[Ole Olesen]

On February 1, 2021 I bought a flight ticket (multiple cities) from Lufthansa’s USA website, because the functionality of my credit card is USD. My credit card was indeed charged USD 688. The first flight, out of five, originated in Turkey.
Meanwhile Lufthansa changed the timing of some of my flights, which did not suit me. I requested a refund on April 12, 2021 and received a cancellation email to this matter. On May 19 a refund of USD 611 was paid into my USD based credit card. This was the equivalent of Turkish Lira 5008. The ticket seems to be issued in Turkish Lira, because the first flight originated in Turkey. In the meantime the Turkish Lira has tanked and the passenger pays for the depreciation of the Turkish Lira.
Is it normal, that passengers pay for Lufthansa to get a free foreign exchange option?

This was Lufthansa’s response to my dispute:
After further reviewing your claim as per your request. Please be advised that our systems indicate a full refund was processed in the amount of TRY 5008.31 to the original form of payment. That said, we are unable to meet your request for a refund of the USD 77.

[cwoodward]

It seems that the airline behaved perfectly properly and that received the correct refund. It would be unreasonable that there should be any expectation for airlines to be responsible for currency fluctuations.

4 users thanked author for this post.

LuganoPirate, Giuseppe, Frederic, ImissConcorde

[Giuseppe]

The ticket bears the currency of commencement of travel. Having your itinerary been subject to schedule change, you are absolutely entitled to receive full refund. The price was trl 5008? They refunded trl. Carriers are not responsible for currency fluctuations. You might have been also subject to the opposite event, meaning a strong increase of trl. You wouldn’t have said anything if the equivalent in usd was higher…

1 user thanked author for this post.

Frederic

[Inquisitive]

The simple and short answer is: Yes.

[LuganoPirate]

And sometimes it works the other way round, as has happened to me. The currency appreciates and you get more back.

[Author]

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