Flight Cancelled and Rebooked flight wasn't possible

Marge101 · 9 September 2019 at 11:49AM

Any thoughts on our case would be really appreciated! Apologies if the saga is long!

We were due to fly Toronto - Frankfurt - Stuttgart with Lufthansa at 1830 on 3rd Sept. While waiting at the gate, the pilot came out and said the flight was cancelled as a bird had flown into engine 2 during landing. I understand this is "an act of God" so it does not qualify for compensation. Lufthana email us our rebooked flights (2 passengers) with the routing Toronto - Lisbon with TAP and Lisbon - Stuttgart with Eurowings (Lufthansa's own low-cost airline) departing 3rd Sept 2330, arriving Stuttgart 1625 on 4th Sept.

We got no food or drink vouchers in Toronto and had to wait an hour in passport control and immigration (even though we hadn't left the airport), collect our bags (which were just dumped down the end of the airport, not on a belt, and we passengers had to search for them…) and recheck in with TAP. At check in, the employee informed us that TAP does not have a reciprocal agreement with Eurowings which means she could only check our bags to Lisbon. We would then have to go through passport control, collect our bags and recheck in with Eurowings. As we only had 2 hours for the connection, the checkin agent said this would be very tight….. As the alternative was to wait in a queue of 100+ passengers at the LH service desk which had only 2 agents, we decided to take the risk and travel with TAP / Eurowings

We arrived in Lisbon with only 1 hour to deplane/passport/bag pickup/checkin so of course we missed the Eurowings connection. We were late arriving in Lisbon as a thunderstorm in Toronto delayed departure (it really wasn't our day!). We were then re-routed in Lisbon at the Lufthansa ticketing desk on LH flights to Frankfurt and on to Stuttgart. Arrival then should been in Stuttgart at 2255 (instead of the Eurowings arrival of 1625) so we are way over the three hours delay. In my opinion, Lufthansa screwed up by rerouting us that way, they should know their own low cost carrier has no agreement with TAP. Am I right? Can I claim compensation for this case?

Clearly I will claim food and drink we bought en route. However the Lufthansa agent in Lisbon said she could give us nothing as TAP were responsible for us but that is only the case cos Lufthansa rebooked us! So I am worried Lufthansa will say everything is TAP's fault.....

Thanks for your help!

Marge101 · 9 September 2019 at 2:24PM

By the way, I did read the Vauban's guide but couldn't find anything that confirms/denies that the weird rebooking done by Lufthansa is something the airline could have avoided or if it is not clear to a LH reservation agent that certain connections don't work well

Voyager2002 · 9 September 2019 at 3:04PM

You are making things needlessly complicated... your flight into Lisbon was late, which could well have been the reason for the missed connection. Unless they claim that the TAP flight was delayed because of "exceptional circumstances" there is no need to raise the question of inter-lining.

JPears · 9 September 2019 at 3:50PM

But as your flight Toronto > Lisbon was delayed because of weather, there is no compensation. So alas on this occasion I fear you are not due any compensation, despite all the problems you experienced.

Marge101 · 9 September 2019 at 4:57PM

Hmmm but if we could have gone directly to the gate we would have made the flight. The problem was having to collect our luggage and recheck in. If we had had our boarding passes in our hand it would have saved us lots of time?

Marge101 · 9 September 2019 at 5:00PM

Sorry I am not sure what interlining means. Do you mean 2 different airlines? As we basically had a complete new checkin, a 2 hour connection would never have been enough anyway

Marge101 · 13 September 2019 at 9:33AM

Hi I wonder if someone could help me here. Short summary, I am submitting a claim to LH as the rebooked flight they booked me only had a 2 hour connection but there was no interline agreement between the two airlines and 2 hours is too short to deplane/passport control/baggage collect/recheck/ clear security, hence we missed the connection. LH are claiming as the reason for the rebooking (flight cancelled due to bird strike) that any subsequent delays are due to "exceptional circumstances". Could someone refer me to legislation or a case which shows that they cannot apply "exceptional circumstances" to subsequent flights? I am a bit unclear from Vauban's guide and the cases referred to there which is most relevant. I thought I read a similar thread on this forum but I cannot find it now.

Thanks for your help

Tyzap · 13 September 2019 at 11:55PM

Marge101 wrote: »

Hi I wonder if someone could help me here. Short summary, I am submitting a claim to LH as the rebooked flight they booked me only had a 2 hour connection but there was no interline agreement between the two airlines and 2 hours is too short to deplane/passport control/baggage collect/recheck/ clear security, hence we missed the connection. LH are claiming as the reason for the rebooking (flight cancelled due to bird strike) that any subsequent delays are due to "exceptional circumstances". Could someone refer me to legislation or a case which shows that they cannot apply "exceptional circumstances" to subsequent flights? I am a bit unclear from Vauban's guide and the cases referred to there which is most relevant. I thought I read a similar thread on this forum but I cannot find it now.

Thanks for your help

Hi Marge101,

There is no way that an airline can re-route you onto a completely different airline and different flight then say that the original EC (bird strike) still applies, the regulations just don't work like that. They are really spinning you a yarn! If, for example, TAP delayed you on your new schedule by over 3 hours, you would be due compensation from them too.

Your case is a little different to the norm as you would normally claim from the operating airline (TAP) but they clearly were not at fault in this case.

You should claim compensation from LH on the grounds that, although the original flight delay was caused by an EC, LH did not fulfil their obligation to take 'all reasonable measures' to reduce your delay.

It would help your claim tremendously tho if you could also show a quicker routing that LH could and perhaps should have organised for you.

If you cannot show that LH could have done better, then it might be difficult to prove your case.

You can also claim 'duty of care' cost incurred during your delays, thats
meals, drinks etc.

If LH still refuse your claim you can ask for a referral to their ADR supplier who should impartially adjudicate on your case, it's worth a try. The alternative may be to take them to court.

Good luck.

Marge101 · 15 September 2019 at 9:54AM

Thanks Tyzap that's a great idea. Actually my other daughter who had a different booking reference was routed that evening Toronto Budapest with Air Canada and then Eurowings Budapest to Stuttgart. As AC has an interline agreement with EW, her trip was fine. I checked other flights and in fact we could have flown LOT to Warsaw and then on a another LOT flight to Stuttgart. Thanks for the tip! Composing my next email to LH, let's see what the next excuse will be!!

Flight Cancelled and Rebooked flight wasn't possible

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