60% of the cost of the Star Alliance quoted economy fare.
I contacted Star Alliance with questions as to what were the benefits of using their services on this excursion. They contacted me and asked me to telephone their customer service department, which I did. The resultant conversation did nothing to assuage my problem, but insisted that Star Alliance was the "best of all" opportunities for 'round the world travel. I will encourage all fliers I know to (certainly) explore other flight opportunities before booking any 'round the world excursions with the Star Alliance system! What the Star Alliance advertises as a (price) beneficial method of circling the globe is nothing more than meaningless puffery and falsification!
Sincerely
Edward Wood
Country of complaint: United States
Address: goanywhere857@gmail.com, San Diego, California
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
left stranded after missing connection
I have discovered there is clearly no working relationship between Star Alliance airlines, specifically, United and Thai. My experience demonstrates the Star Alliance to be a fake alliance. I have never had a journey as bad as this in 20 years of traveling.
This is my story:
I left JFK on UA 839 on Sunday 13th July. Departure was delayed by 3.5 hours, arriving in LAX at 11.45pm so missing my connecting flight at LAX by only 35 minutes: TG795 which left at 11.10pm. A common story, perhaps, but what followed, I hope, is rare:
I spent 12 very stressful hours at LAX trying to get both United and Thai to assist me. Whilst a few United staff made positive noises in an attempt to appear to help, neither airline provided hotels nor flight solutions. In fact Thai customer service staff were non-existent at LAX, despite the fact the pilot of UA839 contacted customer services on my behalf to let them know I was on board and arriving late. I received a message back on the flight saying that TG795 would not wait and was departing on time at 2310.
I was well and truly abandoned, Thai saying it was United's responsibility and United saying it was Thai's responsibility. To cap it all United lost my suitcase and at time of writing it is still lost in space.
Twice I was lied to at LAX:
1) At 2am on the 14th United said they would put me on their flight via Narita, then at 8am said they would not.
2) Having finally contacted Thai in LA at 10am (by 40 minutes holding on the phone) they said they would route me back via Seoul on Asiana; then 2 minutes later they retracted this offer.
Extraordinary behavior. I eventually paid United for a one-way to Bangkok (US$ 998.40) via Narita on Tuesday 15th July. It took me 43 hours to travel from Manhatten to Bangkok (door to door) with not a hint of assistance from either Thai or United.
Don't ever fly United. Be very careful if you expect Star Alliance airlines to work together on your behalf. They can't, but what's worse is they won't try to.
Gillem Lawson.
Company Business Name: Star Alliance
Country of complaint: United States
Address: California
Website: staralliance.com
I wanted to cancel my turkish airlines flight ticket that I bought with my frequent flyer program (star alliance miles). They canceled my tickets but they still don't uploaded my miles to my account.
I recently travelled on Singapore Airlines Melbourne to Delhi via Singapore return. I am a member of Air India's Flying Returns frequent flyer program. At check- in i clearly asked staff to note my Air India frequent flyer number which they did. This was clearly noted on all my boarding passes.
On my return to Australia I noticed that no frequent flyer points were awarded to me. On contacting Air India they told me I needed to produce the boarding passes and ticket and, if eligible, the points would be awarded. This process would take about four weeks.
It would appear that Star Alliance is a disorganised entity, unable to coordinate movements between partner airlines. Not only is this a bad reflection on the organisation itself, but individuals are being penalised for airline incompetencies. What, in effect, is the purpose of Star Alliance, or any alliance for that matter, if they are unable to coordinate basic functions.
Frank
.
I had an outrageous situation occurred with me during the flight OS No. 064 by Austrian from Beijing to Vienna on May 27, 2013.
Flight was approaching to its end and passengers in of the Economy were served with the final meal. A stewardess passing by my seat gave me the main food set but failed to offer me the rolls. In the latest moment I touched her elbow to draw her attention and it turned into loud shouting at me, telling me not to touch her.
I realize it may be annoying for attendants when passengers touch them, and I apologized right away for that. But on the other hand I felt offended with the way I was warned as I neither meant anything wrong nor touched her in an inappropriate way. Couldn’t it be less effective of her just to approach and told me politely about all that?
Lately the stewardess noticing my depressing mood and probably realizing that it may would have turned for her in troubles because of my possible complaint to a senior attendant went away behind the curtain to the front and came back soon with a man in the uniform whom I took as a senior member of the team.
I could expect everything but his first words that were: Why did you hit my attendant? The attendant herself in turn started to show a little red spot on her arm.
