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If you have not been following my attempt to get compensation from Lufthansa’s involuntary downgrade, or my trip report throughout East Africa, let me catch you up to speed. I was booked on a Lufthansa Business Class flight from Washington Dulles (IAD) to Frankfurt (FRA) when Lufthansa involuntarily downgraded me to a middle seat in economy. I reached out to Lufthansa due to EU261, but Lufthansa lied about compensation to me.
Here is what happened:
Lufthansa’s Involuntary Downgrade Due Compensation
EU261, a set of rules set by the EU regarding compensation by airlines, includes things such as delays and cancellations. One section describes what happens when an involuntary downgrade occurs, which is what happened to me.
For involuntary downgrades, EU261 rules require a 75% refund of the fare. The complicating factor is that I booked a flight on Lufthansa using miles from ANA Mileage Club. While Lufthansa is responsible for the compensation, they were not the ones directly paid by me for the flights.
While EU rules should apply since the flight was to an EU member state, U.S. Department of Transport (DOT) rules should also apply, which require the airline to refund me the difference in fare between business class and economy. This is clearly still quite complicated.
Making a Compensation Request
After I made it to Frankfurt, I inquired about EU261 in the lounge. The lounge agent gave me a pamphlet with a web address to complete my request. After I filled out the form (which was meant for delays and cancellations), all I had to do was wait.
Beyond the automated messages, the first email I received from Lufthansa stated the below (I will not include the agents’ names for their privacy):
Dear Payton Turner,
We are in the process of reviewing your inquiry and still need to conduct some internal research on your behalf. The aforementioned may take additional time. Please be assured that Lufthansa will contact you again shortly.
In the meantime, your continued patience is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Agent A
About a week later, I received the following email, which had me hopeful that I may actually receive compensation.
Dear Payton Turner,
I would like to offer my sincere apology for the inconvenience cause to you on this occasion. Having checked our record, we would like to repatriate to you we that your has already has been initiated as per the fare condition of your ticket in the original from of payment.
Indeed, our indentation is not to cause inconvenience to you , and I would like to reassure you that we would never deny reimbursement where its due.
Hope to see you soon Onboard.
Sincerely,
Agent B
I replied that I had no record of any reimbursement and asked for a reference or tracking number. I was worried they might send the compensation to whoever had paid them, whether United (who rebooked me) or ANA (who I ticketed with).
Further, I offered to provide an address or card number to send the compensation for the downgrade.
Pointing Fingers Began
Although I had already provided both my original and downgraded boarding passes during the request, Lufthansa wanted more information. Fair enough I thought. They followed up with this:
Dear Payton Turner,
We would like to review your request as soon as possible. In order for us to process such feedback fully and satisfactorily, we always require some information.
For this purpose, please select from the following details those that you have not yet sent to us:
● Booking confirmation including ticket number
The following restriction applies to attachments sent along: max. 6 attachments à 2MB in the formats .pdf, .jpg or jpeg.
We thank you already now for the transmission of the information under indication of your process number (Feedback ID ########).
You can send us the details in a protected way via our feedback form at ########.
A direct reply to this e-mail is also possible, whereby it is an open information transfer.
Your continued patience and cooperation are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Agent B
At this point, I sent the booking confirmation PDF that ANA had sent me when I purchased the ticket, as well as yet another copy of my original boarding pass and my updated one in case, somewhere along the communication chain, they got lost.
Unfortunately, the following email is when pointing fingers officially began.
Dear Payton Turner,
We would like to inform you that as per our record ticket is issued by Nippon Airlines. Please kindly contact them.
We would be very happy to welcome you on aboard Lufthansa flight soon.
Sincerely,
Agent C
I reached out to ANA to see if they would be willing to refund some of my miles (a happy solution for me), and they declined responsibility (which makes sense, as it is not their fault).
Compensation Request Went South
The humor to me is that within a short period of time, Lufthansa pivoted from “we would never deny reimbursement where its due” to “Please kindly contact [ANA].”
I knew this would become a lot more difficult than I initially anticipated. I replied that although ANA issued the ticket, the operating carrier, Lufthansa, must provide a refund. They changed their stance again…
Dear Payton Turner,
Thank you for your continuous correspondence.
We would like to inform you, as per our research there is no downgrade has happened in the flight LH 419 and because of no downgrade we will not be process your compensation request
We hope you will understand the situation and offer our apologizes.
Nevertheless, we hope we will get the chance to serve you again with our best services and we will see you on board soon with Lufthansa.
Sincerely,
Agent D
I replied that there was a downgrade, sending photos of my downgraded boarding passes yet again, and asked kindly again if there was any other documentation that I could provide.
