I just had an interesting experience involving a downgrade on a Lufthansa first class ticket (booked using miles), and figured I’d report back with what happened. I’ve redeemed miles for Lufthansa first class a countless number of times, but this was a first for me…
In this post:
My dad’s downgraded Lufthansa first class ticket
On Tuesday, my dad was scheduled to fly from Boston to Munich to Frankfurt in Lufthansa first class. I booked him the ticket using Air Canada Aeroplan points, and booked around three days before departure. For what it’s worth, there was also award availability on the nonstop Boston to Frankfurt flight in first class. However, I booked him the connecting itinerary for two reasons:
- The Munich route was operated by an A380, while the Frankfurt route was operated by an A340, and the former is a more fun experience
- My dad is open to a detour if it’s fun, so this would allow him to have a nice layover in the Lufthansa First Class Lounge Munich
Anyway, on Monday evening, just under 24 hours before departure, I received a call from a number in Germany (my phone number and email are on my dad’s reservation, since I handle travel for my family). I didn’t answer, since I didn’t recognize the number. But after searching the number online, I saw that Lufthansa was calling.
No voicemail was left, but I figured it must involve my dad’s itinerary, since it’s the only Lufthansa travel my family has planned. So after pulling up the reservation online, I saw what happened — the Boston to Munich flight for that day was downgraded from an A380 to an A350, with the latter not having a first class cabin. As a result, he was downgraded to business class.
What you’re entitled to for a first class downgrade
Before contacting Lufthansa, I of course spent a bit of time researching options, and reviewing relevant regulations. Keep in mind that since Lufthansa is a German airline, it’s subjected to the EU261 passenger rights policy, which also contains rules regarding downgrades.
Under EU261 rules, you’re entitled to reimbursement of 75% of your ticket price if you’re downgraded on flights of over 3,500 kilometers. As you’d expect, this gets a bit tricky with award tickets, and gets especially tricky with partner award tickets, and I imagine it could be a bit of a battle.
Of course as an alternative, you’re also entitled to be rebooked on the next available flight in the class of service that you booked. If this rebooking would lead to a considerable delay in your arrival time, you’d also be entitled to delay compensation for the rebooking, which can be up to €600.
Lufthansa also seems to voluntarily offer cash compensation for accepting a downgrade. I read online that in the event that you’re downgraded from first class on an award ticket, Lufthansa generally offers €1,050 cash compensation (the airline offers larger amounts for tickets booked with cash). Now, it’s not entirely clear to me whether that’s in lieu of the 75% reimbursement for the downgrade, or in addition to.
As you can see, there were quite a few options to consider…
How I handled this Lufthansa downgrade situation
As tempting as it was to accept the downgrade to business class, I advised my dad against it:
- It’s a special trip for him, as he hasn’t traveled long haul in quite some time, and I know he enjoys the first class experience
- He was positioning to Boston to take advantage of this award space, and if he had wanted to fly business class, I would have found something straight out of Tampa on Discover Airlines
Alternatively, it might seem tempting to try to get Lufthansa to rebook him the following day and to get the €600 delay compensation. However, he would’ve had to spend a night in Boston at his own expense, and I also already had hotels booked for him in Germany. So that only seemed marginally worthwhile, especially with the current travel chaos.
For me, the question came down to how I could make the journey most fun for him. Now, the most obvious option was for him to be rebooked on the nonstop Boston to Frankfurt flight in first class, since that had availability. However, we could have booked that in the first place and chose not to, because I wanted him to have a bit more fun.
I figured I’d try a different angle. Lufthansa Group owns both Lufthansa and SWISS, and during irregular operations, passengers can easily be rebooked between airlines. It’s usually not possible to redeem partner miles for SWISS first class, so I thought this would be a cool opportunity for him to fly SWISS first class, and visit the amazing SWISS first class lounges in Zurich. There was plenty of availability, and it can’t hurt to ask.
