Originally Posted by
cfischer
The LH app sometimes works better. Could have been an out of order reservation with the requested UG, a quick call might have fixed that. No, you will NOT be marked as a noshow if you skip the train. You can’t take another train (that only works in Switzerland) and you should NOT show up in FRA before the train would have arrived … but there is no positive check that you actually took the train.
Thanks for explanation. I am not 100% but I vaguely recall one of the conductors ex-FRA on the DB train (outbound leg - not the missed one ex QDU) actually scanning the bar code on my BP. I could be wrong. Others (later in the same train leg) just checked it visually.
Walk-up train fare QDU-FRA was IIRC ~100 EUR which is also not really fair. In any case, seems like a rather big down-side to Express Rail - none of that is intuitive, or available online (certainly not at 10pm before 6am train!). I still cannot understand why LH/DB does not empower agents to issue (at least the train portion of) tickets. I had a confirmed seat on the specific ICE train and the DB ticket/help office at Dus central station refused to assist in getting my BP (or even pulling up my reservation) for that leg. And of course the LH code did nothing on the DB site. IIRC, Air France has a small ticketing office at some of the larger train stations for precisely this reason...
I will push UA for some compensation against the ~900 USD change fee (to change to DUS-LHR-IAH). I understand I will not get the full amount (probably a small amount of miles :\ ), but it is ridiculous to sell a ticket from an origin (QDU), with a LH flight number, where there is zero staff for LH; and further not to have some arrangement for DB to, say, at least print the train ticket + send pax to FRA to handle the rest.
PS Re UG, I spent 1hr on the phone with UA trying to remove PlusPoints, but agent claimed not to see (they came from friends account - but I gave them the full MP account number) & said to contact LH re: upgrade waitlist...