I depicted to the man all what happened before but he refused to accept my explanations and told me that nobody was allowed to touch the attendants. The attendant herself didn’t stay silent and spoke loud about her abilities of communicate in German and English. By the moment half of the cabin was entertained by the scene.
I realized that it was obviously a “teamwork” and there was no use of any longer appealing for the man’s understanding as he was not willing to listen to me and all his speech was just a way of disgracing me.
I asked if I could know the attendants name for a future complaint and his answer was just “No”.
Was it a top secret information or just a way to avoid troubles?
For the second day in a raw I have been feeling depressed by the situation and very much regret of my addressing the famous air company brand representative in that way. But what I still cannot understand is if I really deserved for such a disrespect and humiliation.
It also should be noted that right in front of my seat there was a young man who seemed to be in close relations to the youngest attendant and they did not much care about other people seeing them hugging and caressing each other during the whole flight. It was romantically nice to observe but it should not be acceptable for a respectable air company attendant behavior let alone the strict “No-Touch rule” I was accused in.
Victor.
I was traveling from Berlin to Cairo on Lufthansa (LH 582 on 5 October) . The airplane was very bad, one toilet was not working and closed and only one toilet was available for all passengers. added to that the airplane stopped broadening after few minutes of its opening and they announced that is was due to technical problem. the same airplane had another major technical problem few days earlier. we can understand that technical problem could occur at any time but not with this frequency and what is more important is the bad response of the captin, he refused to talk to the passengers and said that if there is any defect you can complain.
I would like to inform about the situation I faced with during my vacation. Having choosen Lufthansa and TAP Portugal as a reliable airlines, I booked my flights via Expedia.com.
The current itinerary was chosen because I found it suitable for my schedule. Already being in Portugal, I received an email from Expedia.com as follows:
We have received notice from TAP Portugal that they have made significant changes that impact your itinerary. We must speak with you as soon as possible to discuss the airline's available options, which may be very limited.
Having given them a call, I found out that TAP Portugal cancelled my flight from Lisbon to Moscow on 07/17/2011 WITHOUT ANY REASON. Firstly, I was suggested to fly Faro-Lisbon as was booked and Lisbon-Moscow the next day. I was NOT suggested ANY accommodation for a night. For sure, I refused. The agreed option was the following:
Sunday, July 17, 2011 | duration 3:05 TP 6671 confirmed
D: 04:10 PM Faro, Portugal | Airport FAO
A: 08:15 PM Munich, Germany | Munich International MUC | Terminal 2
Operated by TAP Portugal
Sunday, July 17, 2011 | duration 3:00 LH 2530 confirmed
D: 09:30 PM Munich, Germany | Munich International MUC | Terminal 2
A: 02:30 AM Moscow, Russia | Domodedovo DME
Operated by Lufthansa
(In practive, both flights were operated by Lufthansa.)
This itinerary was not as suitable as initial – but I had no choice. Besides, these flights cost LESS than I chose by myself. NOBODY suggested me to pay back the difference. I was NOT suggest for Business Class as an excuse for troubles and stress you cause me either.
I have received the link to my itinerary as a confirmation of my flight changes. Then I asked both Expedia.com and TAP Portugal to provide me with a new e-ticket (or at least with its number). I am a frequent flyer and make up to 30-40 flights per year. I know well negative consequences that could happen. Expedia.com assured me that my e-ticket had the same number. TAP Portugal ignored my alarmed email. It was impossible to reach Lisbon office of the airlines by phone ether.
What happened when I arrived to the FARO airport? I was not allowed to fly and was suspected in falsification of e-ticket. After my detailed explanations, it took over 1h to find out my e-ticket number. Lufthansa and TAP Portugal were refusing from their responsibility and were blaming each other.
Finally, I came back home but this situation cost him a lot of trouble and the situation I had should not happen to a dog.
