Oil-man

Hi to those on the Lufthansa discussion thread.

A couple of weeks ago I booked directly on the Lufthansa website and spent several hundred UK pounds on some flights for the family.

I received confirmation e-mail, and referenece from Lufthansa, and all flights are confirmed.

Checked my credit card statement on-line a day later and the Lufthansa transaction was pending. Usually this happens for a day or so and then it becomes a debit on my credit card.

Well this time the transaction just dropped off, and now I have the confirmation from Lufthansa, but they have not billed me (these are non-refundable tickets).

I don't want to do Lufthansa's job for them, and I'm not in the mood to pursue them to invoice me. But, what would happen if I left this and didn't contact Lufthansa?

Would I get the flights for free? Or would it all kick off at the check in counter when they realise the flights have not been paid for?

Thanks in advance.

oliver2002

check if the tickets have been issued. This is indicated if you can see a ticket nummber on your reservation if you use www.checkmytrip.com or try to locate the ticket details on eitr.amadeusasia.com

Usually there is a ticketing time limit on your booking depending on the rules of the fare that was used to price your booking. If the TTL is long enough, they might ticket later.

Oil-man

Thanks, I checked www.checkmytrip.com and my booking is there.

I spoke with the credit card company at the time and they said that they had pre-authorised the funds successfully at the time of purchase, but Lufthansa had not followed through to collect the funds.

These are definitely non-refindable tickets. It's a mystery why they haven't billed me yet.

As I said I'm not chasing Lufthansa to bill me, but on the other hand will they know something's up when I go to check in?

oliver2002

If there is no ticket number it means the booking is there but no ticket to account for the cost. If there is no ticket, the checkin can't process you and you stay where you are unless the ticketing desk issues a ticket because LH's web booking engine didn't do it correctly.

The risk is that the system will cancel your booking because no ticket was issued in time. That means you will have to run after LH and prove you did everything right to get the booking reinstated and the ticket issued with the original fare.

If you like to live with the uncertainty and are prepare to argue your way on the day of departure, be my guest

Oil-man

OK, been back to checkmytrip and looked at the e-ticket numbers

It says;

Only e-ticket numbers are displayed when they are issued

Document XXX-XXXXXXXXXX
Document XXX-XXXXXXXXXX
Document XXX-XXXXXXXXXX

I've left off the numbers, but these are the ticket numbers for the flights that have been issued. At the bottom it does say under flight payment - not available.

Therefore, I've definitely been given ticket numbers for each flight

supermasterphil

If you have these ticket numbers starting with 220-8digits, you are good.

I once booked a flight with LH about a week before I flew and even the night I did the flight, I hadn't really paid for the flight. It showed up a couple of days later.

oliver2002

Then go to http://eitr.amadeusasia.com/index.aspx and check the actual ticket to see which credit card was charged

deneru

Once happend to me I bough tickets for my family as well, and they didn't charged it becasue my name and the name of the passangers didn't match. They sent an e-mail to my family contact to fix that, wich I did without any problem.

So maybe a good idea to ask LH if there is a problem.

romster

Hi all

long time reader, first time poster..

The exact same thing happened to me as well last spring. Booked with LH for the whole family a short haul Europe flight. Got the e-tix everything in order. When we rolled up at the airport they couldn't check us in and indeed had no record of our booking.
We were then referred to the customer desk, spent about an hour there to finally get new tickets (at least for the same amount). But it meant that we now had four very scattered seats and had to find helpful people ready to move so that we had two pairs and were able to sit next to our 4 year olds.

I simply haven't checked my CC statement to be honnest which is why I didn't notice. But my advice is to get it sorted.. or you could be in for a nasty surprise...

SmilingBoy

Welcome to FT, romster!

With this:You mean you actually had the 13-digit ticket numbers starting with 220? Or do you refer loosely to the booking confirmation (something entirely different).

Oil-man

OK, went to the site suggested and it tells me that the credit card I used to book the flights has been charged. But it hasn't actually been charged!

Oil-man

I have the ticket number for each flight starting 220.

romster

Thank you..

Hm.. very valid question. I really don't remember but will check later.. good thing I'm a bit of an email collector...

synd

on some occasions lh has taken more than a while to actually charge my credit card (several weeks), but don't worry, they will not forget about it.

carpetbagger

Maybe your credit card has already been charged but you can`t see it yet in your online account. @:-)

Just wait some days or weeks.