So I eventually got in touch with Lufthansa’s first class hotline, and they explained the options. They said they could offer him €1,050 cash compensation and business class on the same flight he was booked on, or they could rebook him on the nonstop Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt in first class.
I asked the agent if my dad could instead be rebooked on SWISS in first class through Zurich. I didn’t provide a reason (though I was trying to come up with one, other than “he’s looking to have some fun”). To my surprise, the agent didn’t hesitate at all, and said that wouldn’t be a problem.
She proposed an itinerary with a roughly one hour layover, and I asked if a layover of five hours was possible instead. She gladly rebooked him on whatever flights he wanted, and moments later, I had the updated confirmation.
For the past many hours, I’ve quite been enjoying the live trip report via text message! And to think that my dad didn’t know how to use a cell phone until several years ago…
Bottom line
I dealt with a Lufthansa first class downgrade for the first time. I redeemed miles for my dad to fly Lufthansa first class, but the aircraft was downgraded at the last minute to one without first class. It was interesting to go through this process and see the options firsthand, as this was the first time I’ve faced something like this, in all my years of frequently flying Lufthansa first class.
I’m not sure there was a right or wrong approach here, but I’d say flying SWISS first class across the Atlantic with Aeroplan points is a pretty cool opportunity.
How would you have handled this Lufthansa first class downgrade situation?
Ben, I need to thank you for this article. I was on AA first SYD to LAX and it was cancelled. Chatted with AA and got them to put me on Qantas First. Lovely back door onto a much better experience.
There is a misunderstanding in the EU Passager rights. Lufthansa is obliged to bring him to Frankfurt on time. So they could have put him at the direct flight and off you go. So if you choose to fly 24h later there will be no 600€ compensation.
@ Baldi -- The nonstop flight was three hours before the flight he was booked on. He wasn't under any obligation to show up at the airport earlier than his initial departure time.
Wrong title my friend. That was a UPGRADE to the best experience you can have on a western airline! SWISS FIRST is still a class of its own on the north atlantic route. Real SWISS hospitality! The Lounge E in Zurich is unbeatable too. Well done!
WELL DONE ;-)
I enjoyed this post, and I commend you for how nicely you treat your dad and your mom! Kudos to you!
Cool! Great for your dad and his enjoyment of the ambience. Cheers!
That worked out so well in one phone call. I ended up spending over a year trying to get a $1700 refund for a SWISS air business to first upgrade. My original LA Frankfurt Zürich LA itinerary kept getting re-issued because Lonza kept canceling flights out of Los Angeles my Zürich LA business the upgrade I purchased had been confirmed for almost a year. however every time Lufthansa canceled a flight, it would get re-issued...
That worked out so well in one phone call. I ended up spending over a year trying to get a $1700 refund for a SWISS air business to first upgrade. My original LA Frankfurt Zürich LA itinerary kept getting re-issued because Lonza kept canceling flights out of Los Angeles my Zürich LA business the upgrade I purchased had been confirmed for almost a year. however every time Lufthansa canceled a flight, it would get re-issued and the upgrade would get lost. at one point, Swissair said the first upgrade was not available in the same class of service anymore. I said it was already confirmed and you canceled it just put me in the seat anyways they refused. I ended up paying for the $1700 upgrade again, the day before departure, and fought fought with them and the credit card companies for over a year to get my original $1700 back. Even though you would think the airline has control Swissair was horrible and there was no one you could speak to who could actually repeat the same information twice
Did you let the super-helpful agent(s) know your blogger identity or did they make the connection and recognize your name? if so, might diminish the universality of the practices you describe. in other words, was it VIP treatment for that reason?
@ Pete S. -- I absolutely didn't get that sense, and the ticket was also in my dad's name. I never identified myself. This is just the standard treatment for being downgraded from first class, and matches other reports online.
