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Lines get long and flights fill up. Research shows that travel is on the rise this holiday season. Therefore, I want to go to the airport early. And there’s another reason to be prepared to be punctual. That’s a potential penalty for the airline.
Novato resident Arthur Ruda and his wife, Laurie Nathan, recently traveled to Italy and Croatia on a two-week trip.
He described each destination as “a great place with great wine.”
In addition to learning about the new red and white, Arthur and Laurie received an airline education that cost several hundred dollars.
“We were kind of in a bind,” Arthur recalls.
The couple booked a flight on Lufthansa and flew home via Milan, Frankfurt and San Francisco. The day they boarded the plane, they learned the hard way that Milan has two airports, one hour apart.
“On the way, I realized I was going to the wrong airport and had to rush to get to the correct one,” Arthur said.
However, Arthur and Rory missed their flight. It set off a costly domino effect. First, Lufthansa made the couple pay for a new ticket from Milan to Frankfurt at an exorbitant last-minute rate.
“We were charged an additional $460 per ticket,” Arthur said.
Arthur was disappointed.
“I arrived on time. I didn’t miss the flight,” he said of the flight from Frankfurt.
“We were sitting in the original seats we had to go back home,” he added.
It’s the same flight, but at a new price. What was happening?
“The airlines are making all the decisions,” says Pamela Irwin, a travel advisor with Mansour Travel in Beverly Hills and chief executive of the American Association of Travel Advisors’ board of directors.
Irwin helped us understand the 47 pages of Lufthansa terms and conditions and 24 pages of jargon-filled fare rules we reviewed for our couple’s flight.
Irwin said Arthur and Rory should have called Lufthansa and told them they were going to be late.
“You have to let the airline know in advance, otherwise it will be a ‘no-show,’” Irwin said.
And if you’re a “no-show” even one minute past departure time, many airlines will cancel the value of the missed flight. For example, Lufthansa’s terms and conditions state: “If you do not arrive at your boarding gate on time, we reserve the right to cancel your reservation.”
So the couple had to buy new tickets to Frankfurt, which cost them $460 each in Milan.
So what happens to the extra money Lufthansa requested in Frankfurt? That was another $277 each. This was essentially a price-altering penalty hidden in the fine print of fare rules because the couple didn’t fly their planes out of order. Irwin said this is a common problem with most airline tickets.
“If you change one part, the entire ticket price changes, and if you change one part, the entire ticket price is recalculated,” she said.
Arthur and Rory admit they made one mistake. But they felt Lufthansa had pinched them twice.
“We were really unhappy about it, and we thought they could have been a little more kind,” Arthur said.
So Arthur and Rory contacted me. I contacted Lufthansa. The company did not respond to requests for comment. However, Lufthansa gave Arthur and his wife a partial refund totaling $217. In an email to Mr. Arthur, Lufthansa called this “a gesture of goodwill.”
“Thank you so much for your help,” Arthur said.
“I’m grateful they gave me something. But I think it’s strange,” he added.
You should heed the warning from the Rory and Arthur incident. Once you’re ready to catch your flight, call your airline or travel agent. Also, do it before your flight, as after one minute it may be too late.
“The lesson was that I could have handled things better if I had called at the last minute and said, ‘I’m going to be late,'” Arthur admitted.
Don’t fumble for a phone number on your next trip. Save your airline and travel agent phone numbers to your phone before you leave for easy access. Download your airline’s app and save the web address for a chat option in case you can’t get through by phone.
Got a consumer complaint? Let us know so we can help.
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