Flight Cancellation and Proposed Flight to Munich instead of Seattle

Well, clearly they are having some troubles. I would not worry too much about being dropped in Munich.

Fortunately, your flight isn't until mid-September, so there's plenty of time to get it sorted. But getting it sorted sooner rather than later is a good idea.

Just curious, did you book your ticket directly with Lufthansa? Or maybe with United?

Best advice I can offer right now: Keep your cool, don't freak out, they're not going to dump you in Munich. This actually is potentially an opportunity for a BETTER flight. Do a little homework: look for flights from Frankfurt to Seattle...there should even be options for a nonstop. Don't worry about what you paid for your ticket versus what a new itinerary would cost - that no longer matters; Lufthansa has to deliver you from FRA to SEA (I assume that's what your ticket was for) on the date of your original ticket. They are required to do just that, and they will, to the best of their ability, regardless of what a new and "better" ticket might cost. They can and will find another routing that accomplishes that, even if the new routing would cost more (that's no concern since you already have a ticket, which is literally a contract). Go on Lufthansa.com or United.com (they are partners), search for all flight options from FRA to SEA, pick the one that looks best to you (I'd certainly pick a nonstop), note the flight details, then call them (whoever you booked your ticket from), give them the details of your preferred routing, and ask to be put on that flight. Be polite and professional, ask nicely. They should do it.

Note: there still may be more schedule changes between now and mid-September, so remain attentive to your flight details (always a good idea, critically important nowadays) but it's worth doing this ASAP to get it settled and to get the best flight you can.

Remember: This is not necessarily a bad thing -- this is an opportunity to get an even better routing than your original flight (if a better routing exists).

Good luck.

We had similar difficulties with changed flights on Lufthansa - we had to do a little of our own research, and several calls. We had flights booked through “miles” on hubby’s AmEx card - another level of hassle I will be glad not to go through again. I think it may be easier booking with Lufthansa directly.

The Lufthansa people (most) will make it right - keep calling till it is.

Thanks for the responses. Yes, I booked through Lufthansa. What surprised me was not the flight changes, it was that the proposed flight change did not take us to Seattle.

I will start looking for alternatives before I call Lufthansa. I much prefer a non-stop but the non-stop from Frankfurt to Seattle leaves before our tour arrives at the airport. One idea I am thinking of is seeing if they can book us on the non-stop for the following day. If they can, can I get compensated for the extra I paid for choosing our seats? (Of course it means probably an overnight at the airport.)

I will start looking for alternatives before I call Lufthansa. I much prefer a non-stop but the non-stop from Frankfurt to Seattle leaves before our tour arrives at the airport. One idea I am thinking of is seeing if they can book us on the non-stop for the following day. If they can, can I get compensated for the extra I paid for choosing our seats?

Unlikely that you could depart the following day, and even more unlikely that you would receive any compensation if you chose to.

The rule is, they can put you on any other flight, but the following need to be the same as your original ticket:

• Must depart from the same origin city (can be a different airport)
• Must arrive at the same destination city (can be a different airport)
• Must depart on the same date

Different routing is OK, different airline is OK, different number of stops is OK. Class of service must be no lower than originally booked (don't expect an upgrade to business class though). They can (and will) put you on a partner airline if that helps. Departure time and arrival time are negotiable, and should be resolved in your favor so it meets your needs -- as long as the other rules are not violated. In some cases, you may have to wait until the next day to depart, if there's no same-day departure available that meets your needs. In most cases, if you are forced to overnight to catch a next-day departure, you may not be entitled to a voucher for a hotel (no cash compensation); if you choose to wait a day for a (better) departure flight, don't expect a free hotel room.

United is Lufthansa's major partner. Unfortunately, United long ago abandoned any pretense of being a major player in the Seattle market, and has no nonstops to Europe out of SEA. There will be many options to come home with at least one leg on United.

You can ask about delaying the departure one day to catch the nonstop the following morning (you should mention that an earlier departure on your original departure date just won't work for you because you can't get to FRA any earlier), but they don't have an obligation to accommodate that date change just because you prefer a nonstop. If there is another routing on your original departure date -- one that leaves no earlier than your original flight -- that would work for them, even if it's a nasty "zigzag" routing with multiple layovers, technically that would satisfy their obligation to get you home.

IF (and this is a big "if") your original departing flight from FRA is the last departure of the day (on that date) that would get you home, then you would have a good case to argue for the following day's nonstop departure. But Lufthansa and their big partner United have a lot of flights out of FRA that could connect and maybe get you to an onward flight to North America (this could result in a torturous routing with multiple stops). That would be unfortunate. If their proposed alternative with all those stops would get you to SEA any later than your original routing, AND if the next-day nonstop would get you to SEA before their proposed alternative would, you could make the case that it would get you home too late for something important (examples I've used: have an important meeting at work....have to catch an early ferry...) you can argue in favor of a routing that would get you back to SEA earlier...but to be credible this might require tricky timing. They're not going to grill you for details or require proof of that meeting, etc. But the timing might be a "thread the needle" thing. You can always ask, but have your story ready or be prepared to get creative.

What time did your original flight depart from FRA?
What time did your original flight arrive in SEA?
What's the earliest that you could reasonably make your departing flight from FRA on your original departure date?

Those will be the critical factors. Good luck, hope this helps.