I avoid LH because of their sub-par 2-2-2 J seating. Even if I booked on, say, a 350 with 1-2-1, I'd be afraid they'd swap in a 2-2-2 350. In such a case, I assume they would not consider that a downgrade meriting the 75% refund.
I had similar issues with Ethiad - booked wit AF miles- from singapore to BRU (via ABU DHABi).but the outcome was terrible here. Ethiad refused.to.respect ANY of.the.EU laws and only wanted to either rebook 24h later or downgrade to.ECONOMY They even refused the 600 EUR. and implicit with arrogance said politely 'sue us' ... Fortunately l have an Air.France platiunum where we could.rebook on Lufthansa.. . Ethiad has a lot bling bling but NO customer...
I had similar issues with Ethiad - booked wit AF miles- from singapore to BRU (via ABU DHABi).but the outcome was terrible here. Ethiad refused.to.respect ANY of.the.EU laws and only wanted to either rebook 24h later or downgrade to.ECONOMY They even refused the 600 EUR. and implicit with arrogance said politely 'sue us' ... Fortunately l have an Air.France platiunum where we could.rebook on Lufthansa.. . Ethiad has a lot bling bling but NO customer service and is to avoid for.travel in any case ..I have BANNED Ethiad for.all corporate travel and airlines not respecting EU regulatiions should lose their landing rights in the EU.
Non-EU carrier departs from outside EU is not applicable to EU261 (but still Etihad sucks).
Was the availability only for awards tickets or for cash tickets? Had an awful time with Lufthansa first last year when our flights in first were cancelled due to strike action. They told us that award tickets could only be rebooked if there was award availability, and could only be rebooked on Lufthansa group airlines. They were unable to get my wife and me to Japan in under 10 days and refused to rebook us...
Was the availability only for awards tickets or for cash tickets? Had an awful time with Lufthansa first last year when our flights in first were cancelled due to strike action. They told us that award tickets could only be rebooked if there was award availability, and could only be rebooked on Lufthansa group airlines. They were unable to get my wife and me to Japan in under 10 days and refused to rebook us onto another airline as the law requires. They also insisted that they could not rebook a first ticket into business class or economy, even if there was award availability. We were forced to pay for a new ticket with cash on another airline, and it took over a year to get the money back. We lost all the miles as well, so lost the chance to fly Lufthansa first. We were treated so badly we have vowed never to fly a Lufthansa group airline ever again.
I must have missed the award details and the AC Points required.
Id it posted somewhere?
And he was booked into A, entitled to earn miles :)
me ocurrio situacion similar con Avianca, solo que esta linea no me dio hasta ahora (50 dias) ninguna respuesta ni recompensa.
Horas antes del viaje *(con escala) Avianca cambia tipo de avion en la ruta Bogota/buenos Aires cual no tenia clase ejecutiva. Como he pagado con millas el boleto de clase ejecutiva- fui obligada viajar varias horas en clase turista. A pesar de mis reclamos en linea- aun no tengo respuesta. Me gustaria saber...
me ocurrio situacion similar con Avianca, solo que esta linea no me dio hasta ahora (50 dias) ninguna respuesta ni recompensa.
Horas antes del viaje *(con escala) Avianca cambia tipo de avion en la ruta Bogota/buenos Aires cual no tenia clase ejecutiva. Como he pagado con millas el boleto de clase ejecutiva- fui obligada viajar varias horas en clase turista. A pesar de mis reclamos en linea- aun no tengo respuesta. Me gustaria saber cuales son mis derechos y ke me corresponde , en este caso, x la rebaja de clase.
I hope you can address downgrades that are not so prestigious for delays especially on US based carriers. For example, a downgrade US domestic from Premium Economy to Basic. Many US carriers think that a simple apology will do.
I can’t imagine taking the longer overnight flight and then spending another 4 hours waking up in the lounge and still not being at the final destination. I have never understood valuing the flight over where you are going. And he’s not a kid anymore.
