Alec84

Asking for a friend. She has a ticket HEL-FRA-JNB operated by LH. The HEL-FRA leg was cancelled and the airline offered a departure 5h earlier. This time is not suitable and there are no other options on LH on that day that would be ok for her. However, there is a flight on SK HEL-CPH-FRA that would both be ok for her and arrive in FRA in time for the FRA-JNB flight. LH telephone agents do not not accept this rerouting and either offer a refund or a later departure which, again, is not ok. Shouldn't this be a no-brainer for LH since SK is * partner and they caused the problem by cancelling the original HEL-FRA leg? To make things slightly more complicated, the flights were booked through a third party website on SN code (why, I do not know).

iLied

1. LH won’t touch the booking as it’s a third party website so she needs to go there.
2. I’m assuming it’s a far away departure, in this case there’s no obligation to rebook onto a different airline. In that case, she should take a refund and find a more appropriate routing.

flyingfkb

As I remember correctly the airline will only take over within24Hours of departure. Before that you must contact the ticket issuing travel agency. The rebooking rules under EU261 depend on how much in advance the flight change was announced. Do not know the exact deadlines but it should be easy to google this.

Fabo.sk

No they don't

SK AAR

There is no obligation to rebook to SK if there is a direct LH flight 5 hours earlier (despite being inconvenient for the pax). It would have been different say that the pax would have to depart a day earlier, but for 5 hours there is no obligation to rebook OAL.

If notified of the cancellation more than 14 days out, there is no right to claim compensation EUR 600 for cancellation.

I suggest to accept to cancel/full refund a book elsewhere with a itinerary more convenient.

Alec84

Thanks for the helpful answers! The flight is in February. I didn't remember that 24h thing about 3rd party booking sites, what a pain in the ....

chris63

In the middle of winter & a connection through FRA, might not be so bad leaving earlier…. bookings through third parties are always at the mercy of the agency’s service level in cases like this, however this far forward as others have said the airline is under no other obligation than to offer another flight or refund, as they have done

flyingfkb

Maybe I did not stated it correctly. But here https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizen...m#cancellation you can read yourself. If your flight is cancelled you have the right to choose between reimbursement, re-routing or return.

You are also entitled to assistance at the airport.

If you were informed of the cancellation less than 14 days prior to the scheduled departure date, you have a right to compensation. The airline has the obligation to prove if and when you were personally informed that the flight was cancelled. If this is not the case you can contact your national authority for further assistance.

However, compensation is not due if the carrier can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. The airline has to prove this by providing, for example, extracts from logbooks or incident reports. The air carrier should give this evidence to the relevant national enforcement body as well as to the passengers concerned in line with national provisions on access to documents.

Fabo.sk

Read carefully about a right to what you have if you have informed of the cancellation less than 14 days prior.
And right to what is simply listed you have if your flight is cancelled.