sony2012

Hi all, I am not a frequent LH flyer (and I started avoiding them for years due to an incident happened in 2014) so I want to ask for some advice from regular LH flyers. I bought a ticket from LH through a travel agent but it is all UA direct flights. For some reason LH codeshares were cheaper than buying directly at UA but the ticket didn't involve any LH flights and it is only direct UA flights without any stopover so it worked for me well. But it seems like UA just cancelled the flight and LH put me on their own metal with a stop in Germany instead of the original direct flights (outbound only because the inbound flight is still valid), so the flight time is longer and i have to depart in the morning etc. I was given a really inconvinent alternative but there is no other direct flight with any Star alliance partners on the route. I was wondering if LH are required to put me on other airlines flights because it was cancellation due to the airline. What is the policy and common practice at LH?

When I looked at the LH condition of carriage, it has the following clause:
"If we make a significant change to the scheduled departure time after you have purchased your ticket and it is not acceptable to you, and if we cannot rebook you on a suitable alternative flight, you will be entitled to a refund in accordance with Article 10.2."
I believe changing the flight time over 6 hours is a significant change? And they seem to indicate that I can get a suitable alternative flight, so does it mean they can book me on a suitable alternative flight, which actually exists but on other legacy airlines beyond star alliance...
For your information, it is beyond 14 days (actually i am flying in a month) so no Ec261 enforcement for the direct flight either? Ec261 for rerouting is also very vague:
"re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or,
re-routing at a later date at your convenience under comparable transport conditions, subject to the availability of seats."
It doesn't say it has to be the same condition of the original flight....

SK AAR

LH is not going to rebook OAL when there are LH flights with a connection in FRA or MUC despite incovenient to you. There is no obligation to rebook you OAL this far out.

I suggest you contact your OTA and ask to cancel/refund due to cancellation. Then you can book the flights that you prefer now.

sony2012

now the prices have gone up, cancelling is not a better deal anymore. It is a bummer that they don't offer the direct flight as I paid an extra for direct flights...In my opinion, there should be remedy for this sort of situations, they charge extra for direct flights, so they make money, they should be offering in case the flight change/cancellation is up to them but that is just my opinion and airlines are probably powerful enough not to make that a rule.

In any case, I changed to UA flight with a stopover, so at least I can save my transit time for immigration instead of waiting in Germany. Is there a way to get my united confirmation on LH tickets? The agent at LH couldn't see the united confirmation and I can't find my reservation on UA even though my UA FFP number is added in the reservation. Also, can I check the booking class for the changed flight? LH website shows nothing of class or ticket type I have....

oliver2002

You can call united and have the agent look up your details. BTW your travel agent is one who can all these changes for you, thats what they ear their commission for...

SK AAR

Airlines will adhere to the applicable regulation and in the regulation there is no obligation to offer a direct flight with another carrier when the airline in question offers to rebook you to its own however, indirect flights same date. The airline is obliged to offer you to cancel and get a refund but I understand that this is not in your interest. Then I fail to see what more can be done for you.

sony2012

I thought i was clear that it is my opinion that there should be rules in this sort of cases but you seem to be in favor of the airlines.

athome

It is not a question of being in favor for the airline. On not regulated tarifs, all airlines rebook first on their own metal / within their alliance. Only as last resort (e.g. if the respective alliance is not flying to the destination anymore, they will book to airlines outside of their alliance.
The story is different, if one books an official IATA tarif ( which nobody books anymore, as it is outrageous).

SK AAR

Referring to how the rules should be, will get you nowhere. I'm merely relaying to you how the rules are/ how the reality is, not my opinion in favour of anyone.

AxelJF

Hi all!
I have a question on the general rules when flights were being cancelled.
I have a LH booking that includes AV flights (domestic flights RCH-BOG). Some time ago the AV segments were cancelled and auto-rescheduled (new flight number, moved by 2 hrs). This won't affect the LH-operated international flight (BOG-FRA). In fact, it shortens the transit time. I didn't reacted to usual LH info mail that requires you to act upon it by confirming, etc. etc ... I wanted to keep the option to do something with the flights if needed (hoping I'm correct with this assumption). Now I actually considering changing the routing and the travel days, so I hope the cancellation comes in handy to give me that right. Does such a cancellation for just one flight actually give me the right to completely change the whole booking and other segments without paying for change fees and fare differences? Or will they tell me that I can only touch and change the affected flight and other segments would be recalculated if I intend to change them?

