Originally Posted by
Jasper2009
Generally speaking rebooking into a lower booking class and getting a refund is only possible if you book a (nearly) full fare ticket.
Most fare rules explicitly mention that refunds of fare difference are not permitted. Most discounted fares require rebookings into the same fare class (if available) or higher.
(this obviously is a generalization since fare rules vary by carrier/route/etc.)
Your experience indeed does sound very odd (espeically if your TA had no problems rebooking you into the same fare class), but without knowing what fare you booked itīs hard to say whether LH was trying to "scam" you.
There has been more than the normal amount of anecdotal evidence posted in this forum that LH is pushing the limits of existing contract law to maximize the fees they can extract from customers who act under the naive assumption that they have bought "flexible" and/or re-bookable tickets (as stated on the face of the offer at purchase time), only to find games are being played with inventory controls (in the fine print of the complex fare rules).
In addition, during a meeting between FT/VFTers and select members of LH executive management (Spohr/Huber/Wagner) in Frankfurt in November, the LH management team, in a candid moment, came as close as one in such a leadership positions can in a public statement to admitting that they are using every means means available to squeeze revenue out of customers in a very opportunistic way.
I leave it to the reader to decide if that constitutes "scamming". @:-)