[LuganoPirate]

Had an unusually negative experience with Lufthansa. On Monday I booked my son CPT-FRA-MXP in premium economy using miles and paid the service fee for a flight this coming Friday.

Tuesday I receive an email saying that only german nationals / residents may enter or transit FRA to other Schengen destinations. I waited 30 minutes for the helpline who never responded and disconnected at 30m 1 sec!!! Frustrating to say the least! I then called the partner plus service and they were able to confirm this is the case.

What I find incredible however, is that if transiting to a non-schengen destination, you can transit Frankfurt. Both Italy and Switzerland allow entry from South Africa and what I cannot understand, is the difference in risk posed by a person transiting to Italy, versus a person transiting to say New York, both of whom carry a negative covid test?

Unbelievably, when I went onto my Miles and More account to check my mileage account, I saw LH had cancelled the booking without even informing me with an email!!

Luckily I could rebook him via JNB with Swiss and all went smoothly, however I find the behavior of Lufthansa in this regard well below the normal standard of service I expect, even allowing for disruption caused by Covid. They were quick enough to debit my mileage account and credit card, it will be interesting to see how long they take to credit them back?

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sparkyflier, GivingupBA, PeterCoultas

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=1106264]what I cannot understand, is the difference in risk posed by a person transiting to Italy, versus a person transiting to say New York, both of whom carry a negative covid test?[/quote]

Good afternoon LP. The cynical side of me says these restrictions have all turned politically generated rather than medically evidenced generated.

Today, Heathrow were pleading for US residents to be allowed non quarantine entry into the UK, a country deemed far too infected, by the US authorities, to allow any entry by any UK resident travelling from London. Clearly Americans still want to come to ‘infected’ UK and the US Government deem it a safe to travel to.. and return from, for their citizens.

Same applies to HKG, Green for HKG passengers to London yet a minimum 21 day process the other way round.

1 user thanked author for this post.

DerekVH

[MartynSinclair]

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-fully-vaccinated-travellers-from-eu-and-us-wont-have-to-quarantine-on-arrival-in-england-government-source-says-12365826

Just announced on Sky news. Another one way corridor into ‘infected’ UK… by a country that bans all UK residents from entering USA due to our high infection rate.

[Gold-2K]

It does feel pretty political. In the case of the US it feels like they are creating a narrative that Americans are safe to travel as they’ve done an “awesome” job with vaccine, but other countries haven’t so they can’t come to the USA until they try harder. Meanwhile in some parts of US eg Florida only 40% of adults are vaccinated and they are also getting a Delta variant wave, while in UK I think the latest numbers show 70%+ of eligible adults fully vaccinated and close to 90% partially jabbed.

Personally even when if opens at both ends, I won’t be going anywhere for a few weeks until the airports have shown they can deal with the process at departures and arrivals.

2 users thanked author for this post.

David, DerekVH

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=1106264]They were quick enough to debit my mileage account and credit card, it will be interesting to see how long they take to credit them back?[/quote]

Friday morning (for the evening flight) I received an email offering either a rebooking for the 1st, or a voucher or a refund. I took the refund and the miles were credited a few hours later. Still waiting for the cash refund to my card though!

Does anyone know if EU261 applies??

[LetsFlyNow]

These rules are bizarr.
Lufthansa is only acting as the law demands to (though rules have changed as from today, more on that later). SA was until yesterday a Virusvariantengebiet ( The SA Covid variant that has not spread in Germany much) and as such there was a ‘Beförderungsverbot’ for non-German citizens + an additionional EU recommendation or laws from other countries about allowing entry from these high risk areas. It’s a total mess and no one really understands. Add exceptions to the laws.

That changes today and the only countries on the Virus variant list are Brazil and Uruguay (Gamma Variant). SA is now just a high risk area but travel is now allowed. I bet if you’d do a booking now, it would probably go through without issues.

What LH did wrong was not inform you atleast via E-Mail of the cancellation. In March Air France cancelled part of my journey to Kenya and didn’t bother telling me. Only when i looked at my booking out of boredom did i see my flight was missing and had to call the hotline.

[Kopite]

[postquote quote=1106264]

Please see my new subject (post) today about transit in FRA on the route SIN-FRA-BHX.

Singapore is a green list country. I will fly by LH, transit in FRA (also now green list) then LH on to Birmingham BHX (non Schengen).
Is this allowed? I’ll check with LH too as the rules may have changed since your debacle (above).

[Author]

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