I figured some OMAAT readers would get a kick out of my recent experience trying to deal with customer relations at Eurowings Discover, which is Lufthansa’s low cost, long haul subsidiary.
Compensation for a canceled Eurowings Discover flight
On March 24, 2022, we were scheduled to fly Eurowings Discover from Tampa (TPA) to Frankfurt (FRA). The flight ended up being canceled, and we rebooked for the same flight the following day.
While the cancelation was a bummer, the good news is that because we were flying an airline based in the European Union, we were entitled to EU261 compensation. With this, you’re owed 600 Euro per person when your long haul flight is canceled or delayed by at least four hours.
The process of actually getting that compensation, though, is a different story. In the end it took over six months of being patient, though fortunately it all worked out in the end.
Contacting Eurowings Discover customer relations
The first challenge is actually getting in contact with Eurowings Discover customer relations. Keep in mind that Eurowings Discover is technically a separate airline from Eurowings, as the former operates long haul flights, while the latter operates short haul flights.
Honestly, try finding a customer relations contact form for Eurowings Discover. It’s not easy. Fortunately I did eventually manage to find this form. It’s on Eurowings’ website, and then when you fill out the customer relations form, you have to select Eurowings Discover as the “topic.”
You’d think Eurowings Discover would have its own website and its own contact form, rather than just being a dropdown in the Eurowings form, but I digress. I submitted my request for EU261 compensation within a couple of days of the flight, so let me share the overall timeline of events.
My first correspondence on April 1
On April 1, I received my first response email. This was an automated email that stated the following:
Thank you for your request. We have already handed it over to our service team with the reference number (Feedback ID XXXXXXXX).
With kindest regards
Your Eurowings Discover customer relations team
Lufthansa Customer Relations on behalf of Eurowings Discover
Okay, fair enough. I recognize airlines are understaffed, so an automated acknowledgement within a few days was totally fair. I still don’t understand why my email would have to be “forwarded” to any particular team, since you’d think they could just make it easy to contact Eurowings Discover directly.
My second correspondence on June 2
Over two months later, on June 2, I received another email:
Thank you for your email dated April 1, 2022 and your continuous patience.
We have forwarded your inquiry to Eurowings so that it can be given the attention it so rightfully deserves. Their service team will contact you directly.
This email was signed by Lufthansa customer relations. Okay, so it took another two plus months for my email to even be forwarded to Eurowings, even though I initially submitted my request through Eurowings? Never mind that Eurowings and Eurowings Discover aren’t the same airline…
My third correspondence on October 5
I figured Eurowings Discover had forgotten about me, so I was quite jazzed when I received an email on October 5, 2022, which seemed to be written by a human:
Thank you for continuous correspondence
We realize that you have been waiting on our response to your claim for a significant amount of time and we would like to apologize for this delay. This certainly does not reflect the standard of service you rightly expect from us.
In order to resolve your concern we would like to offer you a payment of in the hope that this pragmatic solution contributes to a positive conclusion of your travel experience. Please note that this offer is without prejudice to the legal and factual situation.
Please provide us with your bank details and your address in order for us to initiate the transfer to your account without further delay. Once received this settlement will be transferred without further notice.
Please allow for some days for the transaction to clear. Thank you in advance for your patience in this respect.
We would be very happy to welcome you aboard a Eurowing Discover flight again soon.
Okay, I was delighted when I saw that Eurowings Discover was going to pay EU261 compensation without me having to put up a fight, since airlines often try find ways out of it. There was only one small problem — the email omitted the amount.
Yes, I was offered a “payment of in the hope that this pragmatic solution contributes to a positive conclusion of your travel experience.” A payment of what, though?
The amount should be 600 Euro, though I also wasn’t going to agree to an undisclosed amount. Who knows, maybe they were offering 50 Euro. So of course I responded back asking what the amount was. With the rate at which things were going, I was hoping for a resolution by 2024…
Fortunately things got better from here.
My fourth correspondence on October 10
When I responded to Eurowings Discover, I wondered how long it would be until I heard back. Fortunately I guess once a case number and specific person are assigned to something, it goes a little faster. Here’s the latest email:
Thank you for recent correspondence
We realize that you have been waiting on our response to your claim for a significant amount of time and we would like to apologize for this delay. This certainly does not reflect the standard of service you rightly expect from us.
In order to resolve your concern we would like to offer you a payment of 1200 EUR, in the hope that this pragmatic solution contributes to a positive conclusion of your travel experience. Please note that this offer is without prejudice to the legal and factual situation.
Please provide us with your bank details and your address in order for us to initiate the transfer to your account without further delay. Once received this settlement will be transferred without further notice.
Please allow for some days for the transaction to clear. Thank you in advance for your patience in this respect.
We would be very happy to welcome you aboard a Eurowing Discover flight again soon.
Someone might want to let the customer service reps know that the name of the airline is Eurowings Discover, not Eurowing Discover, but that’s besides the point. 😉 I was just thrilled to have this resolved at last.
I received our payment on October 20
I had sent along bank details right away, and sure enough, the payment posted on October 20. The exchange rate was also especially favorable — the compensation was supposed to be 600 Euro per person (~$590 with today’s exchange rate), but we got $674.55 per person.
It would appear to me that Eurowings Discover actually uses the exchange rate that was in place at the time of the flight, so that worked to our advantage here.
Why this is kind of a problem
Right or wrong, admittedly many airlines have had greatly delayed response times for emails directed to customer relations. That’s due to a combination of staffing issues, as well as a lot of people submitting customer service complaints over refunds, delayed bags, flight cancelations, etc.
It’s funny how the EU very clearly dictates what compensation passengers are entitled to in the event of operational issues, but there’s not much enforcement when it comes to the timeline with which this has to be handled. In the end, it took over six months for this to be resolved.
On some level I can’t help but feel like it’s not a coincidence that Eurowings Discover makes it so hard to submit feedback, and that your information is just consistently “forwarded” on to different departments.
Some might say “well what do you expect from a low cost carrier?” Well, I think it’s important to note that Lufthansa is transferring several routes to Eurowings Discover this winter. So passengers who booked “standard” Lufthansa flights for this winter will now largely end up on Eurowings Discover. And you can bet those passengers won’t get any sort of a refund for being booked on a lower cost airline.
For example, Eurowings Discover is replacing Lufthansa on routes from Frankfurt to Orlando, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Vancouver. So if things go wrong, you can look forward to this level of customer service. Then again, I’m not sure you’ll get much better customer service at Lufthansa either.
Bottom line
Trying to claim EU261 compensation with Eurowings Discover sure has been an adventure. It took over six months to get a non-automated reply, and go figure that email omitted the single most important detail. Fortunately things went smoothly from there, and I’ve now received the payment.
This reminded me of just how not fun it is to get any sort of post-flight customer service from an airline. Some might say “well wasn’t this a huge waste of your time?” The reality is that I spent five minutes submitting the initial email requesting EU261 compensation. While it took months and months to get a response, I didn’t actually have to do anything. Aside from writing this blog post, I’d say I spent roughly 15 minutes on the whole process, so I’d call this a very good use of time, for a ~$1,350 reward.
If you’ve had to deal with customer service at a European airline lately, what was your experience like?
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