I can’t imagine taking the longer overnight flight and then spending another 4 hours waking up in the lounge and still not being at the final destination. I have never understood valuing the flight over where you are going.
You are lucky that he was travelling to Europe, who protects customers.
Deregulated US would have left him stranded, with no compensation and a token (at the airlines' discretion) refund.
You are a good son, Ben. Someday far off I hope, a time will come when you will cherish these memories even more than you and Dad are right now.
Nice!
Wow so if you use 87k lifemiles to book it using Amex points, you can get the 1000 euros and business class? wow I would only hope for that to happen
I love the way you described the situation and how you and Lufthansa handled it.
It seems to me, however, that the only thought of many commenters is: how can I squeeze the most of compensation out of such a situation. Are you really so greedy? Be happy they help you and get you to your destination!
So they booked into A class and he will earn miles for the trip too? :)
Flashbacks to seeing "My downgraded adventure on Oman Air" over and over again.
We've been interacting a long time, back when you thought you were a hard core right winger on A.net. It is really fun to see how you've evolved. The way you take care of my parents is similar to the way I do and it is great to see.
I've had 2 LH F downgrade experiences, both on Aeroplan award tickets. First one was FRA-IAD-LGA, FRA-IAD was downgraded to a 744. Agents at the FCT offered €900 to fly in J, but also proactively offered LX FRA-ZRH-EWR in F (which I ultimately took).
Second time LH canceled JFK-MUC-CDG and rebooked JFK-FRA-CDG in J. I asked for EWR-FRA-CDG in F, but oddly they couldn't change the origin within a co-terminal market on a partner...
I've had 2 LH F downgrade experiences, both on Aeroplan award tickets. First one was FRA-IAD-LGA, FRA-IAD was downgraded to a 744. Agents at the FCT offered €900 to fly in J, but also proactively offered LX FRA-ZRH-EWR in F (which I ultimately took).
Second time LH canceled JFK-MUC-CDG and rebooked JFK-FRA-CDG in J. I asked for EWR-FRA-CDG in F, but oddly they couldn't change the origin within a co-terminal market on a partner award ticket ("if this was LH ticket stock we could do it"). They rebooked me on JFK-ZRH-CDG on LX in F.
I find Lufthansa to be awful. I got stuck in Frankfurt last week bc of a 1 1/2 hr delay and missed my connection. They put me in the worst room of the Sheraton across the street and I was supposed to eat at the ‘Lufthansa Buffet’ provided in a hotel conference room (doesn’t that sound lovely). I ended up flying Condor biz class (which was amazing btw), and all ended well, but there was...
I find Lufthansa to be awful. I got stuck in Frankfurt last week bc of a 1 1/2 hr delay and missed my connection. They put me in the worst room of the Sheraton across the street and I was supposed to eat at the ‘Lufthansa Buffet’ provided in a hotel conference room (doesn’t that sound lovely). I ended up flying Condor biz class (which was amazing btw), and all ended well, but there was NO ONE to help me at FRA. No one helping when we got off the plane, no one at the gate I was supposed to fly out from (they told us to go there) and I walked by 2 Lufthansa service centers (also told to go there) and both were ghost towns at 530pm on a Monday. I went to the business class lounge and they were able to help and were very nice. What would I have done if I was flying economy? And this was a paid ticket, no miles, no upgrades.
I love the trip report from your dad. Gals it worked so good for him.
I had a delayed flight and LX rebooked me from my upgraded Business to First ticket to Biz on Emirates. It’s over a week and Swiss didn’t offered me the eur 1000 or something. Even Emirates first had space but they said no. I will try to call them tomorrow.
In a week when the airline industry imploded due to what was (really) a trivial file update bringing down IT systems, this counts as news?
This isn't a news website. Go to CNN for that. It's a travel and points blog. This counts as travel and points newsworthy.
It was more than adequately covered by mass media on a worldwide basis. There's nothing left to be said.