And, if affirmative for the whole booking, does the initial booking class need to be available on my desired new days (in my case P) or will they be able to rebook me as long as there are seats available but in higher booking classes (Z, C, D)?

Thanks for any clarifications!

SK AAR

You will not be entitled to a free (invol) rebooking as there is no delay at final destination and as your new AV flight doesn't depart earlier than the originally booked flight.

If you contact LH regarding rebooking I'm quite sure that the agent will inform you that rebooking/rerouting is allowed but payment of fare difference is required.

AxelJF

I think I was not very clear. Both of the domestic segments were cancelled and rescheduled under new flight numbers with 2 hrs time difference, i.e. creating a later departure for the outbound journey (5pm instead of 3pm), and earlier arrival upon return from the inbound journey (10am instead of 12am). I am under the impression that the only thing that matters in such circumstances is a) whether a flight is cancelled and b) whether a subsequent rescheduling creates a time difference of +2 hrs - no matter whether that causes a delay or shortens the whole trip as it is still a significant change of schedule and thus diversion from my initial itinerary.
So, I am quite sure I have the right to do something with these two legs, I am just not sure if that also allows me to thereby impact the rest of the journey and move my travel dates, for instance.

Another related question: what is LH's policy on changing the departure city within a country? Is that allowed? When I booked there was no price and booking class difference between RCH-BOG-FRA vs. BOG-FRA. Would I thus be able to delete the first leg and just start the journey in BOG?

ex-koelner

It's not any 2 hour difference that occurs somewhere in your itinerary. Only if the new arrival time at your final destination is more than 2 hours later than originally booked or the departure time at your first place of embarkation is more than 1 hour earlier than originally booked, you will have a base to discuss changes to your ticket. Also, as far as I understand the rules, you may change the routing, but the origin and destination have to be the same than originally booked. the only exception would be a metropolitan area with two airports like JFK and EWR. So I'm pretty sure that you cannot use a ticket you booked to FRA to travel to NYC instead.

AxelJF

So called up Lufthansa yesterday.
Two interesting things:
1) Removing the first and last segment was absolutely no problem and done within two minutes. I guess since the point of departure was still within the same country (i.e. Colombia) it was doable. Moving the departure city to PTY and thus outside of Colombia wasn't possible though and would have caused a new fare calculation.

2) I wasn't allowed to change the routing any further. My return routing is CPH-ARN-FRA-BOG since we had the plan to spend a nice in Stockholm as well which we now had to drop. The agent tried to get rid of the ARN transfer but faced a new fare calculation each time. So, I was told I had to stick to the routing as changing that would be a voluntary change. Although, and that's the really bizarre thing, I could change the flight times and dates while keeping the routing. So, flying now the same routing a day earlier with shorter transit. Now someone explain me please where the line is drawn between the so called voluntary changes and whatever lies beyond that line that allows me to change stuff.

Will try to drop by the service desk in FRA to get some first-hand FRA-based info on that, since I'm a bit confused by it.

gojko88

It's pretty simple, actually. Your origin and destination countries must stay the same. If the airline changes the schedule or cancels one of the flights, you have the right to a re-routing with a change of dates and also departure/arrival airports within the same country (within a reasonable distance). Taking ARN out would have changed the "geography" of the ticket and therefore trigger a fare recalculation. Ditto for moving the departure airport to another country.

SK AAR

Sorry, I fail to see how a schedule change for your domestic flight in Colombia (which was cured by removing these segments at your request) have anything to do with your prior CPH-ARN-FRA flights. It can hardly be a surprise that it is regarded as a voluntary rerouting if you request to drop ARN and be rebooked to CPH-FRA.

Wait for schedule change or cancellation of your CPH-ARN or ARN-FRA flights to rebook these segments.