xox

Have a flight in business EWR-FRA-RIX on March 30 (was looking forward to the 747 upper deck again). Latvia has cancelled all international passenger flights into Latvia until April 14, so Lufthansa will be required to cancel the FRA-RIX segment. Therefore I believe they will be legally obligated to refund our tix. I bought tix for friends in Ukraine who were meeting us in Riga, and AirBaltic has cancelled their KBP-RIX flight and has acknowledged that they will refund the tix. Airbnb also let us cancel our reservation in Riga with a full refund.

But Lufthansa still hasn't cancelled the FRA-RIX segment. In fact it is still possible to book flights FRA-RIX on the LH site during the prohibited period! Should I just wait until Lufthansa cancels the flight before seeking the refund? I worry that if I cancel online before LH has officially cancelled the flight, they will not refund the tix.

iadh

Mrs iadh has a TATL booking IAD-MUC for 3/30, now canceled, and I was looking at options. Yesterday, the LH website said "If you are unable to start your journey due to changed travel and /or entry restrictions in the context of the coronavirus, Lufthansa Group offers free rebooking or refund". (Got a screen shot of this message.)
Today, the same website only says "…, Lufthansa Group offers free rebooking". Seems they don't really have a plan.
In any case, LH canceled the flight, so they will have to refund, won't they? Or can they claim "extraordinary circumstance?"
Thanks.

INVERNESS

Yes my LHR MUC SIN segment was cancelled after it was changed from the original LHR FRA SIN. For my returned on the 25th of Mar they rebooked me on LX SIN ZRH but they could not rebook ZRH to LHR due to no availability. Anyway with Singapore just announced the stay home notice for UK travellers, trip to SIngapore now will have to be postponed.

klanfa

Since the flight is cancelled they have to provide a refund if you request one.

Raul_R

They will not cancel the flight until very last moment or until they completely shut down shop for some time.
All current travel and entry restrictions appear very quickly and can also disappear very quickly. But can also last longer than originally pronpunced. Do not take too seriously anything regarding terms and dates currently. I also have 1 of my businesses in Latvia (RIX) and know local situation. All the small states in Baltics, as soon they will find that isolation is too harmful for economy, may change their mind very quickly.

LH is very good on finding and delaing exceptions. You see, they even managed to continue flights to USA! Very limited, but still.

But anyway, IF your flight will be cancelled, you will get refund.

Raul_R

They CAN take control technically any moment.
But I think (not sure, just I think I read it somewhere) they will take control over all tickets anyway 23h before the scheduled first flight. Or when check-in is open.

Raul_R

Why?
If they do so, then will they be alive later?

I understand your expectations, but airlines are BUSINESSES.
They NEED to earn money to stay alive.
Goodwill will not pay the bills.
I fully understand, that airlines are doing that what is required by law. If they cancel your flight, they will return money.
If you want to cancel flights which actually will fly and you do not have unexpected entry restrictions for your destination, they offer you free rebooking.

headingwest

Well absolutely no help from them, even within 24hrs of check-in they are telling me to call the agent (who I have been trying to call everyday for over a week). Zero sympathy, zero help. What a nasty airline this is.

8420PR

Could be helpful for me if you could name the OTA. I think that's where the nastiness lies and would be interested to know so I can avoid them. Also with Austrian suspending operations you might get lucky and the flight cancelled.

headingwest

Tripair. But all I'm asking Austrian to do is to suspend the ticket so that it gives me time to rebook with the agent (if the agent survives!).

The flight is tomorrow, so unfortunately that will be before they shutdown operations. It looks like I've lost my money.

MichielR

Well just to say then that that “nasty airline” has suspended all flights for the coming weeks, having flown mostly empty planes for the last couple of weeks and having to respond to flight bans that appear overnight across the world. Imagine also having thousands of employees to worry about...

I appreciate that your case is not an example of good service but maybe you understand that airlines all of a sudden have hundreds of thousands of cancellations, rebookings and other cases to deal with.

The current crisis calls for people to be more considerate of others. Some of that might apply to how we see businesses and airlines as well.

Disclosure: all my travel has been cancelled but I don’t care as the well being of my family and friends is much more important to me at this moment than restitution of money, extension of FF status or other relatively insignificant things. I might just worry about those things after the corona crisis is over, when people including my dear ones are well and when the economy is getting back on track.

Carpacchio

With tonight's announcement of Macron and the closure of the EU borders, I am sure that the the air traffic (at least of the EU airlines) will soon arrive at a stop. No US travel, no Asia travel, no ME travel. And in the EU, half of the countries have some kind of entry barriers, too. Why would any airline still fly if not forced to ?

headingwest

For your information, I completely understand their current situation and was nothing but polite at all times. But you'd think that after explaining that I have been trying to contact my agent for over a week (with a flight departing tomorrow) that they might have wanted to at least try and help. They know fully well themselves how busy the phone lines are. All I was asking was for them to suspend the booking until I can get through to the agent, but no, they were having none of it, no help whatsoever. So yeah, a nasty airline, and the sort of customer service that I'd expect from a low cost carrier.

I am aware that all the airlines (and travel agents) are having a horrendous time, but you'd think that a little bit of understanding with what the customers are going through too. After all, when the dust settles on all this, they'll be needing our custom (but probably won't get mine now).

And of course I know that people's health and jobs are far more important than cancelled flights or money, I never suggested otherwise!

LondonElite

I’m tempted to roll out the line of ‘you get what you pay for’ with these cheapie OTAs, but you probably knew that.

televisor

Cargo? Diplomats?

Anyhow, what's the recommended way of getting an LH refund (they cancelled one of the flights on my upcoming ticket)? I've used the online form, but didn't even receive a confirmation never mind a real response. Is a registered letter likely to be more successful (they have an office in my country of residence, which seems like it might be the best option)?