You want to hear daily scrum reports from crowdstrike over kernel updates?
Are you sure being rebooked to another flight in the original class of service is a *legal* option? I know most airlines offer it (to avoid refunds) but I believe they're not required to. The regulation only refers to refund in case of a downgrade and doesn't mention rebooking option. Consequently, if you choose to rebook to stay in the original class of service, I believe it's a voluntary rebooking and thus not eligible for a delay compensation.
The law requires travel to be completed with “comparable conditions”, so it does qualify for compensation if the rebooked flight was later.
Rebooking travel doesn't absolve the carrier of their EU261 obligations.
GREAT recovery. Very well done.
Congrats!
One interesting side note to this is the reason for the downgrade, which doesn't seem to have gotten much attention. LH only had 5 A380s, operating 5 routes this summer, which isn't enough. All of these flights (BOS, JFK, IAD, LAX, and DEL) were chronically late throughout June, and then the incident in DEL put one of them out of service. Now, they appear to be swapping whichever flight has the lowest load factor day-by-day.
Your dad is doing a great job! I enjoyed his pics...made me smile.
Long time reader; first time commenter. I literally just created an account to say how wholesome and cute I thought your dad's excitement was.
@ GAYRAB -- Thanks to you (and everyone else) for the nice comments. I'll keep the content coming from him, hah.
Great post, thank you. Good to know all the various options.
Did you also receive the EU 261 600 Euro (?) comp after rebooking to LX?
@ Dhruv Gupta -- Since he arrived in Frankfurt earlier than initially planned, he wouldn't be eligible for that.
@Ben, aren't you eligible if you have to depart earlier than planned? Or is it a combo of departing earlier *and* arriving later? I can't remember... I was eligible for the €600 compensation + accommodation costs when I was rerouted to leave & arrive ~20 hours earlier than originally booked.
If the overall change of timing meets the threshold, yes
I heard other people with booked awards on LH First in recent days, to EWR, and had flights canceled. They also got reboked in Swiss First.
I second many of the other comments - what a wonderful post! I'm glad you were able to get your dad rebooked on such a fun alternative itinerary!
Kudos to Lufthansa for the flexibility on resolution and secondly thank you for highlighting the value in being prepared for the call
Your dad is likely eligible to earn a lot of Miles & More or another Star Alliance program points as well since that Swiss F ticket is usually rebooked with a "cash fare" fare class. So please make sure it gets credited!
Do you know how much? This just happened to me from FRA to BOS, got rebooked on F fare through MUC. Could really need those points requalifying senator hehe
Usually it doesn’t work if you’re rebooked to the same airline. Actually no one is sure will this rebook within LHG make the ticket a revenue fare class. But for example when Virgin Atlantic axed its Shanghai route and rebooked award passengers to China Eastern, that would certainly be revenue fare.
Had the same thing happen to me on a FRA-BLR flight. I took the downgrade to business class as I needed to be there for work and was offered €1000 in compensation, access to the first class terminal in FRA (I was connecting) and they even loaded a bottle of Laurent Perrier from the lounge just for me (the business class Champagne was Charles Heidsieck, I think). The purser on both my flights and the...
Had the same thing happen to me on a FRA-BLR flight. I took the downgrade to business class as I needed to be there for work and was offered €1000 in compensation, access to the first class terminal in FRA (I was connecting) and they even loaded a bottle of Laurent Perrier from the lounge just for me (the business class Champagne was Charles Heidsieck, I think). The purser on both my flights and the lounge agent were informed of my situation and were all super apologetic about it.
Did you receive any other compensation? Thinking of the fare differences just 1000 doesn’t seem that much…
So true. I’d insist on a FC rebooking, but that’s not always possible.
Ben you are such a sweet son. I love this story and the care you took to ensure your father had fun.
I do love your posts about your dad - it's so cute.
