The coronavirus pandemic has caused huge problems for airlines, most of whom have had to ground most or all of their fleets. Lufthansa is no exception. These decisions have resulted in millions of passengers wanting refunds for their cancelled flights.
What should I do?
Bear in mind that that all airlines are overwhelmed by the current situation, and so will be working through hundreds of flights with tens of thousands of passengers.
In these circumstances all aviation call centres, no matter how many extra staff they employ/contract with, are experiencing difficulties responding at the busiest time they have ever experienced. Only call the helpline if you are meant to be travelling in the next three days.
If your flight is not for this week or next week, it may make more sense to wait a few weeks until the airlines have sorted our resourcing issues in call centres and also improved their online refund procedures. Lufthansa is also sorting out urgent repatriation flights.
For general advice on claims, including EU261 claims, see
Lufthansa has cancelled my flight. What are my options?
You can rebook your flight for a later date, or get a refund.
If you still need to fly in the coming days, the airline advises that you contact the service centre with your booking reference and new travel date in mind.
The airline currently has a special flight schedule which can be viewed here.
For flights departing from Germany, the airline has blocked out neighbouring seats in Economy and Premium Economy to abide by social distancing rules. This is not the case with flights to Germany, as the carrier is attempting to bring as many people home as possible.
Am I entitled to a refund?
If the airline has cancelled your flight, then you are entitled to a full refund. To request the refund, you must call the Service Centre.
Bear in mind that they are dealing with a high volume of requests and so cannot process refunds within the usual time limits. The group is currently prioritising passengers who are travelling within the next 72 hours.
If you booked with a travel agency, you must contact them directly.
Postponing your flight
First things first, you do no have to commit to a new flight date immediately so there’s no urgent rush. The ticket will remain valid past your original flight date, without any need to contact customer service. This applies to the entire Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Air Dolomiti).
The group is currently waiving change fees for bookings made until 19 April, 2020. This means you can change both the dates and destination without incurring a change fee. Instead you would only pay the fare difference (if the new flights are more expensive).
You can rebook a ticket for departure up to and including April 30, 2021. The new flight must be booked by August 31, 2020.
To encourage rebooking, the group is offering a €50 discount on the ticket price for every booking with a departure date on/before December 31, 2020. The discount will be deducted during the rebooking process.
Can I claim on my travel insurance?
Possibly, depending on when you booked your flight – and also when you took out your insurance. See the following article for advice on that.
PLEASE DO NOT include your booking references, ticket numbers or names in the comments below. Your PNR (Passenger Name Record) contains personal information and should not be put on public forums. We are trying to XXXX these out when we see them, but we are not the airline, and this is a public website.
