Have you ever tried booking plane tickets online? Were you near a nervous breakdown? Yes? Then welcome to the club!!

Last night, my other half and I decided to finally book our flights to go to Germany over New Year's. It took him 3 attempts and me 4 attempts to book our respective tickets via Lufthansa.com.

We found the cheapest flights for our travel dates, and wanted to book via their website. However, since neither of us has a credit card, we had to ask our parents to provide their card details. The only problem with that was: We were meant to use that credit card as proof of identity at check-in. Since when is a credit card, without photo, birthdate or nationality on it sufficient ID? Try going down to the liquor store and use that as ID and I can guarantee it'll be refused!

We then tried to phone the booking hotline, and the "nice" operator wanted to charge an extra 20GBP for the privilege of talking to him. I declined - especially since my boyfriend managed to book his tickets via a hotline that refused to help me minutes later and he didn't have to pay for the privilege either.

I then tried to make a third party booking, which didn't work either. So I called them up again, and again was told to try what I'd just done. Somebody calls you and outlines a problem to you, and all the things they've already done to make that problem go away, and the only advice you can give them is to do the exact same thing again?? Honestly, I was so angry at one point, that I was shaking, and that doesn't happen very often!! If that's what they call good customer service, I think they've got it wrong!!

We'll be in Germany from 29th December to 6th January (my boyfriend) and 16th January (me - I'll be working over there), but I'm sorry to say Lufthansa have just lost a quite loyal customer. I guess I'll just fly with someone else from now on - preferably an airline, that has decent costumer service and easy online booking forms.