[Lizzie]

Lufthansa made an admin error which resulted in my baby and I being turned back at our transit country to our destination. This was inconvenient for many reasons: traveling with a baby is never "easy", my family were waiting for me at the destination and they live 3 hours from the airport, I was relocating and had sold all possessions and had no home to go back to. However, I thought errors happen be patient Lufthansa will sort this out. WRONG. My husband had to organise us a hotel which accepted animals (I was flying with a cat who was extremely stressed by the pointless flight) we had to pay for all accommodation and food and fight Lufthansa for a refund and my replacement flights are a joke! My daughter is 1 on the 10th. I was supposed to arrive in London 4th of February, plenty of time to finish organising her birthday with friends and family. Lufthansa told me that my flight was on the 10th and that I could not change this date because all other flights were fully booked. An important detail is that they told me face to face that there were not even business class seats available. Tam operate the first part of my flight and Lufthansa blamed TAM for being fully not the second part of my long haul flight Santiago Chile to London Heathrow. I have just visited TAMs website and found SEVERAL seats on SEVERAL dates other than my daughters birthday. They are business class. So the LIE I was told was because Lufthansa were too cheap to give me a business class seat to rectify their error and had NO CONSIDERATION for the hugely personal inconvenience of flying on my baby's birthday. We have had to visit the office daily to fight for the Lufthansa to do anything to help us even though the whole situation started with their error, which they have admitted! I'm furious and very upset that a very special day has been so callously disregarded because they don't want to give me a more expensive seat. SERIOUSLY who puts a price on these things??? Lufthansa I cannot believe how terribly this problem has been dealt with I will never stop telling this story to ensure anybody I meet and talk to about flying knows exactly how appalling your service has been. You may have thrown us aside as unimportant clients but I'm going to make sure you don't just lose three frequent fliers for you incompetence and neglect. My father, who frequently flies Lufthansa in business class, will no longer be flying with you, none of my three siblings nor my husbands family (he has 35 cousins) will be flying Lufthansa and I'm going to publish as much of my story as possible in as many places as possible to ensure possible passengers know exactly the kind of service to expect if their flights are complicated. If money is the only thing you care about then it's money I'll make sure I cost you.

[jimworcs]

You have rights under rule 261. The detail as to what happened is missing, but you may be entitled to compensation under your statutory rights. You should investigate, or if you give more detail about what actually happened, and what the circumstances are, we may be able to give you more advice.

[Lizzie]

Thanks Jimworcs, We left Santiago as scheduled on a TAM flight to Sao Paulo bought through Lufthansa. I was traveling with my 11 month daughter and a domestic cat which had a confirmed reservation to travel as cargo on the same passenger flight as us to London. At Sao Paulo Lufthansa told TAM that they would not carry the animal as the UK do not accept animals imported by air. This is clearly untrue and I showed them evidence that UK accept animals printed from the DEFRA website. The story then changed to Lufthansa do not carry animals. The website clearly states that they do and I had a confirmed reservation for the cat from Lufthansa. I was then told I must return to Santiago and put on the next flight back. more than 12 hours traveling with a baby and a cat for nothing. At Santiago no body from Lufthansa came to pick us up or offer us accommodation or anything. My husband collected me at our cost and we stayed with friends that night. The next day we went to Lufthansa to find out what was going on. They had made an administrative error inputting the cats' destination. They were also unaware that Lufthansa do not carry animals in passenger aircrafts to London but that they do carry animals on cargo flights. Both their errors and they admitted the errors. We explained that as we were relocating to the UK we had no house to go to that they needed to find us accommodation and cover the costs. They said they'd get back to us. Meanwhile we were homeless so my husband found us a pet friendly hotel. Lufthansa got back to us the following day that they would cover the hotel. They gave me replacement flights for the 10th. I was not consulted or given a choice of dates, neither did I accept the replacement flight. We asked them to pay for our food during the delay. They got back to us he next day. 4 days after arriving back in Santiago and having finally established that Lufthansa would pick up our bills during our unscheduled stay I went to organise my flights. I explained that the replacement flights were longer and on my daughters birthday and therefore wanted new dates. Lufthansa told me they couldn't change the flights because TAM was now flying us. I told them that as a partner complany they could communicate with TAM and give me new dates. They then told me there were no seats available until the end of February with TAM. I said that as this was their error they would have to find me a seat even if it meant putting me in business class. They refused and maintained that there were no seats even in business class until end of February. I went home and checked the TAM website and there are seats on several dates in business class with TAM. I refuse to believe that they cannot give me a seat on any date other than my daughters birthday. I have found seats but Lufthansa do not want to give me the seats because they say TAM will not move me from economical class to business. They are partner companies, everything can be discussed and changed if they wanted to. What can I do?

[jimworcs]

These circumstances are not covered by 261, however I would think you will have good grounds to recover your costs if you travel independently, at your expense, and then sue in small claims to recover your costs. Lufthansa cannot make you wait, it is unreasonable. They have accepted liability, so you should have no problem prevailing. You can file in small claims in the UK, which can be done without lawyers and very cheaply.

File your claim here: https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome