sindjic

Live and learn...OP should have known better than to think LH is a charity.....maybe we need a sticky or something "vent your frustrations with LH"

I would consider in that situation to rent-a-car or take ICE (train) beside obvious looking at alternative airlines...I wonder if LH should also cover extra accommodation costs due to sickness (sarcastic)...

And yes, welcome to FT!

vbroucek

I am sorry - but no-show is no-show. Perhaps if you called first and explained to LH what was happening they might be more flexible. But you chose to do no-show, so you have to blame only yourself, not LH. You paid cost for your own stupidity, so live with it and do not balme LH.

On the contrary, LH can be very helful if approached properly. Few years ago, I was in Europe using heavily discounted C class fare (non-refundable, non-changeable, non-everything). My wife back here in Australia fell badly sick and I needed to get back as soon as possible. Believe me or not, for Euro 30 fee for some weird thing in Luxembourg where I was at that time, they managed to get me back home within 30 hours from my first call to them...^

G_G

OP never talks about charity and I hope you'll never have
disappointments with LH or you could be a writer in this sticky.

sindjic

Yap, I got my share of those but non with LH...did you get hosed as well?

flying_pig

I had a long discussion with a friend yesterday exactly about the same problem (he got a very bad fever early this month, couldn't make his flight and expected the airline to rebook him at his convenience). I fail to understand why someone thinks that the airline should be responsible.

Allow me to go a bit OT, but I think this is a very good example of the current proliferating idea of "entitlement", where people believe that is someone else's duty and responsibility to fix someone's problems (and then seek "compensation" if this doesn't happen). YOU get sick, it is YOUR problem if you miss the flight! I know it sounds harsh, but there are various options if someone is not prepared to take such risk, the main ones being: purchasing a flexible ticket, purchasing travel insurance.

Nevertheless, in my experience airlines are very accommodating when it comes to serious unexpected problems, if the outcome of such serious situations may depend on the airline's response. For example, I witnessed the following:
- friend stuck abroad, got sick and really needed to go back to her home country to get better cures: the airline (LH) waived the ticket rules;
- friend stuck abroad, suddenly had to attend a close relative's funeral: the airline waived the ticket rules.

Sorry, in this case I fail to see a compelling reason why they should have made an exception. What's the worst that could happen?
- option 1: the OP has to purchase a new ticket -> he can continue his business/holiday and loses some money;
- option 2: the OP doesn't want (or doesn't have the money) to purchase a new ticket -> he has to skip that part of the business/holiday.
It's a consequence that must be accepted if someone doesn't want to pay for insurance or flexible tickets. And, in my opinion, not such a serious consequence (definitely not an emergency).

Apart from all this, I hope that the wife is better.

German-FLyer

+1

There's a reason travel insurance is offered basically by almost all booking sites. If you want to save the couple of bucks, then it's your own risk. If you booked with a travel agent, then I would be mad at him/her for not clearly explaining the ticket rules and offering an appropriate insurance, not LH.

Hope the OP's wife feels better!

more4less

Hello cz_in-ca and welcome to FT!

A few years ago I had the same issue with tickets I bought for my parents in law. I made a mistake not to buy the insurance and my father in law got ill and they could not travel.
I wrote a letter to LH and enclosed a medical certificate. They were very sympathetic and reimburse partially the ticket and also the taxes.
Very likely, as someone mentioned here, it helped to have the Sen status.

Now I always make sure I have insurance from my credit card company and also I buy a yearly insurance for travel related issues.

I hope your wife has recovered by now.

dre_techie

Yeah, LH is like that, they wouldn't do anything on a promo Z fare for me. I needed to fly early. The idiot said if I was on a flex ticket... I told him I wouldn't have needed a reason to change while on a flex ticket!

They did allow me to book award ticket 26hrs before departure instead.

Airgroovin

I think this post is most relevant - and agree 101%! ^ Perhaps it's an Aussie thing?

If one had followed the above, it may not have been so bad... That said, I feel sorry for your wife, travelling whilst ill is not at all nice.

Cheers,

AG.

HONcircle

What does OP mean?

oliver2002

http://www.flyertalk.com/glossary/?letter_start=O

Doug_1970

I hardly think he's an idiot for pointing out the ticket rules to you. Why did you buy a ticket with no flexibility if there was a possibility you needed to change ?

The words pot, kettle and black spring to mind.

encierro98

Typically the health insurance in the states covers injuries and illness anywhere in the world. You pay a higher copay or deductible when "out of network", but you are still covered, at least on most of the plans I have been on. Credit cards usually cover baggage lost. So us Americans don't usually give travel insurance a thought (not saying that is the right, but just giving some background). I didn't even know about travel insurance until I was living in the UK. But in this situation it would have helped out a lot.

Being hosed by Lufthansa, well I am not too sure about that. The situation sucks, and if LH handled it differently that would be a big plus of course, but instead they handled it just like the T&C's said they would. But indeed if you didn't call ahead of time and explain the situation, why should they have bent the rules.

NickB

See posts #28 and #10 in this thread re US flyers and travel insurance.

While the OP was unwise in some respects in how he approached this and while the rant is more a reflection of his own lack of knowledge and experience than a failing on the part of LH (and hopefully the silver lining to his misadventure is that he will have become wiser on this point), it is also rather parochial to assume that what one regards as a self-evident truth is necessarily equally self-evident to everybody elsewhere.

German-FLyer

I agree. While we Europeans (especially us Germans) tend to like insurances or are often even forced to be insured, this doesn't seem to be the case in the US. Believing that you are not responsible for yourself on the other hand doesn't seem to be a US way of looking at the world either (if you believe FOX News it's even a rather socialist/communist idea ).

So while I do get why the OP didn't have travel insurance, I don't get why the OP believes he has been wronged in any way by LH and asks fellow FT members to boycott the airline (not saying that there aren't reasons not to fly LH...)

And as you already mentioned: Be prepared for the world not to always function like your home country.