Lufthansa Incorrectly Denied Boarding

jraff

On the 26th of July 2021, we had a flight booked from Heathrow to Manila with Thai Airways. The first leg of the flight - Heathrow to Frankfurt - was being fulfilled by Lufthansa.

We were Philippines residents at the time, with resident travel visas. On the 25th of July, the day before we were due to travel, new restrictions came into place in the Philippines, blocking entry to travellers originating from Thailand.

Lufthansa did not allow us to board our flight on this basis.

There was clear information from multiple official sources that this restriction did not apply to passengers merely transiting through Thailand (Philippine airlines, the PH US Embassy and and official Philippines government press release), which we were.

Furthermore, we had friends that were also travelling via the same route but departing from Birmingham via Lufthansa who were permitted to board and arrived on time.

We were allowed to travel 2 days later on the next flight (with no change to the restrictions from the original date of travel). 

Because we were not allowed to board initially, my wife missed the deadline to start work as a teacher and had to take unpaid leave to complete the full 10 day quarantine required, we had to pay for 24 hour covid tests that were £200 per person at the time and a £90 taxi each way to go home and then back to the airport.

we immediately put all of this to Lufthansa via phone calls, emails & Twitter multiple times over the first year since this occurred in hopes of getting some form of compensation as they were clearly in error not letting us board - all we have ever been told is that they will get back to us and our complaint is in their system, we’ve basically been fobbed off.

is this something worth us continuing to pursue and if so, what is the best course of action for us to take?

Thanks

bagand96

It's not hard to see how these situations happened as many Governments were changing their policies so frequently.  That's not excusing the airline (or their third party handling agent) however.

If you were wrongly denied boarding and have good proof of that then you may have a claim under EC261.  This would be €600 per passenger.  Have you tried putting in an EC261 claim with Lufthansa?  I would do that next (if you haven't already) and wait for their response.  If they refuse you can then consider small claims court.

You could consider the taxis as part of the EC261 claim as there may be an argument they are responsible for that, but I'm not 100%.  Airlines are not normally responsible for consequential losses such as lost earnings, certainly not under EC261 laws.

sheramber

We were allowed to travel 2 days later on the next flight 

my wife missed the deadline to start work as a teacher and had to take unpaid leave to complete the full 10 day quarantine required,

What was the 10 day quarantine for?