Lufthansa apologized within 24 hours after its sarcastic X reply to a customer’s payment complaint drew more than 15 million views and 30,000 likes in two days. The customer welcomed the apology but said the payment issue remained unresolved and emails unanswered.
PR experts said the response felt out of character for Lufthansa, unlike Ryanair, which has cultivated a cheeky online persona. They said a quick, sincere apology is a good step, but it does not replace making the customer feel heard and resolving the underlying problem.
Lufthansa did not say whether AI played a role. Parloa CMO Latané Conant speculated that the reply could have come from a poorly built AI agent or a human employee. An April survey of 1,000 Americans commissioned by AI customer-service firm Ada found that half of travelers surveyed did not mind whether an AI or human answered, as long as their problem was resolved.
