ngfan

Recently I was denied boarding on an intra-German flight by LH due to aircraft change. I was rerouted to another German city (flight left 5 minutes after the flight to my initial destination), booked a rental car there and drove to my destination in full speed (2,5 hours travel time) to catch a very important business meeting. I paid for the rental and the fuel expenses with my private money.

Before boarding my return flight I asked LH for IDB compensation and received a voucher worth 350,- €. My boss witnessed the event as we were in the process to change our etix to a later flight due to our delayed arrival at the airport. As we travelled on discounted tickets (on company expense) a rebooking fee had to be paid. My boss voiced his view that the rebooking fee for both of us (which he paid with his corporate cc) should be paid with the IDB voucher. The LH agent denied that ('that's not possible') which led my boss to ask me to reimburse the company for the rebooking fees with the voucher's value.

Aside from the rental and fuel costs it is my opinion that the rest of the voucher value belongs to me as I had all the hassle to reach my destination. What are your thoughts ? Can I ask LH to pay for the rental car and fuel costs or are these covered by the compensation ?

oliver2002

LH can accept the IDB vouchers for payment for anything related to them. Very strange they didn't follow your request.

As far as the compensation goes, you can try writing LH CR detailling your ordeal, but since you already received some compensation they will wiggle out of the situation using the 'some thing happened that we could not have avoided for the sake of security' excuse.

As far as your boss is concerned, you were plain unlucky, mate. Never do such thing with colleagues around. How much rebooking fees are we talking about? 50-100€? Then pay your boss and write a letter to LH CR asking for some more. Just my 2 cents.

Tim2008

If this happened at STR this doesn´t surprise. The ticket counter staff are about the most incompetent LH employees I´ve ever experienced. Had some bad experiences there,too.

However the lounge staff is very helpful and caring.

ngfan

As it was the request of my boss I wasn't too angry about the denial...

...well I was not only unlucky but stupid But as I wanted to resolve the situation on the spot while in direct contact with a human being (a very slow elderly but cooperating LH ticket agent in this case) and save myself from the hassles of dealing with someone over the phone or through a letter it just happened that way. Lesson learned. But does the compensation belong to the company or to myself ?

ngfan

At least a friendly STR ticket counter girl (or grandma ) was willing to check me in in the morning ("you know that this is just an exception...!") as my SEN-equipped boss just got his ticket. But it wasn't of much help as she returned with a standby bp ("try at the gate to get on the plane, right now you are off...").

But you are right, from my experience over the years LH's STR ticketing staff can be a real pain in the a** on a regular basis. They really earned HON status in arrogance and rudeness...

oliver2002

If you go by the book and they paid the rental car for you to reach the meeting in time, then yes.

But then it is the same with miles: our company has published a memo where it clearly says all perks and miles earned during business travel belong to the employee and the company will not ask for it. Siemens on the other hand says that all miles and vouchers you earn while travelling on work belong to the company. Check if you company has spelled out its policy in that way. This happened in our company a few weeks after the MdB M&M scandal.

Berki

AFAIK, this is against the T&C of M&M and therefore void, although some companies do their best to try it anyhow.

flysurfer

Well, then the regulations requiring all German MPs to surrender their miles to the parliament administration is against T&C, too. This means that the MM accounts of all German MPs have to be frozen immediately.

Berki

In principle - yes, but this particular case is not based on legal but "ethic" aspects.

flysurfer

Ethic aspects in German politics? That's was good one.

Anyway, several big German companys are pooling the miles of their employees. They have been doing this for years, and LH is going along with it. If LH intervened and insisted, the case would definitely end up in the courts, where it might be decided that several key T&Cs of MM are void, as they may contradict general German law. LH won't risk that. They'll do almost anything to avoid litigation regarding MM.

PEM

Hi

No it is not against the T&C cause a regulation of the miles and more member and his company does not touch the T&C.

Bye PEM