【原】Experience of rebooking of flight from Deutsche Lufthansa

小玮看世界 2020-03-01

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Abbreviations: Deutsche Lufthansa: "Lufthansa" , Air China: "Air China" or "Air China", Cathay Pacific Airways: "Cathay Pacific" (The Cathay Pacific Group includes Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon), Beijing Capital International Airport: Beijing Capital, Beijing Daxing International Airport: Beijing Daxing

This article is based on the experience of self-service booking on the official website, and is slightly modified according to the actual situation. Here use deutsche Lufthansa as example. Other airlines may also deals with same way. This experience may not be applicable if booking through an agency company, please consult the corresponding agency company if you have bought ticktes from them.

Background: In the beginning of 2020, the broke out of Coronavirus in mainland China. Due to contactable infections, many airlines around the world took measures to curb the spread of the epidemic. Foreign airlines as for China have cancelled flights to and from mainland China since early February of that year. Lufthansa is First, all flights to and from Mainland China (ie, flights actually operated by Lufthansa, Swissair, Austrian Airlines) were cancelled. But excluding codeshare flights, Lufthansa flights operated by Air China are still operated.

Norman scheduled a round-trip flight from Beijing Capital to Stuttgart in 2019 (From Stuttgart to Beijing Capital via Munich on March 15th and From Beijing Capital to Stuttgart on April 17th) because Lufthansa's second cancel activity of flight due to epidemic until the end of the winter timetable so Norman's flight was also canceled, that is, March 28, this time is the end of the winter timetable. It seems that this date as end of the winter timetable are also applied to many airlines. Because there are important matters in China which that must be carried out this time, regardless of refunds, the re-signing operation was carried out by Norman.

---- In-Stream Advertising Begins ----

Above is the plan and the airlines and destinations that have been or have been partially transferred or newly operated to Beijing Daxing Airport. For details, you can check the Wiki encyclopedia with a QR code.

Since the end of March and the end of the winter timetable, several Beijing airlines have completely transferred from Beijing Capital (PEK) to Beijing Daxing (PKX), including Lufthansa's Swissair. Some airlines, such as LOT Polish Airlines operates in two Airports. The distance between Beijing Capital and Beijing Daxing is 67 kilometers. So don’t make a mistake when booking a ticket. Don’t go to the wrong airport when booking a flight. The railway link has not been completed, it will be troublesome if you go to the wrong airport!

---- End of In-Stream Advertising ----

Continuing on the issue of the change, the following is the content of Lufthansa's website notification:

The original booking was Stuttgart --- Munich --- Beijing Capital (Lufthansa) and Beijing Capital --- Vienna --- Stuttgart (Austrian Airlines) The Lufthansa system automatically cancels the results by date: Stuttgart --- Frankfurt --- Beijing Capital (Lufthansa) and Beijing Capital-Vienna-Stuttgart (Austrian Airlines)

It feels like this cancellation is logically unjustifiable. . . . . . . ~ || _ || ~. . . . . . . .

Lufthansa customer service phone: Germany: +49 (0) 69 86 799 799 (German and English consultation); China: +86 4008 868 868 (Chinese and English consultation)

Materials to be prepared: phone, original flight order confirmation letter, computer (login system to check the status of the change in real time), and plan your travel itinerary beforehand (prepare multiple plans)

This rebooking operation uses Lufthansa customer service in Germany, and uses English customer service instead of German customer service to shorten the waiting time. This reminder is to be notified before the connection of personal customer service by Lufthansa customer service telephone call and by a recorded voice.

Although the flights of Lufthansa Group was cancelled, there are still several options, all can be done just by calling the Lufthansa customer service phone:

1. Modified Lufthansa Group code-shared flights: and flights operated by Air China, Air Canada, United Airlines and so on with LH + 4 digits (shared flight codes in general international practice are also two-digit codes plus four digits)

2. Not Lufthansa Group and Lufthansa have no code sharing but Star Alliance member flights, such as Stuttgart --- (SAS Airlines) --- Copenhagen Kastrup --- (SAS Airlines) --- Beijing capital, but need to pay attention The thing is, flights from other parts of Europe to Kastrup Airport and Kastrup to Beijing may be in different terminals, you may need to plan for enough time to transfer and check in again after arriving at Kastrup, Other schemes can also try Polish Airlines (LOT), Turkish Airlines, Thai Airways and the like. Although some airlines like Portugal Airlines（TAP） are also memebers of the Star Alliance, it does not provide actual carrier flights to Chinese destinations.

