This is a rather long post (two parts) however I’m hoping that telling my saga will be of help to anyone who did not know about, or forgot to book Rail & Fly when originally booking their flight on participating airlines.
We spaced out and didn’t add the Rail & Fly (R&F) option when making our flight reservations back in April for our upcoming Lufthansa Seattle to Frankfurt flight. Upon landing we plan to travel onto Cologne and wanted to take advantage of the discounted train ticket (per person 60€/1st class or 30€/2nd class) good for onward travel in Germany, within the 24 hour period after landing or departing. Save time and money on my trip? Yes, please.
A few days after booking, I looked on the Lufthansa website to see if we could simply add the R&F to our booking online, and was directed to call the main number: 1(800) 645-3880. I called and spoke to a rep who wasn’t well-versed in how the program worked and I was feeling unsure about the transaction. I knew that I had time, so I decided to thank him, hang up and call back later.
“Later” turned into August, a month out from our trip. I called the 1(800) Lufthansa main number and asked to add the R&F and was told that I could not add the option after the fact. I told the rep that I was pretty sure that I could and asked if I could please speak to a supervisor. I was told all managers were in a meeting and I should call back in an hour. OK, thanks. I hung up. I called back in an hour and was told by a supervisor that I couldn’t add Rail & Fly. Frustrated but undaunted, I just thanked them, hung up and decided to call back another day and hope for a rep who could help.
Ten days from our flight day, this past Saturday, I called the main 1(800) number to try again. After varying hold times, and a range of wobbly voice connections, I got through 7 times and was disconnected 7 times. I got to 3 reps who were able to start my R&F transaction, but each call was dropped at varying points. On the third call, when I asked if they could please call me back if the line was disconnected, they said they don’t keep my number, for my security, and they cannot call back even if they wanted to. OK, good to know.
Encouraged that at least the reps now understood my request and agreed it could be done, I decided to call back the next day. But, I wasn’t willing to spend hours on a wonky connection only to be dumped, so I scoured the Lufthansa website and app for an alternate phone number to call. I found and downloaded the specific “Lufthansa Customer Service” app (different from the “Lufthansa” app) and found a new number to call: 1(833) 240-1426. I got through on the first ring after the recorded message, on a very clear connection, to a very knowledgeable rep and made it all the way through the transaction, email address confirmed, credit card info given and…the transaction was rejected! The rep was getting an error message on her end. She surmised that all of the activity the previous day may have locked up my booking. Maybe. Nothing wrong with the credit card, my booking was locked. Maybe if I waited 24 hours for the booking to clear, the transaction would go through in 5 minutes tomorrow, she suggested. (Hmmm, really?) I asked if I could speak to someone who might be able to explain what happened and how to best proceed. She said there was no one, call back tomorrow. I thanked her and hung up.
Continued in next post…