Ex-EU flights could be about to get even more tricky

[mitchja]

Apparently LH are suing an un-named pax for not flying the final leg of their itinerary.

Link

I wonder if this will catch on with other airlines?

This could be make ex-EU flights even more tricky

The man on the Clapham omnibus may have payed the fare to a particular destination but he is perfectly entitled to get off at an earlier stop.

He's, obviously, not going to leave his luggage on the omnibus.

However, the appeal is going to be under German jurisdiction.

It will only makes things tricky if you drop the last leg.

There’s is already a way to avoid dropping the last leg amd any possible consequences and that is to book your trip to end in the U.K. rather than your european starting point.

You may not save as much as the full ex Europe price but it will still be cheaper than the ex U.K. fare. And you can leave the airport with a clear conscious!

And unless this gets ruled on by the ECJ it will only affect flights booked starting in Germany.


Airlines have a relatively easy solution and that is to change their conditions of carriage to make the consequences of dropping the last leg clearer and less opaque. Ending short checking is part of this as well.

They want to punish people for not turning up for flights yet are allowed to sell more tickets than there are seats on planes..... all very confusing..

Good luck to LH on proving intent.

Plans change last minute for a myriad reasons, any of which are reason enough to miss a connection. How would the airline know that you didn't no-show for that flight and simply purchased another one for example? Or found a more convenient connection via train, ferry or a brisk hike...

I do not believe that this will affect many people (if anyone) or jeopardise Ex-Eu flight connections.

The area that I think airlines could affect change is whether or not they should be awarding miles and tier points on incomplete itineraries... that's within their remit and would discourage us die hard flyers from missing that last leg

I wonder why this particular pax was singled out... a simple test case or had he really annoyed someone at LH HQ

Hmmm I think there's more to this than meets the eye. The article doesn't really say anything other than an initial hearing ruled in the pax favour and LH are appealing. The rest just talks about airfare pricing.

I can't see LH suing some random passenger with no history. If they think they have any chance of winning they'll have to prove maliciously going against the contract of carriage as Joey said. If I could hazard a guess this is a serial hidden city "abuser" or last-leg dropper. Otherwise this is just a hook for sites to write articles about airfare pricing.

According to CNN this pax was due to fly LH from Frankfurt to Oslo but instead booked another LH flight to Berlin. I would have booked another carrier or transport method as this was probably a flag their systems

According to a court document, an unnamed male passenger booked a return flight from Oslo to Seattle, which had a layover in Frankfurt. The passenger used all legs of the outbound flight, but did not catch the Frankfurt to Oslo return flight. He instead flew on a separate Lufthansa reservation from Frankfurt to Berlin.

link