Lufthansa, definitely not German Precision

I would like to share with you, my recent experience with Lufthansa Airlines. My Wife purchased our tickets from Lufthansa via our travel agent, for our trip to Croatia. Our flight LH 573 departed to Frankfurt 13th June at 1900hrs, all went well, and we were allocated our economy seats directly behind ‘Business Economy’ for which we paid extra for and gave us extra leg room. The flight arrived on time, no problems. We were to depart for Split on flight LH 6004 from Frankfurt on 17th June at 1205hrs. This flight was delayed for 4 hours, and on arrival in Split, I found that my hire car had been cancelled due to my ‘no show’ and I lost my deposit US$ 350.00. There were no other cars available at that time. As we had planned to drive through to Gradac that same day, we had to re-organise our itinerary and stay in a hotel in Split for the night. We were able to arrange another car on the 18thJune 2024. On our return trip back to South Africa on 13th July, our flight from Split to Frankfurt LH 4283, due to leave at 1840hrs was again delayed by over 4 hours, which meant we missed our connecting flight to Johannesburg. On arrival at Frankfurt, we were confronted with a queue of over four hundred people all looking for hotel vouchers. I asked one of the ground staff members how long it would take to clear the backlog, she said between 3 and 4 hours. As it was 2300hrs She suggested that we book our own accommodation, and that Lufthansa will pay for it. We were without our luggage, which Lufthansa staff assured us would accompany us on our return to Johannesburg. At 0900 on on the 14thJuly we were advised by Lufthansa that we were re booked to fly to Lagos, Nigeria at 1100hrs that day, and we would be connected to an SAA flight from Lagos to Johannesburg. I subsequently contacted our travel agent and told him that it was unacceptable. This was changed to a direct flight to Johannesburg on the 15thJuly 2024. We were allocated separate seats with no benefit of additional leg room, for which we had paid. Prior to boarding we were assured by Lufthansa by SMS, that our luggage was on the flight. On arrival at OR Tambo, we found that one of our suitcases was missing which after reporting it, and following up, we have received nothing, and heard nothing. During this whole fiasco, Lufthansa has not contacted us once to see if they can assist in any way or to offer an apology for their shoddy service. Take my advice, for what it is worth, fly any of the Middle Eastern Airlines, which far outstrip any of the services offered by the old established airlines and are far better value for money.