I never do, but another why not to put stock in airline reviews

I guess I don't see the direct correlation since every airline - highly rated or not - has cancelled flights at some point. It's still not the norm, but it happens and people get inconvenienced. There are plenty of other good reasons though not to put too much faith into reviews or to be smug about certain airlines' performance - at any point, you can be either elated or disappointed. Most of the time, things work out and you don't make a note of mundane, run-of-the-mill situations.

I live not too far from IAD and can say that this week has had totally volatile weather including daily thunderstorms, so who knows...

I might be tired from the guy in the hostel snoring all night but it looks like. We are boarding now off to Vienna

You failed to mention what time of year this was and why the Lufthansa flight was cancelled, but one cancelled Lufthansa flight would not have overloaded the hotel system in our nation's capital, so I suspect this was some type of weather situation that caused a lot of flights to be cancelled. So why pick on Lufthansa?

I have never had anything but the best of service from Lufthansa (and I've flown them many times). I've flown to Munich on two American flag airlines, and I can not say the same for any of them.

There was heavy thunderstorms this week and right now there are flood warnings for MD/DC/VA. Unfortunately, sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate with flights.

Jazz+Travels - Are you saying that the Lufthansa contractor at IAD refused to help economy passengers rebook their flights?

Hope your trip gets better.

We were very impressed with Lufthansa on our latest flight.

We were flying from Rome>Munich>Denver on May 8, originally leaving at 8:55 am, which gave us about 90 minutes to connect to the Munich flight.

As we waited at the gate, our boarding was moved back to 9:20 and word started filtering through the crowd that Lufthansa flight attendants in Rome were going on strike at 10 am, so Lufthansa was holding our flight to get some customers with later flights onboard. We also learned that they had moved the Frankfurt flight back, so that plane could also get off the ground before 10.

At 10 am we were on the plane, on the tarmac, backing away from the gate. Everyone of course was buzzing about missing their connection in Munich. There was a tour group of 56 people, plus a few of us random flyers, for the Denver nonstop flight. And there were many others for numerous other locations.

About 20 minutes before we landed, the flight attendants began reading off lists of destinations and instructions. Passengers heading to four cities (including Denver) were instructed to look for people holding signs with our city name when we arrived at the terminal. We were led through the airport, where our plane was being held, and we took off about 10 minutes behind schedule. Other cities were announced where flights had been rebooked; those passengers were asked to look for an agent waiting at the gate with their new flight information, already booked.

It was all done so smoothly. The behind-the-scenes coordination of flight changes and delays and rebookings was truly amazing. And, to our surprise, our checked luggage was waiting for us in Denver! We could hardly believe that it had successfully made the transfer too. So well done, Lufthansa!

I am so sorry this is the way you started your trip. I hope this is the only hiccup you experience. I am especially sorry because I know what it's like to be in this position, except for us it was American Airlines, Chicago, thunderstorms, a plane crew that had logged too many flight hours, a huge convention in town ( I believe you're in the DC area, so that would be the law enforcement convention) .......and we ended up sleeping in concourse K where we're guarded by security who chatted to keep themselves awake until TSA got started at 3 a.m. I also know that the airlines did much more to notify the business class passengers than they did economy. So, it sounds like Lufthansa is not the only airlines that handles things this way.

I hope things get better from here. And, in our case, posters on this forum came to our rescue in terms of helping with travel from Heathrow into London when our arrival time went from early morning to nearly midnight.

Sorry you ran into this situation which is eztra dosappointing on an international trip. We have had excellent experiences with several flights to Europe on Lufthansa. They need to be aware that their IAD based agents are not up to Lufthansa’s standards
Due to weather one time, our flight on American was cancelled after waiting eight hours to take off.
I recommend having an app for Booking.com to get a hotel room at airport as soon as a cancellation announcement is made. We did this in gate area as soon as we learned the bad news and got one of the last ones. Couldn’t get out for five days. No luggage made available. But I don’t blame American, just the weather.

My experience is that airlines rarely do a great job when a flight is cancelled. Did Lufthansa tell you why the flight was cancelled? Was it weather? Did their agent give you info on your rights, compensation due, and what they would reimburse? There are tons of hotels near Dulles. Did they get you rebooked?

My United flight from London to Dulles (on May 15th) had a rather turbulent descent into Dulles; I was relieved when we landed. We were an hour late as the flight was evidently re-routed to avoid the weather.

I pick based on route and price. Everyone talks about how great the European airlines are, but I just don’t find them to be much different than the U.S. airlines anymore. I had a BA flight canceled last year and BA customer service at the airport was basically non-existent. I rebooked on a different airline and applied for compensation.

The last time that I flew Lufthansa, they were fine but nothing special.

At least there was an airline to fly you.
One May, 1982 morning, we were waking up in Dover, England. We heard on television that all Gatwick flights were on time--except Braniff. Our airline cancelled all flights and was out of business. After 2 days of being mistreated and jacked around, we hitched a ride in Delta to Houston. I paid for a one way back into Memphis.

Wow David. Eye of the storm!

My son's Monday afternoon flight to BWI was canceled, so they flew out at 5:20 am the next morning and went straight
to pre-school and work. A few weeks ago his AF flight back to IAD from Paris was one of the few long-hauls canceled in the AF strike. Kid's on a roll. He's decided to only drive short distances for the rest of this summer.

As a family with young children, we got caught in the PATCO air controllers' strike in 1981, stuck in London for five days with no money. Customer service was non-existent. The Embassy got us on the first Pan Am flight out, one filled with families with children.

Hope all goes very well from here on and you make lots of great jazz and travels, Jazz.