Maria Frolova
i used voyager miles to book a flight from johannesburg/singapore/johannesburg
i then had to change my return flight from singapore/johannesburg
saa said they couldnt change it and singapore airlines say couldnt change
it
so my question to WHO DOES CHANGE the booking
Help this is so frustrating as nobody wants to change the flight even though
the flight class was avalible
I would and airline to responded to me and tell me how and with whom i change this booking
Hi
On my way to Russia, Air China flight CA917 (ticket # 999-[protected]-6) on Dec. 30th 2009 was canceled and I had to travel by car, bus and train to get to my final destination that time, No help or compensation was given. On my way back my Air China flight CA918 (ticket # 999-[protected]-2) was delayed over two hours, on 2010/1/08, I had missed my connecting flight on Hainan Airlines HU7102 (ticket # 880-[protected]) from Hailar to Beijing, and had to book another flight on Air China CA1132 (ticket # 999-[protected]) on the same day. This flight was ALSO late to Beijing, and I missed my Beijing connection flight to Shanghai on China Eastern – MU5138 (ticket #781-[protected]). Then, I had to book yet another ticket on Shanghai Airlines to be able to travel to Shanghai on the night as my original plan – FM9116 (ticket # 774-[protected]). This cost me 2 EXTRA FLIGHT FARES and a totally cancelled flight to Russia in the beginning. Air China agents were also not helpful at all, and refused to put me on Air China or Air China partner (Shanghai Airlines), even though this was clearly and Air China problem. This is unacceptable behaviour, and I demand FULL compensation for the lost Air China flight CA917 to Chita (Russia) plus for two extra tickets I had to buy as a result of Air China flight delays, an apology, compensation for lots of phone calls I had to make (roaming cost) to even be able to fly that day at all.
Summary:
CA917 cost CNY 1100,
CA1132 cost CNY 1250,
FM9116 cost CNY 1230,
Telephone roaming cost to book these flights from Hailar and Beijing – around CNY 500.
I demand to be compensated for the extra costs incurred total of CNY4080.
Please address this issue ASAP!
My contact details are:
Tatiana
E-mail: tatiana.ltshanghai@gmail.com
I have travelled recently on Egypt air from Sharm El Sheikh to cairo and believe me it was a mistake, the take off was the worst and the landing was a disatster i almost saw the wing tip about to hit the ground we were drifting from the runway and it was really dangerous, i had a pilot sitting beside me he said that a take off like that can casue the air craft to stall, and in similar wind conditions the pilot should have choosed to make a cross windd landing but he went for a normall landing, thank god i arrived safe even its 1 hour late but i will never fly wioth that carrier again.
Hi,
Today 22nd Sept I travelled on flight 1826 from Changzhou to beijing. I just want to say upfront I am a gold frequent flyer with Thai Airways, United and Singapore Airlines.I travel extensively all over the world.I also live in China and fly alot around here as well.
This I might say was one of the worst flights I have experienced, not anywhere up to the standard of other star alliance airlines i use. I only try to fly with these group but in China I will do my best NEVER to fly with your airline again.
The crew were very unfriendly and rude not one of them were happy or smiled and virtually threw the food, which was peanuts only, at all the passengers. For the last 45 mins of the flight all the crew were in the back galley laughing and joking, totally different to their attitude towards the passengers. When we were coming into land they all moved about 5 mins before landing and 3 walked past a lady lying across three seats with NO SEAT BELT ON and not one crew did anything, she stayed like that until the plane landed then immediatly turned on her mobile phone and started talking on it, nothing done again, about 10 or more people were doing this as well, the crew did nothing, then before the plane had reached the gate 60% of the passengers were up getting their luggage standing up, not one crew member asked them to sit down they just ignored it.
I went to speak to 2 of the crew about this and they did not care at all, in fact when i went away talking amongst themselves they were speaking badly of me for saying anything about this.I can understand more chinese than i can speak, they were extremely rude about me, calling me bad words. I tried to speak to the person in charge of the flight about my unhappiness but he pushed me to someone else of the crew, who told me to contact ground staff about this, I was really upset over the whole matter. If this is the standard of service customers get i will chose other airlines whenever i can. it was a continuation of the bad service i have experienced on other Air China flights as well.If this is the standard you set I will be telling as many of my friends as i can not to fly with you as your standards of service and safety are very poor.
I hope i get some answers over this .
I travelled on business trip on Egypt Air to Cairo and Casablanca from Johannesburg recently. The business class service is sub-standard with no service between meals. They seem overstaffed but pretty lazy. That brings me to my main bone of contention. For a month now my wife and I have been trying to get Mr Ashraf Ahmed, the Johannesburg Station Manager to return our baby's stroller. They had located it but simply refuse to return our property which actually cost more than the return ticket to Cairo. The staff at the Egypt Air office in Johanensburg were blatantly rude to my wife and have absolutely no idea of the concept of customer service. Egypt is now the last destination she will chose to visit again. I have to travel there regularly and enjoy the country and the people, but the national carrier is a disgrace to the good people of Egypt. None of teh South African offices actually answer their phones, so its impossible to trace a responsible senior person to help solve our problem. EgyptAir is part of the "Star Alliance" but it seems this non-alliance has no form of actually assessing or monitoring the performance of its alliance members (they're certainly not partners). I will intruct my travel agent to book me on a different alliance e.g. one world whenever possible.
very bad service