Glad it worked out well for your dad! First time I ever flew Lufthansa First Class (on SFO => FRA), they gave me a standby ticket at check in as the IFE at my seat was broken (and they said they specifically moved me to that seat since I was on a mileage ticket… real classy!)
Since I’d never flown Lufthansa First back then, I accepted the broken IFE and flew anyway. Still mad at...
Glad it worked out well for your dad! First time I ever flew Lufthansa First Class (on SFO => FRA), they gave me a standby ticket at check in as the IFE at my seat was broken (and they said they specifically moved me to that seat since I was on a mileage ticket… real classy!)
Since I’d never flown Lufthansa First back then, I accepted the broken IFE and flew anyway. Still mad at myself for not requesting SWISS First instead given how much harder it is to fly that product…
@Ben How often do you find availability in J on Discover out of TPA? TPA-based here and I never find anything with them or Edelweiss.
Aeroplan had had a huge phantom award space issue this week with Singapore Airlines and Etihad. Super frustrating as it'd take me all the way through checkout then throw an error. Really irritating.
When I have called Lufthansa’s first class help line on a points ticket they have refused to help me and told me they were intended for revenue clients only. This was during the travel meltdown summer of 2022.
Additionally, my compensation for lost luggage/delays at that time took approximately 14 months and endless emails.
Glad you had a better experience .
Under German Law you can also sue LH for the real value of the miles.
You can easily sue out around 4-5k EUR for a F->C downgrade
Since your ticket was booked with Aeroplan miles, how come Lufthansa was able to reissue your ticket? Shouldn't Air Canada be responsible for that?
@ Anonymous -- In these situations (either at the airport or for a team of agents specialized in irregular operations), they can take over a ticket and reissue it, given that this is within the carrier's control.
This happened to me 3 weeks ago from JFK. Swiss was sold out and I had to get to MUC at a specific time so I took the comp.
@ Omar -- Thanks for the data point! Out of curiosity, were you on an award ticket as well? If so, did you get the 1,050 euro plus the 75% refund on points, or was it one or the other?
I got 1050 EUR from LH. The ticket was booked through lifemiles so you can imagine it's hard to get a refund from them but I'm at least pushing for a first to business class mileage differential.
Most importantly, though, does your dad now recline his seat? We are intrigued to know….!
@ FE -- Hah, that's an excellent question! Much to my frustration, the answer is still "no!"
@Lucky: I loved the “trip report” pics from your Dad!
Move over Ben, there is a new sheriff in town .
@ Daniel B -- Hahahah, thank you. He has a "round" birthday coming up later this year, so expect a big trip with him, along with his thoughts.
Looking forward to that trip report for sure! And seriously, a couple of pics he will take will be great!
This would never happen at Delta.
At Delta, customers would pay the airline compensation for the privilege of being able to fly on Delta, the best airline in the world!
Rotflmao
Ben, what a fantastic detour of a rebooking.
Do you think being able to speak German may have helped your case as to the LX F booking, no questions asked?
Also, I hope this rebooking was in a revenue fare class and that you credited his miles to an appropriate program. ;)
@ Deo -- The agent I spoke with was actually English speaking, I think from Lufthansa's South Africa call center.
I’ve had 2 LH F cancellations in the past year and have had no problems being rebooked into SWISS F and also getting 600 euro each time within a week after flying. They’re great when it comes to IRROPs! I have an upcoming cancellation FRA SFO so I may try to get rebooked on LX again.
Any updated good tricks on finding LH first availability on Aeroplan, like time of the day? I have been looking at ICN, SIN and HKG for some time, seems like they only release it on the day or 1 day in advance? Haven’t seen 3 days before at all…
@ Matthias Wagner -- Availability is definitely released closer to departure than in the past. I find the seats.aero tool to be pretty useful for finding the little Lufthansa first class award space that is available. Not really any tricks beyond that.
https://seats.aero/firstclass
This is lovely. So glad your Dad got to experince LX F again.