3. If it doesn’t work, adding another Hong Kong connection is also possible, and Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific have cooperation (this is reflected in the Lufthansa Mileage and Miles and More program), then consider Stuttgart --- (Lufthansa Group) --- Frankfurt / Munich / Zurich / Vienna / --- (Lufthansa Group / Cathay Pacific Group) --- Hong Kong --- (Cathay Pacific Group / Air China) --- Beijing

4. Whether or not other airlines except Star Alliance flights and Cathay Pacific Group and Lufthansa have shared codes can change their policies depending on Lufthansa Group policies.

After the above thinking, we began to prepare for a change.

First call: Tell Lufthansa customer service to change Air China flights, namely Stuttgart --- (Lufthansa) --- Munich----(Air China) --- Beijing Capital, the flight from Beijing Capital to Stuttgart remains unchanged

Result: Air China flight status is still canceled, or because there are fewer passengers for this flight, you must call customer service again

Second call: Was informed by Lufthansa customer service that there was no departure flight from Stuttgart to Beijing on March 15th, so the departure time was changed to March 16th and changed to Stuttgart --- (Lufthansa) --- Frankfurt --- (Air China) --- Beijing Capital, the flight between Beijing Capital and Stuttgart has not changed, because the transfer time from Stuttgart to Beijing Capital proposed by the initial customer service is too short (less than one hour) Norman proposed to transfer the flight from Stuttgart to Frankfurt to this day The same flight as the previous flight. Because the flight customer service did not consider several options before the change, the English language is a foreign language after all, so it may difficult to hear the details of flights than to see them on screen.Because some flights of Air China have also been cancelled, I talked with the custom service about several options, which wasted some time, but I finally identified myself through verification. The desired flight.

Result: temporarily changed to their ideal flight.

Near the end of February, it was found that the flight from Vienna to Stuttgart was changed by Lufthansa (may be cancelled due to the small number of people who want to take Norman's flight), that is, the flight from Vienna to Stuttgart was transferred to the next flight today, because the last last train of the train station was missed. So Norman rebooked again (Flights from Beijing Capital to Stuttgart)

Third call: Due to the experience of the previous two calls, Norman have considered changing the next day's flight before the call, and Norman want to change the flight, and the call will be completed soon. Beijing Capital-(Air China)-Frankfurt --- (Lufthansa) --- Stuttgart

Result: The correct itinerary flights are temporarily determined

Due to special circumstances, the entire rebooking process did not incur any costs, and no difference was paid due to the difference in prices displayed on the regular booking of the Lufthansa official website for the flight. This operation if in normal case may usually cost Norman a few hundred euros.

If a flight refund is required, Lufthansa customer service is usually used. If the official website contact form is used, the bank card number is entered according to the prompts. Generally, the account will be paid within two weeks, and the airport can also do it.

Thoughts:

1. Save time by rebooking several alternative flights you have prepared before calling for a call with customer service. When you rebook, other people may consider the flight at the same time. Ready for the rebooking plan can be determined before all the seats you think are the best flight are booked to reduce your itinerary loss.

2. Change the letter in English to say the reservation number 6 alphanumerics. If the expression is unclear, you can use the alphabetic interpretation method, such as CN7YH0: Charlie November Seven Yankee Hotel Zero.

3. For special reasons flights which from Lufthansa Group Airlines cannot carried out can be changed to Air China or other airlines that share code with Lufthansa Group airlines (Air China, Cathay Pacific Group, etc.), or even other Star Alliance flights, such as SAS, through Lufthansa Customer Service That's it.

3. Before you do the rebooking, consider whether you want to buy travel insurance. After rebooking, you may don’t have this opportunity to do so. Upgrades are not possible. Only refunds are available. However, if there is no special reason, refunds may be deducted. This depends on the airline. How it was decided.

4. You must dare to make your own request for rebooking. Due to the special circumstances of the rebooking, you can flexibly combine each flight (general reservations can only reflect limited flight combinations). Make sure the flight takes into account your actual needs. You must ask clearly if you do not understand or feel problematic。

5. You need to be calm when you are rebooking. Not hang up until the customer service on the official website of Lufthansa to change the flight booking to your target flight and the correct status.

6. Please pay attention to the flight status before departure (via the official website "My Booking", email,Variflight,etc.). If there is any abnormality, please contact customer service to solve the problem immediately.

7. If using Lufthansa to change customer service in Germany, it is best to be able to speak English or be accompanied by English speakers

8. Flight reservations and tickets contain important personal information, especially 6-digit reservation codes and personal names. These can be used to sign off and cancel flights, so you must protect these, and be careful when sending them to friends.

9. There will be a new flight confirmation letter indicating the Lufthansa Service Center after the rebooking. Remember to save the new confirmation letter and delete the original one.