gabbilake

Hi
I hope someone can help me. In a bit of distress over this situation.

We were due to fly to Delhi with Lufthansa in July, and less than 24 hours before our flights were due to leave they cancelled them. It's a very long story but my youngest daughter had complex disabilities and died in 2019. Due to her condition we had never had any money and hadn't been away, even in the UK, for many many years and after everything that happened with her and then Covid, when my grandad died and left us a bit of money we decided to treat our son to a once in a lifetime trip to India and Pakistan. We had quite a tight schedule to get to Delhi to catch our trains and do our whole trip, and so when we heard of the cancellation we were desperate to speak to Lufthansa and sort it out so we could do our trip. Unfortunately they had closed their phone line and their website crashed. So we couldn’t get hold of Lufthansa at all. Anyway, so eventually -after consulting with the insurance and people with a bit of legal knowledge in this area we took the decision to book new flights on a credit card, protected by law UK261. These were with BA and got us in at the same time. It was direct from london so we had to take a taxi to london (as had to be at Heathrow at 6am and there was no time to get down the night before because we only booked the flights in the afternoon due to the short notice… plus my husband and I were both working that day as our original flights had been very early in the following morning from Manchester). Anyway, I have emailed and emailed and they are acknowledging emails and apologising for the delay but each time about six weeks after I email them and each time with absolutely zero response to my questions: confirm we will get our refund and whether they will cover the interest on the credit card, as this is really starting to stress me out. This trip was supposed to be a bit of a recovery/therapy trip for all of us, and it was; but the stress now is making me feel like we shouldn't have done it. We don't have the money to just pay out on last minute flights; it was all very carefully planned and paid for. If we had known we wouldn't get our money back we would have had to cancel the trip. However that wasn't an option as we wouldn't have got any of the investment to the trip back from the insurers if we hadn't gone as they said it was Lufthansa's responsibility. So rather than cancel the trip and try to get the money back we decided we may as well go on new flights and get those back -but the interest on this credit card is huge!! I know that by law Lufthansa is responsible but if they will not respond what can I do? I am very scared; when my daughter was alive we nearly lost our house and we just got ourselves back on track and now I have this Ł6k credit card bill which is accruing interest every month! We tried to do something to help us heal following losing our daughter and it has put us back into financial hell. It isn't our fault or responsibility but it is in the end; whatever the law says, Lufthansa can just leave us -it's US who have to deal with the fallout, not them. One of the reasons I chose Lufthansa was because they had a good reputation; I think I am better off never going on a flight again! I really don't know what to do, we wouldn't have originally gone at all if it was going to cost Ł6k for the flights. The whole trip cost less than that, but we booked in advance so our original flights were much much cheaper, and then we had trains etc coming from that. I have called Lufthansa six times this morning, they absolutely refuse to deal with it. They just say to email, but I have been emailing for four months. Really I just want them to say in writing 'don't worry, we will get you your money back it will just take time. And we will cover the interest since we are causing the delay'. If they say that then I can wait, I can manage things in the meantime, but I cannot live where I don't know whether I will ever get my money back... I really don't want to involve solicitors but if this is the way to get them to pay attention then might that be my only option?!
Any help or advice most appreciated

flyingfkb

Welcome gabbilake at flyertalk.

First step: Read this to learn about your rights https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizen...r/index_en.htm . Since you flew with LH an European carrier to Europe (I guess you had a connection in Frankfurt or Munich originally scheduled) you fall under EU261.

About solicitors. This service is for free https://soep-online.de/en/ if you already raised your claim with the airline but did not get any answer after 2 months.

olive_b

Sorry for your losses. It sounds like you've gone through a lot. Can't you do a statuary charge back for your original flights? Since the service wasn't rendered. Further to that, you should be able to claim all the relevant compensations as already pointed out.

chris63

Terribly sorry to hear about your Loss & your subsequent troubles, Lufthansa ‘customer service’ has not been fit for purpose for a very long time, you can try & escalate this to the Lufthansa Lurkers here at the start of this forum, as many are trying to do & good luck !

expert7700

OP's post leads me to believe they are trying to get the 6k replacement BA flight refunded by LH, after buying a last minute walk-up fare? Sadly, this is not how any of this works at all.

