I became aware of the unusual routing through MAN By the Lufthansa gate agent in Toronto. I was informed that I was no longer booked through Munich and I should go see Air Canada customer service to get checked in to Manchester.

i can only presume that Lufthansa (either automatically or through a human) did the rebooking since the last flight of the day to Malaga was now full or at least could not accommodate 5 passengers notwithstanding the “protection” I was offered earlier in the day.

As for the luggage it was tagged through Munich in Ottawa. I knew there was no way it would automatically be rerouted to Manchester (and then Malaga). I also knew there was no way the bags would be accepted into the Lufthansa flight to Munich since I was no longer on that flight. So I knew we would have issues with the baggage in our vacation, a situation my wife would not accept. She wanted the bags back before we left Toronto for proper retagging consistent with whatever new itinerary we were on and I agreed.

Finally, the morning Lufthansa agent I spoke to on the phone (see first post) either simply did nothing to “protect” me on the later flight to Malaga or screwed it up. My fear all along (see my second post) is that my call in the morning seeking “protection” on the later flight interfered with the automatic Lufthansa rebooking process. In other words, there would have been space on that later flight when the system sought to rebook me in the usual course BUT because I obtained “protection” there was no space showing and I was rerouted to Manchester as an alternative routing. in other words, I was the author of my own misfortune. Some of you say yes. Some of you say no.

Finally finally the rebooking to the next day was complicated because we were mid itinerary but the Lufthansa call centre agents were very knowledgeable about what steps needed to be taken to be properly released by Air Canada. These were not outsourced people. At least one had to be a very experienced agent as he had to guide the Air Canada agent with me holding my cellphone on exactly what to do.

Finally (times 3), let’s discuss the waiver by me if the likely compensation I was owed. My wife made it crystal clear that she was not prepared to go on vacation with our 3 kids if we knew (as we did) that the baggage would not accompany us. Note: we would have flown through Manchester if we had been reunited with our bags in time to get retagged by Air Canada. We were in the end about 30 minutes late. So I declined the initial rerouting offered by Lufthansa and waived compensation. That was my choice. I did that knowingly and voluntarily.

But friends. Trust me. If you knew my wife as I do you would say I made the right choice.

We needed Air Canada’s help for the rebooking because the coupon from YOW to YYZ was showing “checked in” and not “flown”’which is what LH needed to get control again. The fact that I momentarily checked into the flight to MAN exacerbated the problem I admit.

MAN to AGP was to be on BA CityFlyer.

The epilogue. The bags made it to Malaga today just fine but were segregated from the bags which originated in the EU. My heart stopped for awhile until I figured out that I had to clear EU customs in Malaga in a special area.