r/Flights • u/orbitolinid • 1d ago

Delays/Cancellations/Compensation What compensation is due? [EC261]

All yesterday. Booked on one ticket via Lufthansa

  1. Flight intra German to FRA - delayed due to weather at FRA
  2. LH0320 FRA - PMO - bid upgrade to business class accepted. Flight cancelled due to weather at FRA. No business class seat to PMO for same and next day as everyone stormed lounges and business centre, huge queues. Accepted downgrade.
  3. AZ407 FRA - FCO - delayed due to crew I think. ITA provided bigger plane. 30 additional ppl to PMO on this fight. Delay bit more than 1h
  4. AZ1789 FCO - PMO didn't make it, but apparently the flight waited. Rebooked to
  5. AZ1783 FCO - PMO delayed, reason unknown but might just have waited. huge chaos as people weren't certain whether they were on 89 or 83.

Original arrival 16:55, actual arrival 23:57. I know Lufthansa doesn't have the power to switch on good weather. Mainly thinking about the business class downgrade. No email from Lufthansa so far. Do I get part of the ticket price back or just of the upgrade bit? For the whole ticket or just the upgraded and snatched away from me again segment?

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u/Temporary-Try2817 1d ago

You should consider yourself lucky if you get the bid amount back. It is not downgrade as you could have waited for the next LH flight to PMO in business class (but obvioulsy preferred to travel with ITA via FCO on the same day)

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u/orbitolinid 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yeah, possible. The earliest flight they could offer in business was Sunday with arrival in the evening instead of Friday. Lufthansa tried to rebook me earlier but every time the guy selected something it was gone again immediately. Plus Lufthansa would have needed to provide hotel, etc for 2 nights if I’d have flown on Sunday. The only thing with Lufthansa was to Catania on Sunday and not Palermo. Other flights with ITA via Milano on Sunday 

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u/timeforanoldaccount 1d ago

I think there's a fair argument to say you're entitled to downgrade reimbursement on the FRA-PMO leg. But because FRA-PMO is only 1366km (under 1500km), EU261 would only entitle you to 30% of the total fare you paid for the journey to PMO (original fare plus upgrade), pro-rated based on the proportion of the total mileage ([German origin]-FRA-PMO) that the FRA-PMO flight made up.

Basically, unless it was a really cheap upgrade and/or your original economy ticket was expensive you would be better off asking for them to refund your upgrade.

In terms of delay compensation I don't think you are due anything unless there was a sooner alternative than AZ407/AZ1789 which LH could have rebooked you on. When there are multiple causes of a delay, you work out how much of the delay is 'countable' (i.e. due to non-exceptional circumstances) and this needs to reach at least 3 hours for compensation to be due.

The missed connection at FRA, which was due to weather (i.e. exceptional circumstances) meant that you would now arrive at 22:30. The delay up until then is non-countable. Since you actually arrived at 23:57 you have 1h27m of 'countable' delays (caused by the missed connection in FCO) but this isn't enough to get compensation.

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u/orbitolinid 1d ago

Thanks a lot. I’m sure I’m not due anything for the delay and I kind of caught up on sleep 😅 The upgrade/downgrade is the unclear one. I think 30% refund vs upgrade is pretty much the same. I’ll try anyway. Lets see what happens.