Reply To: Lufthansa EU compensation – help please

[JDB]

nwoody2001 wrote:

Ok so by way of an updated, this following events have taken place.

– Compensation claim lodged with Lufthansa and declined stating (as expected) exceptional circumstances
– Reimbursement of cost lodged with Lufthansa and has been approved, pretty impressive and in less than 1 week having been asked to allow up to 10!

Is this now the event to lodge my complaint with SOP to make the case above?

Good to get the expenses reimbursed, now for the difficult bit. If LH has refused, you should be able to go to SöP. You need to formulate precisely how LH failed to take adequate reasonable measures to reroute and assist your cancelled journey to a sufficient degree that it effectively invalidates the ‘exceptional circumstances’ defence. From what you say, there was nothing in the app that offered you the opportunity to rebook (as eg BA often does in the event of disruption) and having failed to offer a technological solution failed to roster sufficient staff to handle the inevitable passenger calls resulting from the strike. LH was negligent in failing to plan adequately to rebook passengers whose flights they knew would be cancelled. Did the strike involve any of their staff – it was across the sector, but maybe some LH staff were also on strike? They failed to provide the high degree of protection supposed to be afforded by EC261 and ??didn’t advise you of your rights under EC261, let alone provide such rights within any reasonable timeframe. List all your attempts to contact the airline and all the availability of alternative routings they didn’t book you on. It’s a bit of a long shot should, so you will need to be very robust and provide as much detail as you can, plus cite the TAP case.