I am used to use Terminal 2 at the Munich airport a lot, because I am mainly flying Lufthansa, but since I am also flying other airlines, I have to use Terminal 1 more. Terminal 1 is the older Terminal of the Munich airport and you can see it. First of all, if you don’t get dropped off by car you will be lost. I always have rental cars but there is no signs in the lower level at which section (A, B, C, D, E) your airline departs. And if you try to look at the flight monitors you get maybe lucky. In my case I didn’t. My flights departure time was 11.50am but on the board they showed every flight from 7am to 11am. Why do they still show flights on the board which departed over 2 hours ago. Normally nobody wants to know which flights left 2 hours ago. But that’s not all…let’s have some more fun, with the Check-In counters of Skyteam Alliance…
I have to say Skyteam sucks, at least in Munich. I don’t know who is responsible for the ticket counters. If it’s Munich airport or Skyteam, but it’s a mess. You have to check-in on this self-check-in machines. This machines are a nightmare. If you are flying to any country and have to get a connection flight in the USA you screwed, because the stupid machine wants an address in the United States, but if I am in transit, i don’t have an address there and there is no way to select that you are just in transit.
Next problem is, if you try to enter your frequent flyer number. I don’t know which airlines frequent flyer system is accepted, but it ain’t Delta Airlines nor Air France. I typed in both numbers and just got the “wrong number” response. The machine tells you to see an agent, who can assist, but you have to be lucky to get a friendly agent, because every agent is redirecting you back to the self-check-in machines.
Next funny thing was, I had a flight with Delta Airlines and tried to use my Air France Frequent Flyer card. I couldn’t enter my account number at the machine, so i asked the agent to do it for me. She tried it and told me she couldn’t do it either, because the name on the card is not matching the one on the account. She explained to me, the problem is, that on the account the name is last name, first name and on the card the opposite way: first name, last name. Honestly Skyteam??? Next nice thing is, if you have to pay for something, like baggage fee or something, you have to go to the ticketing counter and pay over there. In my case just one position was open with a big queue.
At the boarding gate at my last flight with KLM, they didn’t even announced that they start boarding…the people just started walking in and the agent scanned the cards.
My personal opinion about Skyteam is pretty bad. They have to do something, but nobody is interested. Never got any response to my messages I sent them. Hope they get better soon.
Peter has a passion for Traveling, Photography, and Geocaching. These are the best ingredients for amazing adventures all over the globe. “Traveling is fun, no matter if you stay in a luxury hotel or travel like a backpacker.” Peter shares his experiences on his Blog www.gatetoadventures.com
Some of Peter’s photos are published on corporate websites, in-flight magazines, travel guides, and much more.