German district court rules in favor of pax in hidden city case

Old Mar 3, 2019, 2:00 pm
  #106  
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Just remembering this case:
Ticket states PHL-STR; Arrival delay of 5 hours at STR;
The airline would only pay EUR 250 and not EUR 600, because the delay occured on the LHR-STR feeder flight. And that feeder flight was less than 2500km.

This is how airlines see it:
a. If the passenger skips LHR-STR, he passenger is on the hook to pay a recalculated fare (new: PHL-LHR vs. old: PHL-STR), because old ticket was PHL-STR.
b. If LHR-STR is delayed by more than 4 hours, the airline suddenly forgets that the ticket states PHL-STR. Now, the airline only looks at the last segment LHR-STR.

My point: Airlines cannot have it both ways. In case a) the airline is claiming the ticket states PHL-STR. In case b) the airline doesn't even want to know that the ticket started in PHL, and not LHR.
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Old Mar 3, 2019, 3:29 pm
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Originally Posted by warakorn
Just remembering this case:
Ticket states PHL-STR; Arrival delay of 5 hours at STR;
The airline would only pay EUR 250 and not EUR 600, because the delay occured on the LHR-STR feeder flight. And that feeder flight was less than 2500km.

This is how airlines see it:
a. If the passenger skips LHR-STR, he passenger is on the hook to pay a recalculated fare (new: PHL-LHR vs. old: PHL-STR), because old ticket was PHL-STR.
b. If LHR-STR is delayed by more than 4 hours, the airline suddenly forgets that the ticket states PHL-STR. Now, the airline only looks at the last segment LHR-STR.

My point: Airlines cannot have it both ways. In case a) the airline is claiming the ticket states PHL-STR. In case b) the airline doesn't even want to know that the ticket started in PHL, and not LHR.
Apples and oranges. This has nothing to do with what the carrier determines and is determined by EC 261/2004 and the decisions interpreting it.

The law would provide for EUR 250 in your case. That has nothing to do with the contract one enters and which governs how the ticket itself is fared.
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 3:06 am
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Originally Posted by Often1
Apples and oranges. This has nothing to do with what the carrier determines and is determined by EC 261/2004 and the decisions interpreting it.

The law would provide for EUR 250 in your case. That has nothing to do with the contract one enters and which governs how the ticket itself is fared.
The law actually says (explicitely via interpretative guidelines) the whole journey matters, ergo PHL-STR, and it does not matter where the delay happened. Passenger has a right to full 600EUR compensation.
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 3:23 am
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Originally Posted by warakorn
Just remembering this case:
Ticket states PHL-STR; Arrival delay of 5 hours at STR;
The airline would only pay EUR 250 and not EUR 600, because the delay occured on the LHR-STR feeder flight. And that feeder flight was less than 2500km.

This is how airlines see it:
a. If the passenger skips LHR-STR, he passenger is on the hook to pay a recalculated fare (new: PHL-LHR vs. old: PHL-STR), because old ticket was PHL-STR.
b. If LHR-STR is delayed by more than 4 hours, the airline suddenly forgets that the ticket states PHL-STR. Now, the airline only looks at the last segment LHR-STR.

My point: Airlines cannot have it both ways. In case a) the airline is claiming the ticket states PHL-STR. In case b) the airline doesn't even want to know that the ticket started in PHL, and not LHR.
Correct indeed. The airline takes a self-serving approach to view each leg as a separate ticket or all legs as a single unalterable ticket. The choice depends on what view best suits its interests at the moment.
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 3:27 am
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Originally Posted by Nic33
Correct indeed. The airline takes a self-serving approach to view each leg as a separate ticket or all legs as a single unalterable ticket. The choice depends on what view best suits its interests at the moment.
The airline had no role in formulating EC261.
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 8:57 am
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Originally Posted by LondonElite


The airline had no role in formulating EC261.
But it had all the role in deciding what constitutes the "flight" point of departure, destination being explicitely defined in the regulation.
The decision to treat LHR-STR separately is even contrary to the case law and intepretative guidelines based thereupon.
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 11:14 pm
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Originally Posted by warakorn
A lot of banks offer the option to temporarily block a credit card. QR may select to try charging that blocked card with EUR 1400. Payment would not go through.
That wouldn’t change anything. They could still send you the bill.
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Old Mar 5, 2019, 5:42 pm
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Originally Posted by LondonElite


That wouldn’t change anything. They could still send you the bill.
The whole purpose is for them to make passengers try and get the money back, and avoid the carrier having to attempt to get it post-event. Just sending the bill takes them back to square one, i.e., the airline has to sue (see LH).
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Old Mar 6, 2019, 5:55 am
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Originally Posted by LondonElite
That wouldn’t change anything. They could still send you the bill.
Or hold credit on check-in
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Old Mar 7, 2019, 7:56 pm
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Is there any update on this matter? Is there somewhere where I can lookup the actual court documents?
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Old Oct 2, 2019, 6:08 pm
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Finally...

https://www.bild.de/reise/fluege/flu...5512.bild.html
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Old Oct 3, 2019, 1:13 am
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The article is at least wrong about the two most important facts.

1. That judgment only applies on that specific case. LH could sue other customers (even if it‘s likely that LH will lose again).

2. Even the first judgment is not about skipping the last segment in general. It is about skipping the last segment without the passenger knowing exactly the additional cost for that action during the booking process. So if LH starts to show that cost during the booking process, skipping the last segment could be expensive.

However, that are still very good news for passengers who wants to skip the last segment(s) of their flights. Everyone who wants to do that on further bookings should watch out during the booking process, if LH starts to show the costs/a fee for skipping last segment(s). If LH does that, you can‘t rely on the first judgment for new bookings.
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Old Oct 3, 2019, 1:28 am
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Good news ^
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Old Oct 3, 2019, 5:42 am
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Could you please make the title more informative?
Especially given that the article is in German?
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Old Oct 3, 2019, 10:19 am
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Originally Posted by Maniak
Could you please make the title more informative?
Especially given that the article is in German?
It's the follow-up of that case.

Lufthansa initially appealed and withdrew it recently.


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