Hardy

Does anybody know if there is still a LH waiver in place beyond those mainland flights that are now cancelled anyways? Particularly interested in PEK-FRA on April 8...

chris63

The LH app says free rebooking & refunds for all mainland China routes without any date criteria

Mozart0815

That's interesting. I have a Swiss award flight to HND and PVG in late April and M&M is still trying to charge me €50 for the cancellation.

Hardy

I just called the OTA and they checked with the LH desk. No luck for my dates (March to HKG, April return from PEK), and apparently no waiver at all in place. Let´s hope that they were just not informed yet...

Hydro88

I think that sentence is meant to be read in conjunction with the subsequent explanations (the pop ups for "refund", "rebook" etc.) and the actual policy can be found there.

Hardy

Those "pup-ups" link only to the standard T&C. But this was the same when there was still a waiver in place.

I wonder why they added that last sentence (btw also to be found on lufthansa.com) if there is no new waiver for flights to/from mainland China. At least according to Expedia and their LH contact.

chris63

Good that you moved this to the lurkers, their misleading information on LH.com & the LH app needs to be addressed

GBbizflyer

Yes, unfortunately Swiss and Lufthansa are still not allowing any changes to HK bookings. Appreciate they aren't legally obliged to do so but from a PR perspective, surely they could gain positive reactions. Other airlines including BA are allowing customers to rebook/refund HK flights. I am booked to fly HK on Swiss. I haven't flown Swiss for many years and I was tempted by one of their recent promotions ( now regretting) My initial plan was to fly into HK and then take the train up to China. Off course, thats no longer an option. I've called Swiss and tried appealing to their better nature, but to no avail and if I cancel, I lose a large % of the airfare. HK is like a ghost town with most attractions closed and today, yet another restaurant group closed most of its outlets. I just wish Swiss/Lufthansa would allow people to either postpone or offer a refund.

unusualtravelblog

Same story for me... Im scheduled to fly on the 6th of March and I'm looking for neighbour countries to fly to but many have banned flights from HKG: the Philippines, Japan and Taiwan so far...

ChrisBub

I am not quite in the same boat, but have LX J flights to HKG at beginning of May, so hoping it has improved by then. Was also trying to find somewhere nearby to go for a trip from HKG, so will have to figure out that closer to the time.

GBbizflyer

I considered Taiwan but that's no longer an option. Thought about S Korea but unsure of how long they'll continue accepting flights from HK. Also, don't want to get stuck in another country and unable to get back to HK for flight home. At least the outward flight is almost empty.

shandy01

Apologies for bumping this up again but would appreciate the wisdom of the wise folk on here!

I do appreciate the position that LH (and their Group airlines) have found themselves in and it would not be economically wise/prudent to allow blanket refunds/rebookings on all HKG flights. However when there is information in the public domain/forum that LH (and their Group airlines) are exercising discretion and allowing refunds/rebookings for non-refundable tickets to HKG in certain circumstances and for certain customers, where do the boundaries lie here? Admittedly I was slightly naïve to book through an OTA - something I would never usually do - however, when we asked for help on LX's Twitter page, their initial posture was quite positive and appeared to want to help (these flights are for my elderly in-laws, who were using HKG as a transit point to get to the Philippines and therefore would be stranded in HKG if they got the flights this weekend) …. however when learning this was an OTA booking, they backed away.

We have ended up in a vicious circle with the OTA (after waiting 1-2hrs on the phone each time) telling us to contact LH/LX Group directly and with LH/LX Group telling us we need to contact the OTA and/or consider a chargeback.

Is it unreasonable of us to expect some goodwill here and either the OTA and/or LX (outbound carrier) to allow some flexibility and allowing a date change? I've never actually flown on LH and do not know what their customer service 'mentality' is. I am a BA/QR regular and have had good experiences of them in similar circumstances (granted status may have helped). At the time of booking in Jan, we did not know that the Philippines would initiate the flight ban. Crucially, what I am concerned about here is that there appears to different rules for restricted tickets dependent on who folk actually speak to at LH/LX (from this chain and another forum). Like I say, it was not wise to book through an OTA and is not something I would do again (I was tired and couldn't get the itin to price up on the LX website) but it's awful to think of my elderly losing their money (they don't usually fly in J!).

Thanks in advance.

behuman

OTA's get a commission and that is exactly why THEY have to handle this kind of things. LH/LX will not touch a ticket issued by an agent.

It appears that you were aware that booking with an OTA bears risks. If you paid a low price it might have been worth it.

A chargeback on a valid contract could land you in legal troubles. It's something I would never do except in cases of fraud of a service provider.

Cancel the ticket with the OTA and hopefully they will make a goodwill gesture.

shandy01

Many thanks for the response.

I've explained the situation to AMEX (and that it was the LX associate who intimated to go down the chargeback route). The last time I called Opodo, I was waiting for an hour and an half so was a bit loathe to go through that again (for the 4th time). I'm just trying to get a flavour for what folk think is reasonable/unreasonable (ideally we just want to push the flights back a few months now, in the hope the flight ban will be lifted).

Hardy

OTAs have a LH Group contact to solve such issues. You should insist that the OTA contacts LHG and explains your case. Having said that, on my last calls to Expedia they called LH just to come back with the information that there is no waiver and no exceptions, with the advice to wait if things will change. Will continue to ask...