Cancelled flight - November

idrobins1

Hi

I have been advised by Lufthansa that I can no longer fly from Manchester to Cape Town at 18:00 via Frankfurt in November 2024.  Instead they have offered me to go at 11:05 via Munich with a 5:25 hour lay over in Munich airport, which isn't acceptable because of the length of time and that we would have to lose half a days holiday.  Alternatively I can receive a refund and re-book with an alternative carrier.

Having researched alternative flights these are now at least 50% higher than what I have paid.  There are however plenty of alternative flights.

I have tried to see what the rules are regarding this situation.  Obviously the cancellation is several months in advance of the flight, so its not like there has been a last minute cancellation.  Are Lufthansa within their rights to offer me a re-route or my money back, or is there an obligation on them to offer me, at no extra cost, a flight via an alternative carrier?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

eskbanker

The airline is responsible for offering [a choice between refund or] "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity", and rebooking on a flight departing from the same airport on the same day, with a single connection en route to the same destination airport, is likely to satisfy this requirement.

Given the fairly brief nature of the regulatory wording, there are supplementary documents offering some clarification about interpretation, so you can trawl through the EU interpretative guidelines (section 4.2) and/or the CAA guidance to see if there's anything about their offer that you feel is counter to what's expected:

Commission Notice — Interpretative Guidelines on Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights and on Council Regulation (EC) No 2027/97 on air carrier liability in the event of accidents as amended by Regulation (EC) No 889/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council (europa.eu)

Re-routing in accordance with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 261/2004 (caa.co.uk)

idrobins1

Thank you for your detail response - most helpful

bagand96

If any of the acceptable alternatives are on Lufthansa or Star Alliance carriers that will be a much easier conversation and they'll probably be able to swap you without too much issue, just call them.

Hoenir

idrobins1 said:

Having researched alternative flights these are now at least 50% higher than what I have paid.  There are however plenty of alternative flights.

With global seat capacity diminishing due to problems with both Boeing and Airbus meeting scheduled orders. Higher prices are all but inevitable. 

Newbie_John

I dont really see an issue here? They offered a flight 6:30h earlier, why isn't that acceptable - were you planning to go to work on the flight day?

Anyway what you can do is to find an actual flight that works for you with Star Alliance and ask them to move you to that one, sometimes it may take a few calls to different people.

In the end sadly refund, and any potential costs talk to your travel insurance company.

Voyager2002

idrobins1 said:

Hi

I have been advised by Lufthansa that I can no longer fly from Manchester to Cape Town at 18:00 via Frankfurt in November 2024.  Instead they have offered me to go at 11:05 via Munich with a 5:25 hour lay over in Munich airport, which isn't acceptable because of the length of time and that we would have to lose half a days holiday.  Alternatively I can receive a refund and re-book with an alternative carrier.

The change means losing the bulk of a working day before departure, but you would arrive at roughly the same time as before, so how would that mean losing half a day's holiday? Or is this journey your return from a holiday in Manchester?