Hello,

First post here and I would truly be grateful for any insight.

Our oldest child has Autism. We travel with him across the pond from the US to Europe twice per year and usually have a segment on Lufthansa, as United is our primary airline. Until today, when I have called Lufthansa for our son's disability-related seating request, we have never run into a problem. We do not request extra legroom seats or bulkhead seats or early boarding or anything more expensive - plain and simple economy class is what we always reserve and it works great for him. All that is needed for a successful flight is for him to be seated in a middle seat between my husband and I, his adult caregivers, and to be in a row that is at least 2 rows away from the WC due to the noise from the toilets flushing (causes sensory meltdown).

We didn't have any trouble when I called about our most recent Lufthansa flight just last July, but as of today, Lufthansa is insisting that to accommodate the disability-related request (again, not involving a service class change or seat upgrade), we each have to pay a fee for seat selection. When I asked how they would handle the disability request if it was an individual who was missing lower limbs who needed to avoid a window seat, the reply was vague and along the lines of how there are things in the system to accommodate some disability requests but ours doesn't fit, and that they are happy to provide him with a wheelchair free of charge (which he doesn't need and which I would never want to occupy when others do need it!).

We would be so appreciative of any advice. I am more than 2 hours into being passed around from representative to representative on the phone, and then disconnected and having to start all over again.

With gratitude from a weary mom,
AUTravels1