United Airlines is currently facing a dilemma as many customers who held tickets that were supposed to be operated by Lufthansa during last week’s strike are now somehow blocked, as Lufthansa took them over and reissued them.

This is a very unique situation and affects especially Mileage Plus members with award tickets on Lufthansa as the carrier took them over as soon as strikes were announced and reissued them on 220 stock without prior consent.

This occurred even on tickets that were further than 24h out and which didn’t even have the check-in open yet, one such example is my Mileage Plus award from Munich to Helsinki, which was canceled 2.5 days before departure.

When this happened, Lufthansa took the existing mileage plus ticket on 016-stock and randomly rebooked me on a different Lufthansa flight without asking if this would be suitable. But what is even worse is that they then reissued the ticket on their own 220 ticket stock. The United ticket then showed on their own site as invalid/not ticketed:

When I declined and told them that none of their options were suitable for me, I thought that would be the end of it, and I could just cancel/refund the award like always. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

According to reader comments on a previous article, this seems to be a common occurrence, and now several people are stuck in limbo as United claims they aren’t responsible and Lufthansa claims United has to refund the ticket.

Now, I’ve been more than patient with them and called Lufthansa, called United, chatted with United and then contacted them on X. From what I see here it’s not even an issue that was caused by United.

Lufthansa didn’t ask if they should rebook me, let alone reissue the ticket. They did so unileterally and caused an avalanche of problems as if their stupid strikes aren’t enough trouble already.

Since I had had enough at some point, I put both Lufthansa and United on notice, filed a claim, and also contacted Amex for a chargeback of my 53 Euro in taxes and fees.

I have also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation and received a reply from United within 48 hours:

Let’s see if there are actually any results and if United is able to resolve the matter. I don’t care how they refund these 8000 miles, they can just as well add them manually as a customer service bonus and let the chargeback for the ticket go its way.

If they can’t/won’t do this and Lufthansa is found to be responsible for it, then I’ll charge them the retail value of these 8000 Mileage Plus miles and sue them in Germany. I doubt they will voluntarily pay my 400 Euro EC261 compensation in an expedient manner, so this can be added to the claim.

Remember that if you’re in this situation, do the following:

• Claim your compensation on the Lufthansa website and open a case for EC261 compensation

• Make sure your airline that ticketed the reservation offers you a refund where appropriate

• If they refuse, file a claim with a regulator and also pur them on notice that you will pursue legal action

• After a notice of 14 days, involve a specialized attorney to go after Lufthansa and if necessary file a lawsuit in Germany

• If you decide to go through an Ombudsman, be prepared to wait more than a year for a questionable result. In a clear-cut case like this, an attorney is the best choice, and Lufthansa will have to pay the fees.

The way Lufthansa has been handling all this is absolutely grotesque, and I’ll definitely pursue every dime they owe me by all means necessary.

Conclusion

Lufthansa has apparently caused a big problem with partner airlines who had ticketed passengers on their stock booked on flights that were affected by the Lufthansa strikes between 10-18 April.

When those flights were canceled, Lufthansa simply took the existing tickets, rebooked passengers to other connections, and then reissued the ticket. The problem starts when passengers are not consulted, as in my case, and don’t agree with this rebooking. If you would rather have a refund, then your airline will suddenly find out they can no longer touch the original ticket and process it.

This is apparently a widespread issue, and several readers have already reported running into issues. I suggest following my example and putting maximum pressure on both Lufthansa and the airline you booked with. Don’t let these airlines off the hook!

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