Lufthansa Flights (some warnings)

A snowHead

I have booked Lufthansa flights to Munich for a cheeky 5 night break in Mayrhofen over Easter holidays with my youngest. Joining my parents and sister family. The cheeky element is down to leaving eldest to revise under hubby's care.

Lufthansa was attractive due to lots of choice on flights times hopefully giving us a few hours on arrival and leaving day. Plus they take skis for free, however you need to phone them to add the skis. Another nice tocuh was free seat booking for normal seat.

Warning 1: No matter what day or time i have phoned, i have got the message saying very high calls, only stay on line if urgent and to phone at a different time. I "listened" to that first few times....

My return flight was cancelled and I was automatically rebooked onto a later flight. Given i have a 1hr 40mins approx drive home, I decided that was risking me falling alseep at wheel so decided that coming back sooner was safer (even if that turned my pickup time to 13:00 rather than my originally planned 14:10). Unlike BA or EasyJet who I have had cancellations with over last couple of years, I could not rebook online. Also I wasn't given very long to make my mind up as to whether I was happy with the new flight. So phoned up and rebooked to earlier time. When confirmation came through they had lost my return baggage allowance and rebooking for free on my return leg! I have phoned again. She could see my problem but unable to fix and it has been sent to ticketing department. I still can't get new seats allocated while issues with ticket outstanding.

Warning 2: Check all the details!

A snowHead

Lufthansa is my preferred option when it comes to flights. This year I have flown with Jet2 and Ryanair and my experiences overall have reinforced my preference for Lufthansa.
As with any of the airlines, you do need to be aware of their rules and foibles.
I would need to check this is still current to be absolutely sure, but I believe the free ski carriage with Lufthansa only applies to the "economy classic" fare and above, and does not apply to the "economy lite" fare

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@JHS, correct which is what I booked. Despite their attempt to change my fare conditions.

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When are you flying @NickyJ, ? I've got Manchester -> Munich booked 10/4 and 17/4 they changed the return flight time, to land at 2300, so I guess you had the same change?

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10th to 15th April. Though on Heathrow flights

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@NickyJ, ah ok, I had no earlier flights at all to chose from!! I've not checked but I assume/hope I can still bring a set of skis as well as my 23kg luggage?

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Look at flights through the app, at "Flight fare conditions"

After all it is free

@kitenski, my guess it was as a result of me saying move it to the earlier flight. I had said please make sure the ski bags are also moved which is showing but no other hold bags.

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It seems that Lufthansa are still operating their systems on steam-powered hardware, as they really struggle with multiple facets of travel which should be simple, but which require a call to their service centre to complete.

The two that I've run into are:

- while ski carriage is free under the standard 23Kg hold baggage allowance for Economy Classic and above, you then have to call them to book your ski equipment onto the flight. You can probably just turn up and present it to them unannounced, but if you do there's a chance that it won't be loaded or that you will be charged extra for it.

- anyone between the ages of 12 and 17 travelling out of the UK has to be booked on the Lufthansa system as an adult, which then causes them to be charged £13 for Air Passenger Duty even though this applies to adults only. When you specify the age of the traveller, a small note pops up advising you that you need to contact the service centre to arrange for a refund of the APD for that passenger, as the system is unable to cope with this level of complexity.

As I'm flying LHR->MUC and back at key times (first flight out in the morning, last flight back at night), I'm hoping that their current strategy of cancelling flights and consolidating isn't going to affect me because those flights are critical to many business trips, but my fingers remain crossed after previous experience of them shuffling bookings around. For a proposed trip in December which we cancelled, we rearranged the flights for March in the hope of using them or deferring them again as we couldn't get a full refund if we cancelled. They subsequently moved both flights, one forward by an hour, and the other to the next day, which triggered the option for a full refund, which we took.

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@NickyJ, I don’t see any mention of skis on your image (or my booking!)

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@kitenski, I know. I have other view or email showing "special baggage".

Yup, the app shows nothing, but the email shows it:

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I have put my request in for that refund which i still haven't seen. This has taken a long time.

Edit to add: I requested it on 9th Feb

A snowHead

A snowHead

One correction to my earlier post - APD is payable by those 16 and over. The screenshot from Lufthansa I posted above makes this clear. I've requested the refund, and was told that it would take around 48 hours to be credited back to my card.

@mgrolf, on other airlines I've used skis are only carried if booked separately and with an additional charge, so they know exactly how many pairs are expected. In any case, modern aircraft should be able to accommodate any skis that turn up, with the only issues I've heard being with the old BMI services and other turboprop flights where the hold was pretty small and also items over about 1.8m simply couldn't be fitted in.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@ousekjarr, I have been awaiting the refund for nigh on a full month. I have chased after 2 or 3 weeks. Just been told it is with the accounts department.

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@NickyJ,
I've only just recently received the refund for last Easter's cancellations. Don't hold your breath.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Our cancellations were made on 22/12/21, and the refund was received in my credit card account on 4/1/22, which I consider to be pretty good given that was only 6 working days later because of the festive season.

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Well this thread reminded me I have to book skis, which I've done, rang at 1700 and answered very quickly, all added on.

From what I understand I have a total weight limit of 23kg, which includes, skis, boots and a hold bag. Is that correct? Presumably they are ok with one large ski bag totalling 23kg but with clothes, boots etc in it.