Dear Payton Turner,
We are sorry that our reply did not meet your expectations. We are aware of your loyalty to Lufthansa and your patronage is important to us. Following your last letter, we took the time to re-examine our original assessment – however, our reply remains the same. We hope for your understanding that we now consider this case to be closed.
Sincerely,
Agent F
At this point, I was not going to get Lufthansa’s involuntary downgrade due compensation because they are now claiming that it never happened. While they know I was downgraded with documentation to prove it, they are trying to sweep it under the rug. Given how my flight was ticketed, I know it is difficult, but that should not prevent compensation.
The Last Point
I genuinely would have been happy with any form of compensation, whether it be miles or even Lufthansa credit, to fly to Germany in the future. Still, I am disappointed with their lack of responsibility. I am undoubtedly curious if any of the other downgraded passengers could receive their compensation, especially if they were ticketed with Lufthansa.
The shocking thing to me is that they deny any wrongdoing, despite direct evidence (downgraded boarding passes), and even ANA knew I had been downgraded. If I do not receive compensation due to this challenging situation, I accept that, but at this point, I am quite frankly confused about how they have decided to change their stance.
I also want to add that whether I flew in economy or business, I am grateful for the opportunity to fly and travel, which has always been my ultimate stance. While I would have preferred to fly in the cabin I paid for and at least get a refund for the difference when I did not, I also wanted to see if airlines were willing to provide refunds when they were legally due.
In the last article I wrote about Lufthansa’s involuntary downgrade, I received a lot of suggestions. Would submitting a new claim referring to “refund” instead of compensation be better? Please advise if anyone knows any agencies based in Germany specifically for getting a due refund.
Nonstop Points has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Nonstop Points and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. This post may contain affiliate links; please read our advertiser disclosure for more information
What next??? This is crazy. Surely there’s an EU regulatory body with teeth? Apologies to you.
It is not the written law that makes the difference… it is enforcing it.
Airhelp comes at a cost but they do all the work. Here is my link: https://www.airhelp.com/en-gb/airhelp-plus/?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=pap&utm_campaign=aff-RenesPoints&utm_content=&a_aid=RenesPoints&a_bid=0fca0349
Thanks. Maybe I will use again. Hesitant since last time AirHelp didn’t help 😉 but it cant hurt.
I avoid flying LH these days due to their poor service and horrible handling of delays cancellations etc
LH generally responds favorably to a generic threat of legal action for their inability to meet their EU-outlined legal obligations.
BA did this to me. I had much greater success writing the executive contacts which can be found at Elliott..org. Start polite and explain the situation. Then escalate to regulatory and legal language. Forget the regular customer service routes.
You wont like what I think. But IMO LH owes you nothing. ANA owes you a refund for the difference what a Biz cost to what a Y tkt costs miles wise.
I had something like this when US bumped me out of Biz on an Intl flight I booked with UA miles when US was apart of *A. Turns out US owed me Nothing and UA refunded me the difference between cabins. At least US put me in an aisle Exit Row
The problem isnt so much if LH owes you under 261 but rather what they owe you , imo they owe you 75% of ANA miles which we know they cant pay = they get off the hook A Bummer but thats the price we pay when we play the games we do to save $ or Miles
Lufthansa and any other company should be held accountable for not offering what you has originally bought. Every penny and dime.
Escalating this will cost you nothing. Dont let them off the hook. I view this similar to when an airline mishandles your bag. It doesnt matter where you bought the ticket or which carrier actually lost your bag, the airline operating the final leg is responsible. Same with this, LH downgraded you, they owe. Threaten or start legal action through small claims or something similar. Passengers have won judgements before and possesed aircraft for less.
If all else fails, use one of the paid companies that works on a commission for cases just like yours.
Likely my plan if LH does not help directly
First of all, always avoid Lufthansa. I had a similar incident in 2014, worse to my parents. I told them f** off and I stopped flying lh along with UA ( a victim of it’s transatlantic partner). I never understood why bloggers always praise LH. I used to pay quite a bit for business class. Anyway lh has a nasty corporate culture so it’s not the most honest company in the world.
Secondly, you can complain yo the German authority, I forgot the name but they have a website
Hey, heads up that LH is having a low key I.T. meltdown on their customer-facing tech. Booking yesterday was a mess. I got an error screen at the end of my purchase process that said the booking failed. Seconds later my credit card sent a confirmation text for my large purchase. Huh.
Thankfully UA was handling at least one segment because they had (one version of) my record locator. It took over 30 minutes on the phone at LH for them to find my record and get me seats.
Then today I noticed both my and companions D.O.B.s were wrong by exactly one day (same offset for each). Called IT again, it’s a known problem! And it misgendered my companion! I was able to get our secure passenger data files updated, but it may be a mess in NBO if the cross-reference isn’t spot-on. Ugh.
Im about to embark on a similar claim experience.
Wish me luck!