COMPENSATIONCONSTERNATION

I love Business Traveller magazine, and I always read the letters where people have complaints about airlines and the magazine helps to get an answer. I never realised this same thing would happen to me.

Once a year, we take a trip to Europe for a skiing holiday. Throughout the years, flights have been cancelled due to bad weather, but we have always been put on another flight – either to the same destination on a later flight, or on to another destination where we might then have to get to our final destination by train or car. This year, four of us booked our flights from Copenhagen (CPH) to Innsbruck (INN) via Frankfurt (FRA) on a single booking through the Lufthansa website. Our first flight from CPH to FRA was with Lufthansa and the FRA-INN flight was with Austrian Airlines. Our Lufthansa flight was fine, but when we got to FRA, we found out our Austrian flight was cancelled after waiting for two hours, at which point we were told to go to the Lufthansa ticketing office to be rebooked. The person at the First Class Lufthansa ticketing desk helped us retrieve our checked luggage, and told us we would be reimbursed by Austrian Airlines and that she had made plans for us to make it to our destination on the same day using alternative transport. We ended up having to take an almost six-hour train via Munich to Innsbruck in first class, because these were the only seats available. Due to our late arrival into Innsbruck train station, we had missed all bus transfers from Innsbruck to our final destination, Obergurgl, so we had to hire a car from Jamtransfer to take us up the mountain for €152 (US$170) and only arrived at our final destination of Obergurgl Ski Resort close to midnight!

Reading through the Passenger Rights on the Austrian Airlines website, we can see that we are entitled to the following reimbursements: I (a). A full reimbursement of the cancelled flight (four tickets) from Frankfurt to Innsbruck on flight OS282 on January 5, 2019; and IV. (a) €250 (US$280) per person for the cancelled flight, since it is under 1,500km in distance.

However, the reply from Austrian Airlines is that Lufthansa should be the ones compensating us. They forwarded our claims to Lufthansa, but Lufthansa replied saying they do not have to compensate us because the cancellation was due to bad weather! I am sure Lufthansa owes us compensation. Our flight to Innsbruck was cancelled and we were told to go to the Lufthansa ticketing to get rebooked on the next available flight. When we were at the First Class ticketing desk, the lady advised us to make our way via alternative transport and even suggested we go by rail. We were actually trying to be rebooked on the next flight to Zurich, which would have been closer to our final destination, but she refused and urged us to go by train, reassuring us we would be compensated for our transportation costs. If she hadn’t told us we would be compensated, we would not have requested to get our bags out at Frankfurt to make the rest of our journey by train, which took more than six hours for €600 (US$671) for four of us! We would have instead requested to be put on the next available flight and the airline would be liable to compensate us for other expenses. The lady at the ticketing desk told us Austrian would pay for our alternative transport, telling us to write in. Now that we have, Austrian says Lufthansa is liable. And now they are trying to

deflect. Seriously, please be fair. Stop blaming the other airlines. We were told by Lufthansa First Class ticketing we would be reimbursed for our train tickets as well as for the leg that was cancelled! And since we booked our flights on the Lufthansa website, I believe it owes us compensation.

I have written in several times to both airlines, but after their first email saying that they do not have to compensate us due to bad weather, they haven’t responded.

Susan Kee Thulin, Malaysia