"Unfortunately they had closed their phone line and their website crashed. So we couldn’t get hold of Lufthansa at all."

Did I miss reading about any extensive LH global phone & web outage spanning 24+ hours? Did LH have any agent or contract agent or employee working at the airport of origin on the day of cancellation or original flight? Those are the staff members who would have reaccommodated on different flights or airlines with $0 out of pocket.

​​​​​OP seems to have made a big error in judgment by holding out a credit card for last minute tickets they clearly did not have in the budget. Without a clear understanding of LH's obligation (rebook on another carrier or refund original fare only).
​​​​

chris63

There were strikes at LH in July & that resulted in pax being unable to contact LH or be rebooked

SK AAR

As I read the OP is trying to get a refund of the LH ticket rather than reimbursement of the expensive BA tickets (I agree that the latter is not going to fly).

The OP should be able to get a refund of the LH ticket because the flight was cancelled.

I would advise the OP to keep it short when communicating with LH and leave out the emotional remarks, the details about credit card debit, interest etc

flyingfkb

That was my thought, too. Trying to get LH to pay for the BA ticket is hopeless and actually LH does not need to do this. They must refund the money for the LH fligth.

hugolover

Sorry why don’t LH need to reimburse the BA flights?

LH have lost gazillions of cases on this, of all the contested elements of EC261 a carrier failing to provide flights at a similar time is very clear. LH could have rebooked the OP to BA INVOL but they did not.

When FR had their strikes the CAA ran newspaper ads to inform pax that they must be rebooked to OAL.

Airport staff? 🤣 oh what a laugh…you think they’re Amadeus trained or just doing XBAG’s?

Contact centres? MNL said it wasn’t possible to add my LH M&M to my LH booking last week.

I wonder if some posters don’t fly very often.

chris63

LH were contracted to get the OP to the destination ontime, they failed & were not contactable, perfectly reasonable for them to purchase alternative tickets & claim that from LH, OP mentions their insurance advised such a course.

Only problem for the OP is the ludicrous amount of time it takes LH failed ‘customer service’ to refund the alternative flights when the OP didn’t have the available funds.

chris63

Agreed, LH are entirely on the hook to get OP to destination ontime.

There is no ticket desk at MAN, they have to phone one……. MAN would have been entirely overwhelmed on a strike day, they often are on a good day

athome

LH might have the obligation to reimburse the OP, if LH would have stated to the OP that they can't find/ will not book a timely OAG flight.
LH may argue the OP never tried to reach out to LH to get the issue fixed. Not by phone ( not successful), not by email (not tried), not by chat (not tried), not by passing by at the airports ticket counter (the OP would have had the chance in MAN and even in LHR). So LH may argue the OP never tried / was not interested in / was not keen to get a timely alternative and so will refuse to reimburse the BA ticket costs, but will state that they are ready to reimburse the LH ticket only.
I am not saying that the check in agents or the ticket counter agents would have rebooked them. I am just saying that I would have tried to get a statement from them that they can't rebook me, as I desired.

chris63

It seems the OP has insurance so someone is going to pay, problem is this has been going on since July & OP is dealing with LH not fit for purpose ‘customer service’

We don’t yet know what LH stance is, however no way any LH employee or more importantly the contracted out Staff in UK would provide a we refuse to rebook you statement

athome

You are probably right. But LH adds a note to a booking when one contacts them. Even if the booking is finally not changed. In the frame of the information freedoms act, one could use the internal LH notes as a proof. In the OP's case there is nothing.

chris63

Yes, in a perfect World, however even as HON i have contacted LH & other agents have subsequently claimed there is nothing in the notes….