Lufthansa strike

linguist

Hi all,

I'm due to travel to Leipzig via Frankfurt on Tuesday and the Lufthansa cabin crew strike of which you might be aware isn't doing my blood pressure any good! Yesterday, they agreed to move my booking from the evening flight out of Dublin to the first flight in the morning which will obviously give me a much better chance of getting away on Tuesday if any flight operates.

They have also told me that if the flight is cancelled, they will try to rebook onto other airlines - British Airways and Air France are the ones they mention. For whatever reason, they are point blank refusing to rebook onto Aer Lingus saying that EI won't accept their 'documents' and more or less blaming Aer Lingus for this. I've told them that I don't have to land in Leipzig and am perfectly happy to take Berlin and continue by train.

The cabin crew union is only announcing its intentions a day in advance. Since Lufthansa has been ridiculously strike bound over the last couple of years, can anyone with experience advise me on their experience of how Lufthansa handle these situations: are they good at getting people away on the same day etc?

VG31

Could you try to get rebooked to a SWISS or Germanwings flight? They are not affected by the strike. At the moment Munich flights are not affected by the strike either although this could possibly change.
You can also get a full refund if you want.

linguist

For some reason, Swiss don't do Dublin on Tuesdays at the moment! Not interested in a refund - I need to get there. Really wondering if anyone here has past experience of Lufthansa strikes. Apparently the pilots have gone out 13 times in the past two years.

goingnowhere

Aer Lingus don't interline or have a ticket agreement with Lufthansa so no go for transfer

Germanwings to Colonge/Bonn might work and there are direct trains to Leipzig but thats a long ride

As suggested, cancel take the refund and book with Aer Lingus or Ryanair to Berlin and train onwards. Major price war on Berlin currently as Ryanair has opened a base in SXF

Could get creative and fly to Prague and get a train onwards, changing at Dresden

dubal

You may just be fine, they are selectively striking by flight type.

Dubal

VG31

The strike details for tomorrow (Tuesday 10/11/15) have been announced. Only longhaul flights will be cancelled.
http://www.lufthansa.com/ie/en/Travel-information

All flights from Dublin are scheduled to operate as normal tomorrow.
http://www.lufthansa.com/ie/en/Arrival-and-Departure-Result

LXFlyer

VG31 wrote: »

The strike details for tomorrow (Tuesday 10/11/15) have been announced. Only longhaul flights will be cancelled.
http://www.lufthansa.com/ie/en/Travel-information

All flights from Dublin are scheduled to operate as normal tomorrow. Although I would be prepared for the fact that the morning flight to Frankfurt (LH980) may be cancelled as LH982 today is cancelled and that flight's aircraft normally parks in Dublin all night before operating LH980 in the morning.

You might want to correct your flight numbers and information.


LH983 is the 05:40 flight. It did not operate today, nor did any LH flight to/from Dublin. The aircraft that arrived on LH982 on Sunday has remained all day in Dublin today, and should then operate LH983 tomorrow morning.

VG31

Thanks. I did not realise there was already a LH aircraft here.

Collie D

Might be worth contacting them for peace of mind. I was booked to Sarajevo via Frankfurt and Vienna on Thursday and they reluctantly put me on a Turkish flight via Istanbul.

Took three calls to get it though and they were adamant there was nothing they could do until the flight was officially cancelled. The second guy even insisted that because I had booked with Austrian it was nothing to do with them despite the first two legs being with Lufthansa.

It was only amended by a third person in their call centre. Unknown to myself my travelling companion was on phone to them at same time requesting the switch to Turkish and they obliged him while telling me no chance

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

VG31

Fred Swanson wrote: »

Any idea how long this is liable to rumble on for?

Today is the last day of the strike.

munchkin_utd

VG31 wrote: »

Today is the last day of the strike.

the last day of this strike and this phase of the cabin crew negotiations, but the pilots and other groupings are still potentially going to have their own strikes.

at the same time, its not as bad as it could be for the customer seeing as the lufthansa group has Brussels airlines, Swiss, Euro/German wings and Austrian who are not on strike, so flying an alternative route with them is possible.