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After all it is free

My Tuppence worth. If you fly Long Haul with Lufthansa (as I did to Canada last month), they only offer Vegetarian Meals in Economy and if that's not bad enough, they won't serve you a Beer except during the meal times. Very Happy

@kitenski, the skis are in addition to your hold baggage, there may be a weight limit but that should only be a factor if you are trying to take multiple pairs.
They won't bat an eyelid if you have a big ski bag as your only hold item.

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I’ve flown with Lufthansa several times this year. I think the additional weight for ski equipment is 20kg?
The details are on the website.

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Weight allowed is dependent on your class of travel weight

Calculator here

https://www.lufthansa.com/gb/en/baggage-calculator#/

1 item of baggage with one pair of skis OR one snowboard
1 item of baggage with one pair of ski poles and one pair of ski OR snowboard boots
1 helmet
Maximum number of baggage items: 2
Dimensions (length only): 200 cm
Information about carriage:
In addition to your free baggage allowance, you may take one piece of skiing equipment with you free of charge on your Lufthansa flight (except on flights to and from the USA, Mexico and Central America). You will be charged the price stated above for any additional skiing equipment.

On the Economy Class Light fare, free transport of skiing equipment instead of a booked item of baggage or in addition to a booked item of baggage is not included and the above-listed charges will apply.

The weight of skiing equipment must be within the weight restrictions for the respective travel class.

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If you think Lufthansa is bad, try changing a flight more than once on the same booking with their unloved stepdaughter Austrian Airlines... once you have made the new reservation, you cannot there & then l pay for the difference. Instead, someone has to ring you back from their (quite separate) accounts department at a non fixed time point in the next few days...this might or might not happen (I have invariably missed the return phone calls despite - or because of - having a local number) ..so frequently leaving you in Kafka like limbo.. (Bytw my mastery of German has invariably been more a hindrance than a help as the first contact seems to be in Asia & the accounts department seems to be entirely made up of Slavs, neither of which are comfortable in the national language of the airline they are representing.) After one failed attempt at paying the 30 or so Euros for my apparently re-arranged flight, I turned up at the check in desk in Vienna only to be told I'd been unwittingly moved to standby rather than having rebooked (this despite being shown as having successfully rebooked on both the Internet site & on the App - on neither of which it had, of course, been possible to pay the 30 Euros whilst vainly awaiting the return phone call). I was only able to remedy this by going to the office two floors up, paying in cash &coming down with a white slip of paper which I then handed over to the check in desk who then moved me from standby to confirmed passenger ...this by the way took place four months ago - NOT four decades ago...the whole was, however, handled most charmingly in accordance with their Denglish strapline "the charming way to fly"- but with quite staggering inefficiency..

On the subject of Lufthansa, don't suppose any fellow SH has a contact number for customer services...? All my search attempts have failed!

They cancelled our Friday night flight a few weeks ago - announced around 10.15pm when at the gate in Munich. After a huge queue for their "Service Centre" (ha!) formed, they then announced they wouldn't help. The message was sort your own hotel, or we'll provide some blankets / pillows. Managed to get rooms in the adjacent Hilton (v. nice) but rebooking flights via the app was woeful ("seats available" actually meant waitlist so we spent around 9hrs in airport until finally getting a flight the next afternoon). I'm about £400 out of pocket.

Emails go into a blackhole, and their Twitter people are next to useless - so if anyone has any top tips for actually speaking to someone, I'd be HUGELY grateful!

You know it makes sense.

@schnitzel_skier, their telephone service centre is on 0371 945 9747 - I called on Monday morning around 10am and got answered in about 20 seconds, but that's probably pretty unusual

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I rang the same number yesterday around 5pm and was answered within a few minutes.

A snowHead

Thanks, both - think that's the number I've tried but they quickly say they can't do anything and email only. It's farcical!

A snowHead

@schnitzel_skier, Crying or Very sad

I am now very scared....

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@schnitzel_skier, when I had issues with Easyjet many many years ago I ended up taking them to the small claims court. At the last part of each deadline they did enough to extend it, then when they realised I wasn't giving up they settled out of court and paid my costs, which is all I'd asked them to do in the first place!

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@NickyJ, I'd like to be optimistic (perhaps I just need to be patient!)

@kitenski, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that! My other route is travel insurance (minus the excess). Unfortunately I have nothing in writing about their "offer" to cover the costs. I was genuinely surprised by their "sort yourselves out" attitude - there were plenty of people with children a lot younger than ours! Anecdotally I heard there had been 30+ flights cancelled so maybe the staff had run out of enthusiasm.

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I had to request a refund from LH a few years ago when they cancelled our onward flights. Know your rights and what you’re entitled to (you can Google template letters) and I think I used the online complaint form. Money came through pretty quickly, they paid for everything including hire car and snacks on the way. Good luck!

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Ok so more than one week since I spoke to them on the phone about my return flight. Still not updated via app. Now less than 4 weeks until I go out. How long before I chase again.

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Phoned again to chase. Struggling to convince them there was a problem, as insisting of course I had hold bag i had the classic fare.... Spent loads of time on hold. Finally got to somebody who could fix it. Phew. That took most of an hour so i didn't bother trying to chase APD refund as i had to get into a work meeting. I will call again to chase that another day

After all it is free

@NickyJ, my APD refund request was made on Monday 7th March, and received on Monday 21st March. Not quite the 48 hours they promised, but still not too bad.

So something had gone wrong as request made on 9th Feb and still not received.

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I chased again on monday and £13 refund is finally there

Help!!

Lufthansa Flights (some warnings)

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