EU261 for cancelled LH FRA-SIN flight

[Ken1]

We are currently staying at a Frankfurt airport hotel ready for an LH flight FRA-SIN connecting with SQ SIN-SYD in J as the final part of our RTW revenue fare. Late this afternoon I received a notification that LH778 for Tue 06 Feb has been cancelled and to use the chat function to organise re-booking but it has had technical issues, probably because of overload, continually saying to try again later. The cancellation is due to a strike by Lufthansa ground staff. After multiple attempts in the app and online on the PC I decided to phone Lufthansa and surprisingly the call was answered quickly.

Firstly I was told that they may be able to get us on a flight on Feb 08 but when he put me on hold and tried to book those seats for us he said that nothing was available and that the earliest flights he could get us on would be Feb 15. I was offered a refund of the portion of the ticket not used and I could rebook my own flights but I said no, that would cost me a lot more by buying a one way fare so close to departure. I told him I could see availability on SQ but he said he couldn't see anything available. Several times he put me on hold for a long period and finally came back offering FRA-SIN SQ25 on 08 Feb connecting with SIN-SYD SQ211. I think that initially they were trying to re-book only onto LH flights but at least finally they did re-book us on SQ.

The emails show e-ticket numbers which are the same as the original tickets. When I go to the SQ website to select seats it shows "Not ticketed" so I am unable to select seats yet and the booking status shows "Reserved" rather than "Confirmed". If the SQ website still shows that tomorrow I'll try to call LH again to be sure that the tickets have been issued correctly.

During the call I asked about whether we would receive compensation for hotel and meal costs and he said that I would receive some. After the flights were re-booked and I had received the new flight emails I started to ask again about compensation but the call disconnected and I haven't been able to get through again when I try to call back. I will try to call tomorrow but I would appreciate any advice on what we are entitled to receive for the two day delay. We will be in the airport hotel an extra two nights. Does the EU261 compensation give the payment and also cover accommodation and meal costs or do they come out of the compensation payment? I have read that payments can be as high as 600 Euro each passenger. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[tdimdad]

If our resident expert, @kangarooflyer88, is around, perhaps they can summarise the applicable key points of EU261 and potential other helpful schemes / conventions.

 

[bcworld]

Does the EU261 compensation give the payment and also cover accommodation and meal costs or do they come out of the compensation payment? I have read that payments can be as high as 600 Euro each passenger. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Where the 600 Euro is payable...other costs for meals & accommodation etc are definitely in addition to that.

For strikes by airline employees (rather than e.g. air traffic control)...this would not be considered extraordinary circusmtances...so the 600 Euro payment should be applicable.

 

[RSVKanga]

A bit of an off topic question but still belongs in this thread; does EU261 apply to flights between Australia and New Caledonia? (EU overseas territory off the Queensland coast) - Qantas and Aircalin fly between Nouméa and Australia.

 

[RooFlyer]

A bit of an off topic question but still belongs in this thread; does EU261 apply to flights between Australia and New Caledonia? (EU overseas territory off the Queensland coast) - Qantas and Aircalin fly between Nouméa and Australia.

This FT thread indicates yes ... and no . But you might get some leads in the links

Does EU 261/2004 apply towards EU territories? - FlyerTalk Forums

Other European Airlines - Does EU 261/2004 apply towards EU territories? - I know EU 261/2004 applies towards EU countries, for I was on a United flight from AMS to ORD which had mechanical issues and delayed for 12 hours. I was compensated 600 Euro's under EU 261/2004 for this United flight...

www.flyertalk.com

 

[Mwenenzi]

A bit of an off topic question but still belongs in this thread; does EU261 apply to flights between Australia and New Caledonia? (EU overseas territory off the Queensland coast) - Qantas and Aircalin fly between Nouméa and Australia.

From a current FT thread for a LAX-PPT flight. Unsure if accurate.