Germanwings fly to cologne from Dublin, so if your final destination was say frankfurt, Lufthansa will pay for the rail ticket

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

munchkin_utd

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

they have to first have a vote so its feasible there'll be a strike in 2 weeks but not likely to be one next week as that'd be very quick considering theres to be a bit of negotiation and then time to have a vote.
and even in 2 weeks, I dont think it'll come to a strike as the unions have made their point, the company is offering better terms, so it looks to be a bit of progress and enough to avert an imminent strike (it seems).

I'm flying in a couple of weekends myself with them so indeed monitoring the situation closely. For me though I can switch to a train if needs be so I wont be that badly affected .

munchkin_utd

ok, strike has been announced for Thursday and Friday, with possibly also Monday.
No details as of yet.
Anyone with flights can already rebook on a different date through the website. Not sure if rebooking on a partner airline works online, but have heard of folks doing this via the phone

munchkin_utd

good news, strike called off.

The cabin crew, and the pilot union and a couple of other unions that are generally grumbling and threatening to strike, are to meet Management on the 2nd of December for a mega meeting on the future of the company and whatnot

munchkin_utd

ok, the matter STILL hasnt been dealt with and the pilots (on their €220000 a year salary) have lost patience over terms and conditions which were modified unilaterally by the company 5 years ago and are on strike notice which may happen at any time. They are also looking for a few % pay increase, but they actually seem to be more annoyed over the early retirement scheme changes than anything.

So if you're flying with Lufthansa in the next while, just make sure to tune into the media to keep a track of this ongoing dispute as there will be disruption possible at short notice.

German pilots' union Cockpit announces fresh Lufthansa strikes
The union representing pilots from German airline Lufthansa has called for a strike. Vereinigung Cockpit said it would give 24 hours notice of when and to what extent work stoppages would be carried out.

http://www.dw.com/en/german-pilots-union-cockpit-announces-fresh-lufthansa-strikes/a-36385200

tom_k

Trying to rebook a flight DUB -> FRA for tomorrow (24th), customer service number disconnects immediately both in Dublin and Frankfurt, online changes are not working and a message appears telling me to ring Dublin office or a 1800 number which is actually the Lufthansa USA toll free number!

Twitter is giving the same stock response to all of the many queries, which is call the CS number or rebook online. I'll keep trying I suppose.

Any ideas?

munchkin_utd

tom_k wrote: »

Trying to rebook a flight DUB -> FRA for tomorrow (24th), customer service number disconnects immediately both in Dublin and Frankfurt, online changes are not working and a message appears telling me to ring Dublin office or a 1800 number which is actually the Lufthansa USA toll free number!

Twitter is giving the same stock response to all of the many queries, which is call the CS number or rebook online. I'll keep trying I suppose.

Any ideas?

I am fairly sure I read that Lufthansa will pay you the cost if you book an alternative flight with an alternative airline. Theres no compensation (bonus extra cash) but you shouldnt be left out of pocket.

Aer lingus flights are only €207, which for last minute is not desperate, so maybe book one of those.
You can even do a price lock for 5 or 10 euros which means you can at least secure the option for 24hours on that price and keep trying for lufthansa to book something on your behalf (which no doubt would be the Aer Lingus flight).
If youre stuck, then pay the full price of aer lingus and submit a claim to Lufthansa. If Lufthansa sort you in the meantime, you dont go through with the aer lingus booking and youre down a fiver.

tom_k

Finally got through and got booked on British Airways DUB-LHR, and then LHR-FRA. Not ideal but better than nothing.

munchkin_utd

tom_k wrote: »

Finally got through and got booked on British Airways DUB-LHR, and then LHR-FRA. Not ideal but better than nothing.

Better than aer Lingus or Ryanair would ever do for you when an issue occurs, to be fair!