@ experts: flight clx / rebooking / LH waitlist

Ok, here´s an "interesting" problem I´ve been dealing with for the last two weeks with no real progress being made, so I thought I´ll ask the FT experts for advice:

Situation:

- I had a confirmed award booking on LX F ZRH-NRT (ticket issued by US)
- LX cancelled the flight and rebooked me on LH C FRA-NRT and didn´t even bother to inform me about the change and the involuntary downgrade
- IMO LX is responsible for rebooking me on another flight in F as it is the operating carrier (US refuses to get involved as they didn´t make the change)
- there´s no award availability from any European city on my travel date (checked LH/LX/NH from MUC/FRA/LHR/CDG/ZRH), and flying on another date likely won´t work either as I´m just connecting in NRT and there´s no award availability on the onward flights
- I contacted LX, after initially even denying they had anything to do with the change, they admitted they had downgraded me to C (booking class I) and agreed to contact LH and waitlist me for F (booking class O) and get back to me within a couple of days
- Of course, no answer yet after more than a week, apparently I´m still on the waitlist

After spending many hours on the phone with various agents and supervisors from US/LX/LH I´m getting slightly annoyed of being lied at and/or told to contact someone else, so the problem still hasn´t been resolved.

Questions:

1. Is there any chance of the waitlist clearing? LH usually doesn´t open up O inventory on the A380 for pax who don´t have SEN/HON status, so I´m wondering what the point is of being on this waitlist.

2. Would LX be liable to pay compensation for this involuntary downgrade despite the fact that they´re not the ticketing carrier and this is an award ticket? (trip originates in the EU; FRA-ZRH-NRT-xxx)

3. Any advice on how to solve this problem (I may just give in at some point and spend 11h in LH C )

Thank´s in advance!

You might just get your miles back...other than that you can check if they will re-route you to IST and then TK F...

I'm afraid I can't answer your questions but my understanding is that it's the responsibility of whoever ticketed your flights (in your case US) to sort out any problems arising from cancellations, etc.

I'm surprised to hear LX has cancelled a daily flight to NRT. May I ask when you are planning to travel? I also have an award on LX F ZRH-NRT with US miles for next year.

No miles refund, as my itinerary still involves some F segments. I travelling onwards to SYD via BKK.

TK doesn´t have any availability, plus their 77W with F is about to disapppear as they are returning the aircarfts to Jet Airways.

Well, apparently US won´t/can´t fix the issue as they didn´t make the change, they´d be willing to reroute me if there is any availability, but of course there isn´t much award availability around Christmas, I have even been looking at some strange routings like FRA-SEA-NRT-BKK-SYD, but I´m still hoping for this issue to be resolved.

It´s my understanding that it´s LX´s responsibility to fix the problem as they cancelled my flight. LX (after spending many hours on the phone) now agrees with me on this, but haven´t been very successful yet.

ZRH-NRT has been cancelled on Dec. 26, not sure whether it´s a schedule change.

No flights on Sundays (November 1 - March 26):

[KVS Availability Tool 5.8.0/Diamond - Amadeus: Timetable/DE-AONL6]
Goes back to daily on Mar 27:

[KVS Availability Tool 5.8.0/Diamond - Amadeus: Timetable/DE-AONL6]

Can't you ask LX to waitlist you on any LH flight from Germany to Japan that day? Not sure if they all operate that day, but other then waiting for the highly unlikely A380 flight can't you go MUC-NRT or even FRA- KIX or FRA-NGO? I mean I don't know your full itinerary, but at least it could get you to Japan and then via a domestic NH flight to Tokyo.

At this point I think you will have to try to be as imaginative as possible. Worst case (unhappily) I would suck it up in LH C. Good luck.

Thank´s!

MUC-NRT is the next flight I´m trying to waitlist for, LX will only waitlist me for one flight at a time. I find it somewhat annoying I´m trying to fix their problem, but nevermind...

I was considering FRA-KIX (there is award availability in F) and FRA-NGO, but there is no availability in any cabin on NH KIX-NRT/NGO-NRT that day. (and most intra-Asia flights leave from the domestic airports HND/ITM etc.)

As noted above, I´ve been exploring some very crazy routings like flying via the US/Canada and Asia to get to SYD, but I can´t really find anything without several overnight transits (e.g. most flights to Asia from the US leave at noon, while most flights from Europe arrive in the afternoon).

My itinerary currently is FRA-NRT(LH)-BKK(TG F)-SYD(TG F), so I´ve also been looking at alternative routings like FRA/LHR/CDG/ZRH/MUC-ICN/SIN/NGO/KIX-BKK, but with no availability on Dec. 26. (Due to visa issues flying via China is not an option)

I am still of the opinion that US needs to resolve this, not LX. LX is just acting on behalf of US, who has issued the ticket.

But this is the perfect scenario for the "blame game" and I am not surprised that US does not do anything. This is what you should expect when collecting miles with one of the worst airlines out there.

Good for you that you could get LX to help. Ultimately I think you will have two options. Either return the entire ticket for a full refund or accept flying in C. I know it sucks, but you will survive......

S

Just being curious, what would you ask US to do? They´re claiming they can only work with the award inventory made available to them, they searched for availability and found nothing, and I´m pretty if there is any creative routing with availability, chances are that either me or some other FTer will find it.

If it were a LX ticket, I´d ask them to rebook me into a revenue booking class if need be, but this won´t work as US has to reissue the ticket (which they obviously won´t as they´ve have to pay for the revenue segment)

Well, if your booking was confirmed then it is the issuing airlines responsibility to either rebook you in F or to compensate you for flying in C. Even if it's an award booking you paid for these flights with your miles. And even if your flights hadn't been confirmed you, of course, still wouldn't have to pay for an F flight while travelling in C.

As the majority of my legs are still in F, US refuses to refund any miles, even if they agreed to refund some of the miles, we´d be talking about 5k-10k miles. (F award is 150k miles, C award is 130k miles)

They will have to either rebook you in F, refund the miles or pay compensation. But I understand that 5-10k may not be worth the hassle to you.
Since your flight was cancelled and you had your confirmation before, award inventory should not matter. If there are free seats in F, they should book you on one of those.

Strange. swiss.com shows LX160 ZRH-NRT operating on Dec 19, Jan 2, Jan 9, etc. and it looks like only on Dec 26 that the flight is cancelled.

Strange indeed. One could usually trust Amadeus in the past...