Howard Long

Hello

I have a ticket issued by an OLTA on a singe PNR issued by LH BHX-FRA-DEL-BKK outbound 21 July and BKK-BOM-ZRH-BHX return 23 July.

The first flight BHX-FRA LH959 for 6am this morning was cancelled yesterday evening.

I tried rebooking with the bot and with an agent but there was no availability.

The flight numbers are:

LH959-LH760-TG332
TG317-LX155-LH424

The longhaul segments on LH & LX are in F, with the short/mid-hails in J.

I am now trying to rebook the exact same itinerary for a week later (28 July outbound, and 30 July return), and I can see availability on ExpertFlyer, and the itinerary is also available to book online on Sabre based TAs.

I called up LH today again, after they told me last night to do so once I had new dates: they now tell me that I need to speak to the TA, despite telling me last night that LH were able do it after the scheduled departure of the first flight. So I spoke to the TA but they tell me they can't do anything because the "ticket is under airline control".

The English speaking LH number is currently not taking any calls at all, you just get cut off after being told how busy they are.

Meanwhile, I am receiving nags on my phone about the FRA-DEL segment.

I am concerned that they'll determine me as a no-show and the entire itinerary will be trashed leaving me substantially out of pocket.

I've DM'd LH on Twitter in a vain attempt to gain any engagement, or at least to log the issue.

Suggestions gratefully received..

curt

The travel agent needs to sort it out.

fassy

If it is about LH F.... did you try the F phone queue?

chris63

It’s LH responsibility to rebook you in the same class of service & it is under airport control, call the LH F hotline,

+496986799444 or +498006270508

Howard Long

Thanks for the replies.

I didn't have the F phone number.

I finally got through on the normal LH number, and once I'd explained that the booking was under airline control, magically they were able to rebook, and assigned seats (I'd checked availability on ExpertFlyer), as a double check for me that they'd booked me in the right cabin. Then when I look online I discover that one of the flights that was meant to be in F, and I'd explicitly stated that, and the agent had acknowledged, I was in 1A, but it turned out to be in business in 11A. Absolutely ****ing useless.

Now on the line again. My sixth call to LH on this matter.

chris63

This is why you need to call the F line, level of competence on the normal channels…..

Don’t forget to claim compensation for the last minute cancellation

Howard Long

If only I'd had those numbers before!

Done in under five minutes, all rectified.

Howard Long

Indeed, it was a completely different level of competency.

Problem is, once I did finally get through on the normal line, the agents gave me a sense of competency... until you're given conflicting information of course.

The worst bit of conflicting information was being told at 2200 last night I had until 0600 today (the departure time of the cancelled flight) to decide to either cancel the booking or choose a new date, and after that date was chosen there would be no means to alter it. I was told Id be considered a "no show" if I didn't turn up at check in for the flight they'd cancelled.

Of course, this turned out to be complete nonsense. As was the canard about having to speak to the TA about rebooking or cancelling, as the ticket was now under airline control.

chris63

The F line have even more pull than the HON line IME, I try to only call DE during the day when calls are answered by BER based Staff, the level of competence elsewhere can be breathtakingly poor ……

NYC1

The F line is great as stated above and other threads. It's a disgrace that the vast majority of pax (who don't have access to the F line) are subjected to this type of infuriating misinformation/nonsense when they are already stressed out.

fassy

I never get why the regular CS agent who get's connected to an F pax, not just transfers them over to the F team but starts fiddling around and giving poor advice.

chris63

Exactly, transferring them to the appropriate team would be the logical course of action.

Howard Long

The agent on the F line was quite amusing: I let him read the history on the computer before giving too much away, when he saw that a segment had been rebooked in J instead of F, he asked me (I am sure tongue in cheek) if that was my choice!

Not only was the F line great, it's times like this when FT always comes into its own.

I agree also that it's a disgrace that it's almost inevitable that your average punter is going to be shafted one way or another in present times, that is, until the call centre staff can gain more education and experience. It's the apparent certainty of these wet-behind-the-ears agents, coupled with a different story each time I called up that was so infuriating. That's in complete contrast to agent I encountered on the F line, who is clearly a pro with plenty of experience.

curt

Great that you were able to sort it out with LH. But I stand by my remark that it is generally the TA‘s responsibilty. A decent TA would have contacted the airline and rectify the mess that the carrier created… OLTA‘s on the other hand…

fassy

Yeah, a real brick and mortar TA which good connections to LH might have solved it. But since the ticket was under airport control, the TA could not have changed it via their system and would have needed to call LH. Which nowadays isn't easy for them either. Last week our corporate TA sometimes spend half his day to get through to LH to change a booking under airline control for me.... and the phone queue often dropped and he had to start over again. It is not just us peasants which can't get in touch with the customer services team at LH