EnsnaredFinch

We were supposed to be flying Dubai- Munich - Amsterdam tomorrow in business on LH639 which has been cancelled. They have rebooked us into Turkish airlines via Istanbul on Monday

Two problems: we (two of us) don’t really want to fly on Turkish (are they as good?)

and we have to be at important work meeting on Monday afternoon

Can we insist they put us on one of the non-star alliance emirates flights tomorrow ?

the first time we tried calling we were number 76 in the queue and gave up…

thanks for all your quick and sage advice

EnsnaredFinch

…no information about food, hotels etc if we are stuck in Dubai for the day

chris63

TK are way better than LH in J & LH owe you full duty of care, Hotels, food, beverages except alcohol

Duck1981

To be - already - booked on TK is an excellent outcome in the current Ops situation, to be honest... and they are perfectly fine.

You will expense your hotel costs to LH (try to stay around the EUR 200 mark for a night) plus reasonable expenses (which could also include say laundry) plus transportation to the airport etc.

No right to be booked on EK as you have a very reasonable alternative within an acceptable time frame.

EnsnaredFinch

Thanks for the replies, I hadn’t realised that a 24 hour delay is “reasonable” for a long haul flight.

in practice we have no choice as the customer services phone number just has a recorded message saying use their online service, the chatbot says it can’t help and we were number 683 in the queue for live chat

olm022

You may try at the airport in DXB, as agents in airports seem to have greater authority to re-book beyond Star Alliance. I think it's reasonable to ask for a different flight option if what you have been offered does not meet your needs.
As for the hotel costs, indeed the unofficial limit is 200 EUR. However, if you cannot find anything cheaper than 250 EUR and you can document this from a screenshot (booking, expedia, etc.), LH should pay. I find LH to be rather understanding in cases like this.

billp

Turkish has a great Business Class product! With wonderful food and an amazing lounge in Istanbul. Consider yourself lucky.

zebranz

Isn't OP entitled to 400 euro for canceled flight (except if extra ordinary circumstances) under EC261?
EU carrier with EU destination?

chris63

Potentially, since Snow is a known event in Bavaria in Winter & the Airport & LH would need to prove they took all possible precautions

athome

No, he doesn't. Extraordinary circumstances:
AIRPORT AUTHORITIES CLOSED THE AIRPORT. LH has to comply.

MUNICH AIRPORT IS CLOSED AT LEAST UNTIL SUNDAY 6AM DUE TO SNOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The OP can be very very very happy getting rebooked via IST.

athome

LH has nothing to prove. THE AIPORT AUTHORITIES CLOSED THE AIRPORT.

williamluk

Hate to break it to you, but IT IS when the destination airport is basically CLOSED until Monday. You should really check the news once in a while lol.

Oh, and you should also try to find out whether your Monday meeting is still on. People may not show for work if the situation don’t improve.

EnsnaredFinch

Sorry to sound so oblivious but I hadn’t registered that the problem was the airport being closed! Nothing on the text message telling us the flight was cancelled, nothing on their website… and I don’t think I could even have told you for certain we were going via Munich before checking in (the route out was different). I’ve spent the last two weeks in the desert in Oman not thinking about European winter weather.

As we can’t contact customer services or do anything on the website, our options appear to be rather limited. We got nowhere at the airport. What I think I would have liked to have done was to split our combined booking into two separate bookings, take the refund on my half, and pay for my own flight today while my companion was OK travelling on Monday, but that just seems to be all too difficult now. It’s not as if we are even sitting together on the rescheduled flights - which go nowhere near continental Europe.

The meeting is still on - no-one has to travel for it, apart from me trying to get back from holiday.

Anyway thanks to all for the guidance on budget. Dubai isn’t a cheap city for hotels but we’ve booked somewhere that looks OK for about 200 EUR a head. And I can spend today writing a long note on my thoughts on the subject of the meeting!

CHCflyer

With 70,000 people descending upon DXB for COP23, I'm not surprised Dubai is expensive. Presumably their hot air will ensure MUC is clear in future. I did notice a pic of a biz jet scheduled to fly to COP tipped onto its tail due to the weight of the snow.

Deckter

Actually, OP‘s destination city is AMS, which operates just fine, and with plenty of seats available on OP‘s desired date, being rebooked 24 hours later is not the earliest possible date.