Connection problem at FRA
 

I experienced a huge failure of this program. My daughter, grandson and I arrived at FRA from Dubrovnik on Sept 12 on Croatia Airlines, a Star Alliance member, an hour late. We were due to connect to a United Airlines flight to Newark. After a bus ride, security visit, a train ride we still had a 27 minute walk to our departure gate (posted time) we hurried to our gate. Of course when we arrived our flight was long gone. The agent we were sent to was little help. We were presented with 3 choices.....the next flight in about 1 1/2 hours which would cost $300US each (I presume in Economy Plus). Or upgrade to Business class, cost $1000US each, or flight after that in about 6 hours to Dulles. No offer of food vouchers either, just a take it or leave it shrug. He said it was our fault we missed the flight we didn't hurry fast enough. Neither Croatia Airlines or United would take responsibility. Now I learn that Frankfurt airport has a Star Alliance program in effect to assist passengers connecting from late arriving flights. Some program, we didn't see any evidence of it.

Was all travel on a single ticket? If so, depending on the reason for your delay, you may be due compensation by Croatia Airlines as per EU261. In addition, if this is all on a single ticket and you paid extra, you should present your bill to Croatia Airlines and ask for a refund. As the late delivering carrier, they are responsible for rebooking you at no charge. If this travel was on separate tickets, you're SOL

The ticket for the entire trip for each of us was purchased from United through Expedia. Outgoing flight to YYZ to MUC on Lufthansa, MUC to Dubrovnik also on Lufthansa. Dubrovnik to Frankfurt on Croatian Airlines. FRA to Newark on United and Newark to YYZ on United.

We refused to accept the agents offer for extra payment and were then booked on the next flight to Dulles. These flights were all on Star Alliance airlines and at that time I had no knowledge of any program to assist passengers to connect from a late arriving flight. There certainly wasn't any evidence of such a program and if the United agent had knowledge of one he didn't indicate any.

LH was very good to us, they put us on another flight while we were on a reward ticket and they even gave us miles for the flights. Wow, I was amazed at how LH handled the delay.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience but as pewpew has already pointed out you should have been covered by Regulation EC261 and should contact Croatia Airlines for compensation depending on how late you arrived at your final destination.

As this thread is about the new service at Chicago O'Hare and an equivalent service does not operate in Frankfurt, I have alerted the forum moderator to separate this discussion into another thread to avoid confusion.

The real question is whether the late arrival of the Dubrovnik flight made the connection less than the minimum time allowed for this particular airport or not. In other words, say, the minimum allowed connection time for FRA is 1 hr. If your original scheduled connection time was 1,5 hour and Croatian made it 30 minutes (less than the allowed minimum for this particular airport) it's their fault and you are entitled to compensation. If you original scheduled connection time was 2,5 hours and and the late arrival of your first flight made it 1,5 hours (still more than allowed minimum) than it's your fault and Croatian owes you nothing.