bostontraveler

So some interesting information.
Apparently LH421 departed last night from BOS empty. Just the crew and pilots.
The person at the *G/F check-in told me that she had never seen this in 30 years…
400 people left behind.. many of which were very angry at the service lines. Not much they can do- flights are overbooked for many many days.

On another note the boarding process was like that of a police state. A team of CPB agents stopping everyone as they boarded asking for passports and dogs sniffing backpacks.

Mentioned it to my seat mate and he said same thing last week on his flight.

I have been asked about money in the past. I also know US CBP can be super aggressive but what is the reason for a flight to FRA?

Is this a cannabis thing? Seems excessive to me…

daumueller

Why was there a boarding process for an empty flight?

what was the reason given for leaving all pax behind?

was it just the usual cbp crew with a beagle?

bostontraveler

no, the flight that departed with no passengers was last night. The staff was frazzled and the agent told me what I posted. Will be interesting to see what others post… I don’t think she would make it up. She apologized to me and told me she had been working until 2am…

As for the boarding gate sh&tshow it was excessive. Checking everyone’s passport and having dogs smell bags. Stuff of police states. Since when is this routine?

What are they looking for?

Pure conjecture on my part but given the slant of the agency I wouldn’t be surprised if they were looking for cannabis as it’s legal in MA… they have been more aggressive lately in prosecuting people per the Intercept… perhaps to scuttle increasing legalization… but who knows… point being that it was a bit of an excessive show of force IMHO….

Then again I don’t live in the US and don’t travel there too often…

FlyingJazzy

could be something related to the G7 happening in Germany in these days?
only my pure fantasy. otherwise, what can be the reason?

bostontraveler

I don’t think so… many of them probably think that Frankfurt is in a country called Hot Dog. Guaranteed none would know what the G-7 is ;-) is that a supplement?

US CBP has been doing these checks for years asking about money but never to the aggressive degree I saw yesterday with dogs sniffing bags and checking everyone’s passport…

FlyingJazzy

so whats the point to depart a flight with only pilots and crews with no passengers? pointless, IMOP.....

bostontraveler

to get the aircraft back I presume.
I mean, who cares about passengers!
very odd- will check back to see if there are any reports

8420PR

I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like it was a planned cancellation:

- Yesterday's inbound flight (LH420 - FRA to BOS) was already cancelled on 23rd June, as soon as the records were created. (source: https://www.flightstats.com/v2/fligh...tId=1097903962)
- Yesterdays outbound flight (LH421 - BOS to FRA) was also cancelled as soon as it was created, but on 27th June (source: https://www.flightstats.com/v2/fligh...tId=1098457952)

I can't find any empty LH flights yesterday: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/lh421

But looking at the two BOS flights (LH423 and LH421) there look to have been a lot of cancellations recently.

Concerto

This is what America has become and it's among the small number of reasons why I don't travel there any more. The behaviour of these people in particular is indeed like that in one of the so-called former totalitarian states. And you can be sure that they are beyond any reproach. Basically they can do what they want. It's been a downward spiral since the September 11th terrorist attacks. All in the name of safety and protecting everyone.

cfischer

You must not be traveling that much then. While not common, this happens every once in a while. Random checks happen on flights and dogs sniffing bags is nothing unusual at all. Had this happen last in IAH in 2019; no delay in boarding, they just asked everyone to lower their bags and hold them by the dogs. Was smooth.

Doubt this has anything to do with the cancellation of the flight. LH has a LOT of cancellations these days ...

bostontraveler

As I mentioned, not to the US- these days a few times a year. But I have traveled in and out of the US for 30 years and never seen this kind of show of force. Totally over the top.

i agree I think this had nothing to do with the cancellations. That’s a LH problem.

pdeut

I can't find any evidence that a plane actually operated LH420 out to BOS or went back empty...

curt

If it went back empty, I assume a flight number in the LH992* range as it would have been a ferry flight.

pdeut

None of the 343's or 744's have a 99** or LH420 flight on record for that route/day

bostontraveler

Couple of data points.
Yes, several BOS flights have been canceled this week- probably 40% of them.

With my flight I was originally booked on LH421 on 27JUN.
The flight was cancelled on 24JUN along with 2,000+ other flights and showed as such on the Lufthansa website but on ExpertFlyer it appeared but zeroed out.

I don’t know if LH was playing games
because when I called AC to rebook on Saturday my flight initially AC insisted it had not been cancelled until
I pointed them to Lufthansa’s website.

I have been assiduously following availability (per my other post) because I couldn’t find a single seat across the pond. I lucked out and got one seat on LH423 last night.

Interestingly on 26JUN (this is the day that the flight went out with no passengers- LH421–) in the afternoon EF showed wide open availability at the last minute which made no sense to me at all.

When I got to the airport I was told by the agent of that flight that had departed with crew but no passengers.

Maybe others can make more sense of it. What I can tell you is that LH is quite a huge mess…
LH in my mind was either playing it by ear or deliberately messing with passengers.

My flight last night was delayed by 40 minutes (email sent to me to advice me but baggage cutoff time was not extended accordingly)
which means to me a few people may have been dinged…

Who knows. Very poor management.