Lufthanasa airlines not co-operative?? urgent need help?

Question

Hi Guys, I m in US and my parents boarded frm hyd on 21st june, due to weather conditions my prnts r stuck in frankfurt and thy missed their connecting flight yesterday. Till now Lufthansa denies to provide any hotel accomodation and just hot dogs at lounge is given to my parents and to many passengers reason said by them is no German visa. Wht do u thnk at this situation my prnts can do to board a flight. Lufthanasa are asking them to wait in queue for long hours for nxt available boarding pass but unfortunately they say no space in future planes for 2 days more...........:( Pls help me guys any authorities whom my parents can contact in frankfurt any help any ideas any good suggestions only................... abv all i m preg i strongly suggest everybody DONT EVER BOARD LUFTHANASA, LUFTHANSA IS NOT AT ALL CO-OPERATIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! PLS HELP

Answer 1

Tell your parent to ask for a printed copy of their rights as passengers. This will tell them what Lufthansa has to provide and when. Maybe your parents can take their tickets to another airline for a flight.

It's all printed right there in black and white, just get a copy and go from there. In fact you can go on-line and print it yourself from their website.

Answer 2

Most airlines around the world do not provide airline-paid hotels due to weather, as they are no more responsible for the weather than you are (or also in this case your parents). But some offer a "passenger-pay" hotel, where it's a negotiated lower rate than the rack rate. I don't know if Lufthansa does.

But that's a moot point because your parents do not have a German visa. According to Timatic (a website used by airlines to determine entry requirements in a country), Indian citizens require a passport and visa to enter Germany. To transit Germany, which is originally what your parents were going to do if the weather cooperated, no visa is required. That's why they are not allowed to leave the in-transit lounge. While the in-transit lounge is technically and physically on German soil, legally it's not...it's kind of like the Tom Hanks movie "The Terminal" from a few years ago.

As far as not being able to get on a flight, it's summer and it's now the weekend. Flights have been booked ahead of time for months. All airlines, not just Lufthansa. They don't want your parents stuck any more than you do. But if there are no seats on any airline, they can't create one out of thin air. For instance I can tell you that Delta flights to Cincinnati, New York, and Atlanta are all overbooked very badly for Saturday 6/23, so I'm sure all other airlines are in the same boat for days to come.

I know you're frustrated, but your remark at the end about don't ever board Lufthansa is just wrong. Lufthansa can't control the weather. They can't control German immigration. And summer is a bad time to travel. As you see above with Delta availability and what your parents have been told about no seats for 2 more days, all airlines overbook flights because there's a certain no-show factor and as in any business in any industry a major goal is to make money. They cannot hold out seats basically saying, "Oh I think it's going to rain in Frankfurt on June 21, 2007 so we better hold on to some seats on June 22 just in case." Your comment is out of line.

So unfortunately there's nothing you or your parents can do except wait it out until there are two seats. One idea might be to have your parents split up if there's one seat to say New York and one seat to Chicago (or Atlanta or any U.S. city Lufthansa serves), take them just to get to the United States. Then get rerouted once they get to the USA to where you live. There are potentially more options and less red tape once you get into the USA.

Then once this ordeal is over take this as a learning experience. Have your parents travel from Hyderabad during off-peak times of the year. Fall, for instance. September, October. Winter might not be too smart either because then you have Christmas and New Year's travellers and weather in Europe again (only a whiter and more frozen type of rain...lol). Late February into early March might be okay, it might warm up enough where weather's not a factor and you don't have U.S. Spring Break yet.

Answer 3

first. I am sure that Lufthansa is doing all it can to get your perents home.

by the sounds of it, there are 100's of other people trying to get home and there are already other people booked on those other flights.

Lufthansa cant just fork out 1000's of dollars for all stranded passengers otherwise all the airlines in the world will be broke after a year!

2 days isnt that bad to wait! trust me on that one. I have herd of people who have had to wait WEEKS to get on planes that were fully booked. It was on the news and this girl missed her wedding but the airline cant do anything. They will try to get everyone to their destination ASAP or even try to get them onto different airlines!

So dont say that Lufthansa isnt doing their job as they will have to organise the Busisness class passengers 1st, then premeium economy then economy. Thats the order they will go in for getting people home as all airlines do.

Nothing would be different if this was another airline like Qantas or British Airways.

Dont say that Lufthansa is not co operative, like I said, they have to get 100's of people on flights that are probobly fully booked already!

Answer 4

Lufthansa has no control over the weather. The summer is a bad time to try and fly to Europe. When there is space they will get your parents on a plane.