Missed connection rights?

Sophie4120

Hi,

Any help gratefully received - all I can see is information about missed flights due to delays, not sure where this issue fits!

We have booked flights from London to New Zealand with Lufthansa, the ticket covers all legs of the journey. 

We received notification that the scheduled times of our connecting flights have been changed since we booked - originally there was ample time for transfer between flights. We are now arriving in Hong Kong at 17:40, with the next flight leaving at... 17:40. The London to HK leg is Lufthansa, HK to NZ is with Air NZ (though Lufthansa is the booking agent for the whole journey).

Quite clearly we will not be able to make this connection, but through no fault of our own. This is a schedule change rather than a delay - but after speaking to Lufthansa they are insisting that all we can do is to change our flight to the next one available (24 hours later!), and they will not be responsible for paying for any overnight accommodation? Surely this cannot be right - seem crazy they can change the times to be impossible to make the transfer, then expect us to pay for their changes? What are our rights in this situation? Do we have any?

Caz3121

which flight was changed? if the Air NewZealand flight then this would not covered by EU261 so your rights are more limited
Have you looked at the Lufthansa site to see if a better connection? have you been offered a refund?

Brie

Are you sure that it's a change of planes or just a stopover to get people off and on?  Obviously Lufthansa should know if it is.

Sophie4120

Caz3121 said:

which flight was changed? if the Air NewZealand flight then this would not covered by EU261 so your rights are more limited
Have you looked at the Lufthansa site to see if a better connection? have you been offered a refund?

 It's the Air NZ flight that has been brought forward  Yes, checked Lufthansa site and it's only showing Business Class seats available - for both the Hong Kong route (connecting flight with Cathay Pacific instead) and rerouting via Singapore. No, we haven't been offered a refund - but given the amount of things we have already booked for the holiday, I don't want to go down this route if at all possible!

eskbanker

Caz3121 said:

which flight was changed? if the Air NewZealand flight then this would not covered by EU261 so your rights are more limited

A well-informed poster on here suggested that it may not be quite as simple as that if it's all done under a Lufthansa booking:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79391281/#Comment_79391281

Sophie4120

Brie said:

Are you sure that it's a change of planes or just a stopover to get people off and on?  Obviously Lufthansa should know if it is.

I've asked, and apparently it is definitely a change of aircraft. 

I have found available seats from Frankfurt to Auckland on the same day with Lufthansa (our earlier connection is in Frankfurt) but apparently they can't give us those seats because they are for new bookings only?! So frustrating!

Alan_Bowen

eskbanker, thanks for the kind mention above but this appears to be an entirely different scenario, with no delay or cancellation, just a flight change by an unrelated airline ANZ. LH does not fly to NZ  in fact, I think BA is the last European airline flying to Australiasia at all and then only to Sydney.

This is a risk of using multiple airlines and three flights to get to New Zealand but I do not understand why they are refusing an alternative flight, apart from the fact I can only find one LH flight a day LH796 which arrives at 1530, the flight arriving at 1740 is another flight from Frankfurt with two more connections at Vienna and Bangkok, you surely haven't booked that have you?

Westin

If the OP could post the original and revised routing/flight numbers then we might be better placed to make suggested alternatives. 

eskbanker

Alan_Bowen said:

eskbanker, thanks for the kind mention above but this appears to be an entirely different scenario, with no delay or cancellation, just a flight change by an unrelated airline ANZ.

Yes, agreed, I was just highlighting that EC261 rights aren't necessarily negated by the use of a non-EU airline when connecting outside the EU, even if those regulations don't come into play in OP's scenario.

Sophie4120

Thank you all - original routing was London Heathrow -> Frankfurt -> Hong Kong -> Auckland. Frankfurt to Hong Kong being LH796 and HK to Auckland LH7158. Flights are end of December, which may be why seat availability is now so poor.

However - after speaking to 3 different people in the call centre, getting 3 different answers regarding flight change options (including being told to fly out a week later) and being cut off 3 times, chap number 4 was very helpful. After first trying to route us via San Francisco (!) he acknowledged that the website was showing available seats from Frankfurt to Auckland via Singapore, and after an hour of discussion with supervisors, managed to rebook us on that one ... Phew!

3 months to go... Hopefully no more schedule changes in the meantime...

Alan_Bowen

Is your connecting flight still with Air New Zealand, or Singapore Airlines?