What’s wrong with Lufthansa? It’s the only international business class I’ve ever flown. Had good experiences compared most domestic airlines in the US.
The international business class is simply inferior to most of its competitors. Other airlines offer larger seats (4 seats per row vs. 6 seats per row). Their onboard entertainment systems use more modern hardware, provide a better selection of content, and sometimes even integrate better with personal devices. The culinary options are less refined. Additionally, Lufthansa still charges $27 for in-flight Wi-Fi. Their lounges are also subpar — smaller, more crowded, and with fewer culinary options. This is based on my personal experience flying with Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss (all part of the same group), British Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Turkish Airlines. However, other business travelers echo these sentiments. It's noticeable that they enjoy a lack of competition in their home country of Germany, since some healthy competition would force them to actually improve their business class offering.
I flew with them a few times as well as KLM, Emirates, and Singapore. Lufthansa's customer service, on-board experience (i.e. food & entertainment), is not on par with the others. When a flight got canceled last minute, we were left hanging with a number to call and a long waiting line, and we are still waiting for our reimbursement. On the need to reschedule due to a positive coronavirus test, it took 16 minutes with KLM to reschedule and almost 3 hours with Lufthansa and a bunch of (online) paperwork.
On top of that, some strange management decisions like completely stopping pilot training and laying off the ones that started during Covid while getting financial assistance from the state and 2 years later struggling with a pilot shortage.
They canceled my flight to Dubai on the day of the flight with no alternatives offered/booked. I booked them because I thought they were reliable even if more expensive than alternatives. Never again.
