TMR2022

All - I am at my wit's end with Lufthansa. Advice appreciated

Short story - I have a return flight from New Delhi to Boston with a long layover in Munich. Due to business, I need to be in Berlin instead of Boston. Since the flight is re-bookable, a simple problem (I assumed): rebook the Munich to Boston leg to be Munich to Berlin. After two hours on the phone with multiple reps, I've been told that since Berlin and Boston aren't in the same aviation region, this isn't possible. I.e. I could rebook Munich to Philadelphia, but not Berlin.

I asked to cancel the Munich to Boston segment: I would eat the original cost and book a separate flight from Munich to Berlin at my own expense. Lufthansa's answer? No, tough German sausages, won't do it, you're going to North America. I could no-show the Munich to Boston segment, but I will be checking luggage in Delhi.

Is Lufthansa ordinarily this difficult?? I am very annoyed at Lufthansa for being overtly bureaucratic at their customer's expense. I will think twice before ever booking with Lufthansa again.

kai.lileboo

You can't do the change on the same ticket as you are flying to BOS not to Germany. MUC/FRA/DUS are only connection points.
If your ticket permits stop over, you could then pospone your MUC-BOS leg and go to BER and back on another ticket or train.
If you amend the original ticket to any other combination, it will be really expensive.

DUSMUCZRH

No need for a warning - they do nothing wrong. It’s the rules of the fare you bought. Re-bookable does not mean you can change it in any way you want unfortunately.

That you can’t change to a German destination has often tax reasons they told me. What has worked in the past is rebooking to an non-German EU destination. Not sure if that was due to covid rules - but maybe give that a try. But in any way they will recalculate the ticket and it will cost you a good amount.

TMR2022

My complaint is the refusal to amend the New Delhi --> MUC ---> BOS to be simply New Dehli --> MUC. That is, simply cancel the last segment of the original booking.

indogulf

it's not actually a simple change. Your ticket would now be a US-India-Europe fare instead of US-India-US. The entire fare would need to be recalculated based on the new routing.

Your best bet is doing what was suggested and add a stopover in MUC and keep the original routing intact.

TMR2022

Ok, thank you I was not aware those restrictions.

Instead of a stopover in MUC and then MUC->BOS, might Lufthansa rebook from a different European airport, such as Heathrow to BOS? That is it remains US-India-US.

chris63

Depends on the fare rules for your particular ticket, you need to discuss that with LH or just short check your bag to MUC & throw away MUC- BOS

hdogan

I don't think that would work, because you have to have a feeder flight to and from LHR/FRA or MUC to fly to India. So, them rebooking from Boston to India via London would mean routing you BOS-FRA/MUC-LHR-FRA/MUC-DEL, unless they can put you on some of the United codeshares.

Your only viable option is to move the MUC-BOS flight out, do your Berlin business trip during that stopover in Munich, and then either continue onwards to Boston, try to rebook to another destination in the US, or forfeit that last leg.

I wouldn't recommend short-checking your luggage, as that might get you in trouble with the airline in future...

corporate-wage-slave

Your easiest bet is to move the MUC-BOS section to a later date/time, to give you more time in MUC, then take a flight or train between MUC to BER and back again on a separate reservation. In the case of the train it's easier to book flexible tickets according to how your schedule works out, though it's a 5 hours plus train ride. It's not specifically a Lufthansa problem here, there are definitions in ticketing as to what sort of re-routing, refunds and rebooking is allowed, and most legacy airlines will stick to those rules.

SKT-DK

And yet you instantly jump to blaming the airline and claiming others should be warned…

I doubt they would entertain LHR-BOS as they do not fly that route without a connection in Germany.

jreichel

Perfectly normal behavior which you would experience by any other airline in the world as well. It has nothing to do with sausages ...

Duck1981

Taking one of the five ICE Sprinter trains reduces the travel time to 3:59 hours. From Munich city center often the far quicker option than LH given where MUC and BER are located.