cpterm

We, a family of four, went to Europe from US for summer vacation. Our returned flights got cancelled on July 27th due to the strikes of Lufthansa ground staffs across Germany. Lufthansa rebooked our flights but we had to say 6 extra days in Europe. My credit card has trip interruption insurance, so I submitted a claim, but the insurance company required a flight cancellation statement from Lufthansa. Near the end of July, while I was still in Europe, I contacted Lufthansa using the feedback form and the email [email protected] to ask for two things: statement of flights cancellation and a compensation.

As expected, they didn't respond immediately. I just kept sending emails to them. Eventually on September 4th, I got the first response:

We realize that you have been waiting on our response to your claim for a significant amount of time and we would like to apologize for this delay. This certainly does not reflect the standard of service you rightly expect from us. In order to resolve your concern we would like to offer you a payment in the hope that this pragmatic solution contributes to a positive conclusion of your travel experience. Please note that this offer is without prejudice to the legal and factual situation. Please provide us with your bank details and your address in order for us to initiate the transfer to your account without further delay.

I replied immmedately with my bank information. And after 10 days on September 14th, I got second response from the same person:

We realize that you have been waiting on our response to your claim for a significant amount of time and we would like to apologize for this delay. This certainly does not reflect the standard of service you rightly expect from us. In order to resolve your concern we would like to offer you a payment in the hope that this pragmatic solution contributes to a positive conclusion of your travel experience. Please note that this offer is without prejudice to the legal and factual situation.
We are happy to confirm that this amount has been transferred to your account. Please allow for some days for the transaction to clear. Thank you in advance for your patience in this respect.

However, it has been more than a month, I still didn't get any fund in my banking account. During the month, I still kept sending email to them every week, but never got a response. I cannot imagine it would take more than a month to transfer the fund. They didn't disclose the amount of transfer and ignored my request of the flights cancellation statement. I felt like being scammed. I would like to know if anyone else had similar experience and will appreciate advices.

fereke

My better half is also waiting to see the money 7 weeks after this amount has been transferred to your account

You can check the status of your feedbackID with the Lurkers but I don't think it will speed things up, unfortunately

gojko88

I've never had to wait more than 2-3 working days for a transfer after LH confirmed to me that they'd made the payment (most recently last week). Maybe it's faster for EU bank accounts, but a month is certainly excessive.

SK AAR

LH doesn't issue flight delay/cancellation statements; I believe this is a US thing, Try to convince your travel insurance that they need to budge on that requirement as you can't convince LH to issue such statement. It is not fair that your insurers avoid reimbursement with reference to a document that they should know is impossible to obtain elsewhere than from US carriers (becuase US carriers are obliged to it?). I suggest that you forward your original and the rebooked itinerary you most likely have received by email from LH; the latter should state something along the lines of "invol. rebooking due to cancellation of LHXXXX" to show that you have been rebooked due to cancellation.

flyingfkb

LH is notorious for delaying and not paying compensation under EC261. They use every given reason to delay your request in addition to the fact that they get a lot of claims due to the strike. I did use a consumer advocate (which of course deduct a fee in case the claim is successful) but at least I did not follow up the status. So you need to be patient and need to follow up with LH as already suggested.

cpterm

Update:
11/03 Receive $2533 from Lufthansa in the bank account.
The promised unspecified amount fund in September never received. Lufthansa instead replied another feedback ID and asked for Bank information again a couple of weeks ago. I went through the same process again and waited for a week after they told me the fund was initiated this time.

Because we were delayed for 6 days. I don't feel fully compensated with this, but this is what I can get now.

flyingfkb

In your case under EC261 you get 600€ per person as compensation plus the airline must pay meals, transfer to and from airport, accommodation. The 600€ will be paid after a delay of over 3hours (details see here https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizen...cancellation-1). Not sure how meals and accommodation are handled. EC261 normally assumes that one night is the norm but it does not explicitly say that the airline must only pay one night. Maybe someone here in the forum knows more.

cpterm

I really appreciate your reply. I read EC261 yesterday and indeed sent another request using the same feedback ID for extra compensation to cover meals/accommodation for our extended stay in Amsterdam. I will keep updated.

chuck1

I've been waiting since June.
Any success with using Flightright?

Fabo.sk

I've been waiting since July for OS, I submitted to AFG for mediation about a month ago. No feedback yet.

I'd like to vote with my wallet, but OS is the only option to the airport I need to travel to, so I'm forced to still do business with them

flyingfkb

I did successfully use https://myflyright.com/ twice but of course they take 25% from the compensation. A free service is https://soep-online.de/en/ but to use it you must have submitted the request with the airline and not get an answer for two months. But if you wait since June you are over the two months.

hugolover

It's been quite a while since I had to make an EC261 claim.

In brief: Landed on-time, doors open a few mins after and pax get off, got on second bus due to volume of pax and my seat in the aicraft, had a rather long bus trip in terms of distance from the terminal, big queue to cross the border (can't use eGates), then security, end result was I missed the connection and arrived more than 3 hours late.

Is it the carriers fault?

AlicorporateUK

You have omitted to mention the location but it sounds like the renowned and indeed typical "FRA Experience" to me. That being said, LH would deny compensation for a perfectly legitimate reason these days so this should be an easy-peasy one for them to handle (and reject) on the basis of "no airline responsibility for the current shortage of staff at the border checks" (you probably gonna get "told off" as well for getting in touch in the first instance).

G