Compensation for flights cancelled 5 days before departure - are we due compensation?

MrsMo

Hello 

I booked Christmas flights to Sri Lanka for family of 4with Lufthansa LHR - FRA- CMB in February 23.
Had problems with UL flights being changed twice (Sept and Dec) and trying to get Lufthansa to rebook the UL flights was painful. They tried telling me to go direct to Sri Lankan and only when I mentioned EU regs did they re book us. 
5 days before departure the UL flight was cancelled completely, (removed from the schedule so not running any days!) so we would have been stuck in Chennai. Lufthansa offered to reroute us via Doha arriving in CMB 24 hours later. I refused and requested a refund 
we then re-booked at a cost of 700 gbp extra per person.
I have tried claiming compensation from Lufthansa who told me to contact Sri Lankan for compensation 
Having rechecked compensation details it looks like Lufthansa aren’t liable- can anyone confirm - and not sure if Sri Lanka offer their own compensation scheme?

Also plan to check my travel insurance.

My valuable lesson here is the risk of booking indirect flights to destinations outside of the EU……..

Alan_Bowen

Slightly confused by your post, I assume it is the flights from Chennai to Colombo that were cancelled which unless all on one ticket, which I doubt, would be a non-EU airline departing a non-EU airport and entirely outside the protection of EU261. Expecting an airline like Sri Lankan to take responsibility voluntarily is probably expecting too much of that airline. 

jimi_man

Yes I’m also completely confused. Your post suggests the flights are:

LHR to FRA with Lufthansa.  Covered under EU261
FRA to CMB with Sri Lankan Airlines. Also covered under EU261 (assuming direct flight). 

I don’t understand where Chennai fits in?  

eskbanker

MrsMo said:

5 days before departure the UL flight was cancelled completely, (removed from the schedule so not running any days!) so we would have been stuck in Chennai. Lufthansa offered to reroute us via Doha arriving in CMB 24 hours later. I refused and requested a refund 
we then re-booked at a cost of 700 gbp extra per person.

If you'd found flights that were more suited to your requirements (presumably closer to original schedule?) than what Lufthansa were offering, why didn't you ask Lufthansa to book you onto those instead?

MrsMo said:

I have tried claiming compensation from Lufthansa who told me to contact Sri Lankan for compensation 
Having rechecked compensation details it looks like Lufthansa aren’t liable- can anyone confirm - and not sure if Sri Lanka offer their own compensation scheme?

Also plan to check my travel insurance.

My valuable lesson here is the risk of booking indirect flights to destinations outside of the EU……..

My understanding is that you are due compensation from Sri Lankan, as the operating carrier, if they cancelled flights that formed a leg of a through booking from UK/EU.