Airline compensation for delay and poor service

[Plummonkey88]

Hello, I'm looking for some thoughts or anyone who's been through a similar situation to us with any airline...

Our flight was delayed for 4 hours from Edinburgh to Munich and we missed our onward flight to Singapore. The initial delay was an hour or so and it was due to a storm in Munich, but there was then a technical issue with the place which caused further delay.

We landed at 1150pm and had been rebooked on a flight for 1220pm the following afternoon, and were quite happy to have a night in a hotel and tackle the long flight the next day, however, when we landed there were no airport staff at all in the airport. Lufthansa desk shut at 10pm as did all others. We then made our way to the airport hotel to be told there was no room and we would struggle to get a room due to so many flight cancellations that day, and passengers having to book up. We spend 2 hours calling hotels within a 40 mile radius with no luck. Our young children then had to sleep overnight on an airport bench, there were no food & beverage outlets open until 6am, so we had absolutely nothing to eat or drink either.

I have emailed for compensation for the delay in flight as per the UK 261 policy, for additional compensation for the situation they left us in at the airport - we feel there should be staff on if a flight has been delayed, especially if they new there had been alot of delays that day, and compensation for the food and lost night at a hotel in Singapore.

They have came back to me saying as our flight was from Edinburgh were not entitled to compensation for the delay, they will take on board the feedback regarding no staff being at the airport and they will only refund us for food and drink purchased - surely this cannot be right??

I'm hopeful someone is more clued up on this, or that someone has been in a similar unfortunate situation.

Any helps appreciated.

Thanks

What was the flight code, the reason is usually available online.

@grimupnorthnot Do you not understand irony? Never mind!

I used to fly with Lufthansa often and was delayed and missed my connection in Munich or Frankfurt a few times. Their customer service is terrible. Once I had an 8 hour wait due to the delay and they gave me two 10 euro vouchers and a small bottle of water. A sandwich in the airport was 14 euro.

I never managed to get any compensation because they’d always use delay tactics and end up saying it was out of their control, which was impossible for me to disprove. The last time I used one of these companies that do the claim for you and take 50%. I didn’t even care about the money, I just wanted them not to wriggle their way out of paying. I had to fill in a form and a few months later got 50% of the compensation. They kept me informed throughout and there was no effort on my part.

If you want to get anything, I advise you to go through one of these companies. Otherwise Lufthansa will just mess you around, you’ll waste time and energy and won’t get anything. 50% with no effort is better than nothing.

did you pay for the flights on credit card? If so I’d try a charge back or section 75 claim. More info here https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/our-expertise/cards/chargeback-and-section-75

If the flight is to/ from the Uk you’re still entitled to compensation, regardless of them being a US airline

Go to a website called FlyerTalk and find the Lufthansa forum. Give your flight details and ask what the delay has been recorded as. It’s not secret information and usually someone on those forums has access to it.

as long the technical delay was more than 3 hours then you are due compensation. You aren’t entitled to it for weather, but would have been entitled to accommodation and food.

Flyertalk is certainly a good resource so worth an ask on there, however...

It’s not secret information and usually someone on those forums has access to it.

A lot of the fine detail that feeds into the broadbrush info on flyertalk is definitely proprietary..

The OPs case is a bit unusual in that it sounds like there were two sequential causes, tech and weather.

Usually somebody somewhere (usually flightcrew for delays post doors closed) will have assigned specific codes times to both the delay ( in plain language something like "tech x minutes, weather y minutes" ).

The company will hold that detailed info internally for some time but all the public might get to see eventually, if anything, is one single simplified overarching code with an indicator for comp or not...

It's possible if the OP does find the magic code for the flight it might simply be "WEAN" , which is "weather, no comp"...which the OP already knows is how LH are treating it.

If OTOH it's something with a Y at the end such as OPEY- "operational, yes' then comp is due.

So fundamentally it's worth an ask just in case the simplified info is available but if LH have decided the main reason the total delay went to 3 hours is weather they'll decree it WEAN..