Lufthansa 1st leg of two outbound flights cancelled - refund/compensation?

SavaMan

Hi MSE Forum,

I have submitted 4 online claim forms to Lufthansa over an 8-month period to claim for the refund of the cancellation by Kufthansa of the first flight (LHR -> FRA) of two, booked and paid for directly with Lufthansa with the return two return flights too.  Itinerary was LHR -> FRA -> JNB -> FRA -> LHR in Aug 2022.

I have called several times and Lufthansa Customer Services will not discuss it on the phone and  always refer me back to the online form.

Any advice on how to proceed or contact Luftansa through another proven way would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Caz3121

can you clarify....you were due to travel from LHR to JNB via FRA and return in August 2022
The Heathrow to Frankfurt flight was cancelled.
Did you decide not to travel at all so are claiming a refund on the whole ticket? (4 legs)
or did Lufthansa reroute you and you arrived in Jo'burg late so you are claiming delay compensation rather than refund?

SavaMan

Thanks Caz.  Yes leg 1 LHR to FRA cancelled by Lufhansa and there was no offer to reroute me (and my wife), so we booked that one leg on BA to be able to pick up from leg 2 in FRA at cost to us at that late stage of £800 for 2 economy tickets.  We were attending a family event, prices had increased significantly at that stage for the summer, so we did not want to cancel the entire itinerary.
So I am trying to get refund of leg 1 cost paid to Lufthansa for the entire itinerary, plus compensation/reimbursement of £800 papid to BA for rebooking to retain legs 2 to 4 of the booked flights on Lufthansa.

bagand96

SavaMan said:

Thanks Caz.  Yes leg 1 LHR to FRA cancelled by Lufhansa and there was no offer to reroute me (and my wife), so we booked that one leg on BA to be able to pick up from leg 2 in FRA at cost to us at that late stage of £800 for 2 economy tickets.  We were attending a family event, prices had increased significantly at that stage for the summer, so we did not want to cancel the entire itinerary.
So I am trying to get refund of leg 1 cost paid to Lufthansa for the entire itinerary, plus compensation/reimbursement of £800 papid to BA for rebooking to retain legs 2 to 4 of the booked flights on Lufthansa.

You're entitled to either:

1) A reimbursement of the cancelled leg; or

2) A re-routing. Given Lufthansa didn't offer a re-routing themselves, this would mean the cost of your BA flights. 

You're entitled to 1 or 2 but not both. In your case you'd want to claim 2. 

You may also be entitled to cancelled flight compensation if you were notified less than 14days before departure. But only if the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances beyond the airlines control.  And I'm unsure where you stand if they pay out on the BA flights because that would mean you've in effect been able to fly the itinerary without any delay. 

SavaMan

Thanks very much bagand96, that's very informative.

Yes, I would prefer the refund of cost of BA flights (£800) as I'm out of pocket for that additional cost.  We were advised 29 days before the first cancelled flight, so would not be entitled to compensation which is undertandable.

With Lufthansa not dealing with 4 submissions on their online refund process, and their Customer Services call centre refusing to discuss the refund case, I now need to find out how to get access to Lufthansa through another channel as it's not approaching a year since the flight cancellation on 2nd Aug 2022.

bagand96

SavaMan said:

Thanks very much bagand96, that's very informative.

Yes, I would prefer the refund of cost of BA flights (£800) as I'm out of pocket for that additional cost.  We were advised 29 days before the first cancelled flight, so would not be entitled to compensation which is undertandable.

With Lufthansa not dealing with 4 submissions on their online refund process, and their Customer Services call centre refusing to discuss the refund case, I now need to find out how to get access to Lufthansa through another channel as it's not approaching a year since the flight cancellation on 2nd Aug 2022.

I don't think compensation is eligible then.

I do sympathise with you regarding Lufthansa customer services, I found them completely unreachable, and when you do get any contact its a template response that doesn't help in any way.  Had to get my credit card involved when I had an issue (wasn't a cancellation/compensation claim though).

Did you fill in the specific cancellation EC261 claim form on their website? Application for compensation in the event of flight irregularities | Lufthansa

If you followed their process for EC261 and they are refusing to pay or haven't resolved this then you do have options to escalate.  There's more information on this here: What to do if your claim is rejected | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk)  Lufthansa are a member of an Alternative Dispute Resolution service (ADR) so you can take your claim to that for an independent review.  The scheme Lufthansa are a member of is called sop Startseite - söp (soep-online.de)

Your other option would be to take them to court.  They're a German airline but if you can find a UK address for them you may be able to do this using the UK Small Claims Court system.

In any event (ADR or court) you will need to refer to your rights under EC261 so if you're not familiar it will be worth reading up:

EUR-Lex - 32004R0261 - EN (europa.eu) (The actual EU legislation - a bit wordy and legal)
Air passenger rights - Your Europe (europa.eu) A bit more user friendly from the EU
Delays and cancellations | Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk) UK CAA 
Denied Boarding EU Regulation (Regulation 261/2004 EC) - Which? Which

eskbanker

Just to be clear, you had a through booking on one ticket with Lufthansa and they cancelled the first leg nearly a month in advance, but made no attempt to rebook you onto an alternative connecting LHR-FRA flight (a route on which they fly about ten times a day)? That seems extraordinary!

CKhalvashi

SavaMan said:

Thanks Caz.  Yes leg 1 LHR to FRA cancelled by Lufhansa and there was no offer to reroute me (and my wife), so we booked that one leg on BA to be able to pick up from leg 2 in FRA at cost to us at that late stage of £800 for 2 economy tickets.  We were attending a family event, prices had increased significantly at that stage for the summer, so we did not want to cancel the entire itinerary.
So I am trying to get refund of leg 1 cost paid to Lufthansa for the entire itinerary, plus compensation/reimbursement of £800 papid to BA for rebooking to retain legs 2 to 4 of the booked flights on Lufthansa.

No compensation will be due, this is due to 29 days being between the cancellation and the date of the flight.

You will get either a refund of your self re-routing costs OR a refund of that sector from Lufthansa. There are no free flights available to you, you will have then paid for a flight and received a flight, so will be in the position you should be in.

Just out of interest, did Lufthansa really not try to re-route you on their own network? They are the 2nd largest airline group at Heathrow, with the group encompassing a lot more than just Lufthansa.

eskbanker

bagand96 said:

I do sympathise with Lufthansa customer services, I found them completely unreachable, and when you do get any contact its a template response that doesn't help in any way. 

Presumably that was meant to be "I do sympathise with you regarding your experiences with Lufthansa customer services"?

bagand96

eskbanker said:

bagand96 said:

I do sympathise with Lufthansa customer services, I found them completely unreachable, and when you do get any contact its a template response that doesn't help in any way. 

Presumably that was meant to be "I do sympathise with you regarding your experiences with Lufthansa customer services"?

Yes you're right, amended 😂

SavaMan

@bagand96

"Did you fill in the specific cancellation EC261 claim form on their website?"  Yes, that's the form I have completed 4 times

Thanks again for all the additional information and guidance - that is so very useful and I will get into looking into that tomorrow.