Lufthansa finally contacted me concerning my extended flight delay in June. Unsurprisingly, the issue remains unresolved.
If you missed out on the details of my issue with Lufthansa, I’ll briefly summarize:
- Itinerary: Milan – Frankfurt – Munich – Los Angeles
- Milan to Frankfurt flight delayed by two hours
- Frankfurt to Munich flight delay (due to crew scheduling) forces misconnection in Munich and returning home 24+ hours later
- EU261/2004 compensation requested due to Munich to Frankfurt delay and delayed arrival into Los Angeles
- Lufthansa rejects compensation on the basis that Milan to Frankfurt delay was not long enough and that subsequent delay did not matter
- Back-and-forth ensued with Lufthansa insisting that Frankfurt to Munich delay did not matter because it was not the “first delay” on the itinerary
Click here for all the details.
> Read More: The Incredulous, Absurd Reason Lufthansa Is Denying Me EU261 Compensation
After getting absolutely nowhere with U.S. Customer relations, I sent a note to the office of CEO Carsten Spohr. I initially heard nothing, but after multiple follow-ups I finally received the following email:
Dear Mr. Klint,
We wish to extend our apologies that your flight LH 100 on 22 June from Frankfurt to Munich was affected by a flight as well. We have taken the opportunity to review your request.
Due to the exceptional circumstances which caused the delay of LH 100 and without acknowledging liability, in this case we decided to offer you the compensation regulated by law.
A payment in the amount of 578 USD (equal 500 EUR / 250 EUR per Person) has today been transferred into your bank account. Since the transaction is organized and processed by our accounting department please allow up to two weeks for the payment to clear. Thank you in advance for your patience in this respect.
We hope that our solution meets your expectations and we would be pleased to welcome you as well as [your colleague] on board a Lufthansa flight again in the near future in spite of this unfortunate experience.
Sincerely,
Lufthansa [agent named redacted]
Essentially, Lufthansa is not admitting to liability and trying to buy us off for 250EUR/each. I’m not sure why a late-arriving crew constitutes “exceptional circumstances” but this attempt from Lufthansa to shut me up will not work.
I’m thankful for the $578: it is a nice downpayment on the 600EUR each + expenses we are owed for the extended delay.
CONCLUSION
I wonder if this is how Lufthansa usually does it? Complain enough and they will throw some money at you, hoping you will go away.
I’m writing back to Lufthansa and will keep you updated on what transpires.
image: Lufthansa
Matthew,
Wow, I would have expected better from Lufthansa. It’s now been clarified — for years — that it’s *arriving at your final destination* that maters. In your case, it’s clear you are owed €600/passenger + expenses (food, taxi, phone calls, hotel). If you chose to stay at a very expensive hotel, I could see them not providing full hotel compensation, but the €600 + reasonable expenses is crystal clear.
I hope you will fight very hard. It’s a disgrace what Lufthansa is doing here.
They need to pay.
Matthew, I may have missed it but are you able to tell the outcome of your Swiss /Aeroplan situation?
If your not able to say I understand
Thanks
Let me amend that comment. If you are not able to say I understand, however please give me a timeline for when I should expect it. When you said “soon” I didn’t know what you meant, and I’ve been waiting impatiently. Thank you.
I recently received $1,400 for my wife and I after going through a complicated process with American Airlines. I feel your pain, brother.
Can Lufthansa do that? I thought that the law requires full, not partial, payment.
I’m speculating that they are trying to get away with just paying compensation for the Milan to Frankfurt flight, although that doesn’t make any sense, given it was a weather delay. The entire thing stinks.
They’ve specifically said they don’t admit liability so it has nothing to do with paying the legally due comp for the short flight .It is a payment to hope matthew goes away, nothing more, nothing less.
I was one of those passengers evacuated from Munich airport back in July this year.
I have issued my claim and received feedback similar to yours.
First that they apologize for delay previous day which has nothing to do with evacuation and deny paying for my time lost.
After second contact they offer me 50 EUR voucher to be used in MUC during next visit on some shopping or dinner.
But my general observation with Lufthansa is that they do not reply on time. Previous case I was waiting months before they admit and pay back compensation.
@Pawel
the airport being evacuated is definitely a exceptional circumstance.
As per a court ruling (in September i believe) Lufthansa is not liable for compensation because of the evacuation at MUC. The €50 they offered is just a gesture of good will.
LH recently cancelled my flight about 3days out with the alternative flight connection getting me to my destination about 6hrs later. The compensation went very smoothly. I used an online form on their website and about 2wks later i received an E-mail that i’d get the compensation in a day or 2 in my account.
Lufthansa usually pays without problems and this is unlike them.
LH is a sh*tty airline with very dated F and J products with very bad food. Not sure why you even bother flying with them. The AA of Europe (in terms of customer service)!
I have been flying them for over 12 years both long and short haul and find them an amazing airline. Both the main brand and their subsidiaries. Only airline I fly international and in Europe. I never fly a US airline international. Wish I didn’t have to fly them in the US.
Am currently also in a battle with LH that are disputing an EU261 claim after causing us to arrive 36 hours late to our destination. They deny any liability and refuse to believe that their staff were rude, arrogant, abusive and couldn’t care. Will not consider compensation for any fees incurred or losses due to such a late arrival. They are a bunch of thugs, bullying you into giving up and virtually all responses have the feeling of a cut n paste bot.
Take a look at any Facebook post by them, virtually all follow up posts are by dissatisfied clients. How they are still in business is beyond me
What’s odd is that Austrian (Lufthansa subsidiary) seems to pay out within two weeks with no problems. I wonder why the flag carrier is different?
Lufthansa is actually a joke. I don’t understand why they have a good ranking in airline services as I flown 5 times with them for short and long distance and found them to be really bad in every aspect of flying.
Bad in service, price, cooperation and above all they lack basic human understanding. I honestly did not see any of the so called German efficiency they talk about.
I find that very odd with Lufthansa. I have been flying them for over 12 years both long and short haul and find them an amazing airline. Both the main brand and their subsidiaries.
I would just move on from first place, it’s not worth wasting my time, with all that effort i can make more money than what the paid me and save me energy.
Cheers
I use Airhelp and its lawyers. It works and don’t have spend precious time on it. Yes they take a 20-25 share but it’s worth it.
Had a issue with a swiss cancellation causeing 4:30 delay used “https://getservice.com” paid out with mailed cheque from Swiss within 3 weeks of the flight for a LH booked ticket they take a fee but still ended up getting more back then the round trip cost me. LHR to GVA and back from ZUR to LHR
Hi Matthew,
Thank you for posting your experience. We have experienced the same in May of this year , flight arrived late in Bucharest, missed the take off window and had to wait over an hour (plus the 20 min late arrival) to take off and missed the connection to Toronto in Frankfurt. Have to sleep in Germany that night and the depart next day in the morning. The exact amount of 250 EUR was offered to us, after for denial emails from Lufthansa initially. I am sure that we qualify for the full amount. What would you suggest?