European non stops from SeaTac are:

Aer Lingus to Dublin
Air France to Paris DeGaulle
Virgin Atlantic, Delta, American and British Airways to London Heathrow
Lufthansa and Condor to Frankfurt
Delta to Amsterdam

Check out the airfares for mid-September. Worse comes to worse, ask for a full refund of your tickets since it was the airline that cancelled you. That's actually quite a few flights which provide alternatives for you.

We too had an airline cancel a return flight during the pandemic and received a refund. The replacement trip after the pandemic included a Scandanavian cruise going to St. Petersburg. We swapped that cruise to an Eastern Med cruise out of Athens. In other words, I always have a Plan B and sometimes a Plan C when we take trips. There's always places we'd just love to see.

Should I expect another message from them adding on another flight?

Did you look at your entire booking online to see what it shows? Does it really 'dead end' in Munich? Perhaps the message you got did not provide the full itinerary, but just the 1st leg info of the change?

Sept is not that far away, so I would use the 'sooner rather than later' approach to getting it sorted out. I would not just 'wait for another message'

I would definitely contact them and discuss options as my first step. If you don't get the answer you want or can live with, you can ask for a refund. They should also refund your seat fees since they cancelled the flight but confirm with them that this is true.

If you are going to need to accept a flight with a connection, then you might also consider Iceland Air. It would go Frankfurt to KEF to Seattle. Connections works well on this airline at this small airport. I would much rather connect at this airport than most major European airports during the current airport crisis.

Some info in case it helps:

Lufthansa flies Munich to Vancouver several days a week so that may be a rebooking option.
Air Canada is a partner with Lufthansa and they currently fly Frankfurt to Vancouver.

The Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver is seldom cancelled and it is an all year round flight.

There could be a long wait time if you call, so before you invest the time and frustration in that, do Joe suggests and check your booking online. It may be they only notified you of the first leg, but actually have provided the full itinerary back to Seattle via Munich.

If not, then you could try the chat bot that pops up when you go to the Help Center on their webpage:

https://www.lufthansa.com/am/en/help-and-contact

I know that while the wait times for British Airways have been horrendous, some people on FlyerTalk have reported good luck with getting cancellations sorted out by chat. Maybe that works with Lufthansa too.

You should have some alternative flights in mind before you try the chat, just as you should before you call.

and speaking of FlyerTalk, you can often get very good help with a problem like this in the airline’s forum section:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufthansa-austrian-swiss-brussels-lot-other-partners-miles-more-495/

You can read through and look for for advice on similar situations without joining. If you would like to ask your own question for personalized help, you can join for free. I find the FlyerTalk forums very useful for help with air travel.

Should I expect another message from them adding on another flight?

So you are referring to an email you got by LH? Is it really not possible to look up your flight at the LH web site using your booking code?

Claire: The flight that was cancelled was the flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver --flight 492 on October 1--and the flight from Vancouver to Seattle.

I looked it up on the Lufthansa site. It states they have substituted the flight to Munich but it does not list a flight from Munich to Seattle. They just leave us in Munich.

United has nonstops from Munich to Denver, and Munich to San Francisco, then the last hop to Seattle from either. It's likely that was their intent (depends on the timing, of course). Go online to Lufthansa.com and check your options, then give them a call.

Deborah, yes I see what you mean. I just looked at the Lufthansa website (we are flying with them in October, Vancouver to Munich, return) and it looks like they may be cutting their Saturday flight, Frankfurt to Vancouver starting in October (ongoing staffing etc challenges?). Plus there is no Munich flight to Vancouver on Saturdays (we are flying on Sundays). However on the Lufthansa website there is still listed the codeshare option with Air Canada (LH6526), Frankfurt to Vancouver on Saturday October 1, so I wonder if you are in touch with them, if that could be an option. Air Canada also has a few flights to Seattle each day.

Hope you got through to Lufthansa and got things resolved.
When you have time let us know what happened and how it got resolved.

Just looked and see that their site shows the LH492- LH6776 is available for booking.

They also show a direct FRA-SEA flight and a FRA-YVR-SEA version that is on Air Canada for the FRA-YVR segment.

Thanks, everyone.
Am now booked, not my favorite routing but at least just one stop. Here are answers to some of the kind suggestions plus what happened when I called the Lufthansa service number.

Flight 492 is not offered on October 1. September 30, yes, October 1 no. That was the flight on which I was scheduled before it was cancelled.
Other flights from Frankfurt to Vancouver and then to Seattle: unfortunately they are all too early in the morning. We have to be on a flight no earlier than 1:00pm. That is too bad because I love flying on the Bombardier from Vancouver to Seattle; you fly low and slow over the islands!

So I first tried the chat box. After entering my booking information it told me one segment of my flight was cancelled--which, of course, I knew--and to call the service number.

Having researched possible flights first I called the service number. When I told him the flight I wanted he told me it wasn't available. When I very politely asked why not since I could book tickets on it, he hung up on me. I immediately call again and got another agent. She found a flight for me--not the one I wanted but one that was acceptable. I asked the same question to her and this was her explanation. The flights you see when you log onto the website are for new tickets. Only some of those flights were also available for travelers whose flights were cancelled. Make of it what you will. She did say I could cancel the flight and then rebook a new flight but I am not an experienced flyer and was not sure how that would affect my flight from Seattle to Europe.

The cost of choosing seats will be refunded--apparently that can't be transferred to the different flight. She found us two seats she was going to book for us but then was apparently told she could not do that until some other process was completed--in 72 hours maybe.

That is about it. (I assume more changes will occur before we leave so maybe I will learn some more.)