EC261 doesnt cover French Polynesia as far as I can tell.

seems like it only covers

• French Guiana
• Martinique
• Mayotte
• Guadeloupe
• La Reunion
• Saint-Martin
• Madeira
• Azores, and
• Canary Islands

 

[Ken1]

During the call I asked about whether we would receive compensation for hotel and meal costs and he said that I would receive some. After the flights were re-booked and I had received the new flight emails I started to ask again about compensation but the call disconnected and I haven't been able to get through again when I try to call back. I will try to call tomorrow but I would appreciate any advice on what we are entitled to receive for the two day delay. We will be in the airport hotel an extra two nights. Does the EU261 compensation give the payment and also cover accommodation and meal costs or do they come out of the compensation payment? I have read that payments can be as high as 600 Euro each passenger. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

After I spoke to a customer service rep at Lufthansa on Monday evening when our Tuesday evening FRA-SIN flight was cancelled and we were moved to SQ from FRA on Thu Feb 08 we went to a Lufthansa ticket office at FRA on Tuesday morning to enquire about compensation for the two day delay and we were told that they can put us on an Emirates flight that night so we were moved to the EK flights and arrived back in SYD on Thursday morning 40 minutes earlier than if we had travelled on our originally booked LH and SQ flights. We were also offered EK chauffeur drive transfers to home from SYD when we logged in to select seats! This was our first time flying EK in J and we were very impressed! So in the end we didn't need to worry about claiming compensation.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

After I spoke to a customer service rep at Lufthansa on Monday evening when our Tuesday evening FRA-SIN flight was cancelled and we were moved to SQ from FRA on Thu Feb 08 we went to a Lufthansa ticket office at FRA on Tuesday morning to enquire about compensation for the two day delay and we were told that they can put us on an Emirates flight that night so we were moved to the EK flights and arrived back in SYD on Thursday morning 40 minutes earlier than if we had travelled on our originally booked LH and SQ flights. We were also offered EK chauffeur drive transfers to home from SYD when we logged in to select seats! This was our first time flying EK in J and we were very impressed! So in the end we didn't need to worry about claiming compensation.

Nice outcome!

 

[dajop]

EU261 working exactly as it's meant to. Incentivises carrier to find such a solution.

 

[Mwenenzi]

A very good result. Face to face can get a better more pragmatic result compared to some phone agent in a 3rd world country call centre, reading off a screen.

....we were told that they can put us on an Emirates flight that night so we were moved to the EK flights and arrived back in SYD on Thursday morning 40 minutes earlier than if we had travelled on our originally booked LH and SQ flights. ....

And you should be able to credit those flights to an eligible EK ffp (EK, UA, QF, JL and others)

Where to Credit | Where to Credit Emirates Flights in J Booking Class

Find the best frequent flyer program for Emirates flights in booking class J!

www.wheretocredit.com

 

[Ken1]

EU261 working exactly as it's meant to. Incentivises carrier to find such a solution.

When he offered flights that day he originally offered us a flight that departed less than 3 hours after the time we were speaking with him and we told him we couldn't make that flight as we had to pack and leave the hotel to check in for the flight so he then offered us the evening flight which we accepted. We had earlier arranged with the hotel to stay an extra two days after we had been put on the SQ flight two days later and then had to see them to change it again. He said if we didn't take the flights we were offered for that day we wouldn't receive any compensation for hotel etc as we had been offered the flight that day. We are happy with the outcome and we enjoyed our first J flights with EK.

 

[Ken1]

A very good result. Face to face can get a better more pragmatic result compared to some phone agent in a 3rd world country call centre, reading off a screen.


And you should be able to credit those flights to an eligible EK ffp (EK, UA, QF, JL and others)

Where to Credit | Where to Credit Emirates Flights in J Booking Class

Find the best frequent flyer program for Emirates flights in booking class J!

www.wheretocredit.com

We put our QFF number for the flights. Late this afternoon we received 4000 QFF points for the J FRA-DXB flight but haven't received the points for DXB-SYD yet, although I would expect that they should be through by tomorrow.

I must say we were surprised when we arrived at FRA from EZE that FRA was the first airport we have arrived at on nay trip where we had to pay for trolleys in the arrivals baggage area. There was a charge of one euro for a trolley, although luckily they took a card for payment.

Also for security when we departed FRA that was the only airport on this trip where we had to take out electronics etc. All other airports we travelled through - SYD, AKL, SCL, EZE, USH and DXB have the updated scanners where we didn't have to take out laptops, iPads etc. I would have thought that Germany would be more likely to have updated equipment than Argentina and even USH in Argentina had updated scanners.