The real basic parts that consumers need to know are probably not that hard to understand. We could

Q uestion : I bought a pair of tickets through Expedia for my husband and myself. We planned to visit Germany this fall for as part of a retirement trip. Shortly after that, my husband passed away very suddenly.
I contacted Expedia about a refund, but was advised to get in touch with our airline, Lufthansa, directly. Lufthansa told me my husband's cheapest flight tickets ticket was nonrefundable. I asked if they would resell his seat, since he couldn't make the flight, and they admitted they would.
When I said that it appeared that Lufthansa would profit from the death of my husband, they admitted cheapest flight tickets that that was the case. This really offended me. I tried to send an email to Lufthansa's president, but they have turned me down. What would you advise?
Answer : My condolences on your loss. Most airlines refund tickets – even nonrefundable ones – when a passenger dies. What's more, it's highly unusual for a representative to "admit" that the airline will profit from the death of a passenger. Maybe the representative you reached was having a bad day. I certainly hope so.
I'm concerned about your online travel agency's role in this debacle. Why did Expedia hand you off to Lufthansa in your hour of need? One of the reasons you do business with an online travel agency is that they are trusted intermediaries in case something goes wrong with your flight.
I might have started the refund process by sending a brief, polite email to Expedia, explaining that you wanted a refund for your husband's ticket. It may have still referred you to the airline, but at least you would have given it a chance to do what it promises it will do, which is to take care of you.
I would have stayed off the phone, too. These days, the odds of you getting put through to an outsourced, overseas call center, where someone is just trying to process your complaint quickly, is too high. Your case required special attention, which neither cheapest flight tickets your agency nor your airline seemed willing to give you.
You had the right idea with the email to Lufthansa's cheapest flight tickets president. I might have started a little lower on the corporate food chain. I list the names of the managers on my customer-service wiki, On Your Side .
I think that wouldn t be a bad idea.  What most people don t realize is how complicated fare rules can be and how intricate tariffs cheapest flight tickets are when dealing with international travel.  I worked with a gentleman who rented space in our agnecy and did international pricing for companies all over the world. cheapest flight tickets He use to be with various airlines in their tariff departments and use to come up with the fares we all paid.  He had volumes of books to reference when pricing international itineraries.  It was mind boggling.
The real basic parts that consumers need to know are probably not that hard to understand. We could start with Refund/Change Penalties. The part that is difficult deals with International Fare Construction and we won t deal with that part.
In my ex-travel agency days, I found Lufthansa to be among the most inflexible airlines ever. But one thing I noticed is that they generally cheapest flight tickets won t refund if their fare rules or ticket cheapest flight tickets rules don t explicitly say they ll do that for a given scenario, especially if they re the cheaper yet more restrictive fares.
While I m just speculating, I d imagine that s what Expedia s agents found in the OP s ticket and felt they really couldn t do anything for her. If their overall experience with Lufthansa is similar to mine, they know Lufthansa doesn t really refund for this unless their legal contracts or so specifically say they do. (just like the ones you eventually posted here )
Many of the comments cover the subject very well.  My comment is on the disastrous public relations of Lufthansa Airlines.  Even without their contract showing their obligation to return a fare for a traveler who died before using a ticket, their callous rejection offends all but a small section of the public and they probably cheapest flight tickets consist of lawyers.
With the hundreds of thousands of travelers that fly Lufthansa each year, the number of cases where a fare has to be returned cheapest flight tickets due to death must be very small.  Why a major carrier, and flagship of Germany would engender such bad publicity for such little financial gain is beyond me.  The smartest people in business sometimes do the stupidest things.
Addendum:  This is the same type of bad decisions made by employees low down on the chain of employment that was made by Delta when they decided to charge extra baggage fee to military personnel returning from war zones.
Many OTAs make money because of GDS fee kickbacks and at least 2 OTAs are actually owned by groups that also own GDS companies. If they cannot make commissions, then selling tickets rack up fees that airlines have to pay to their GDS companies.
So the margin on booking and ticketing airline tickets is very low. In my opinion too low to provide good customer service. That s why the call centers of OTAs are mostly  outsourced to India, the Philippines and other low-labor cost countries where the agents simply read scripts.
I doubt if outsourced call center agents are equipped cheapest flight tickets to handle this particular situation (e.g. Refunds due to Death of a Spouse). The agent would likely escalate the call as a Sup (Supervisor) call. But even a supervisor in an overseas cheapest flight tickets outsourced center probably does not have the authority and will need to refer this matter to the USA. But it is easier for the outsourced call center to tell the customer to call the airline directly (because they make too little cheapest flight tickets money to serve you).
What I find more disgusting is the behavior of the airline itself. They probably reject as many refund requests as possible so their costs don t go up (or they get to keep as much revenue as possible). Maybe they know many people will not find an ombudsman to take their case and continue complaining. I believe this kind of behavior will increase more and more now that almost all large US and European International Carriers are part of a Joint Venture. You don t have to fly Lufthansa but if you fly UA/CO/LX and others in the same joint venture, Lufthansa will also get a share of the JV s income.
Hi, Tony.  I m in Las Vegas but I do a lot of traveling cheapest flight tickets with my mom who lives in NYC.  I have no plans right now but I think I would like to go back to China or Hong Kong.  Maybe Thailand, Cambodia (Angkor Wat). My local newspaper is terrible for this type of stuff so maybe I ll try the local TAs in our Chinatown area but if you have a suggestion for NYC, that would be great.  Thanks for the info!
Where is the compassion in the world today?  I see two faults here, 1. Expedia cheapest flight tickets should have stepped up and offer the service they claim to offer and 2. Lufthansa cheapest flight tickets should have issued the refund, even if it s minus a small admin fee.  No hassle, no questions asked.
Where is the compassion in the world today?  I see two faults here, 1. Expedia should have stepped up and offer the service they claim to offer and 2. Lufthansa should cheapest flight tickets have issued the refund, even if it s minus a small admin fee.  No hassle, no questions asked.
Good point and yes, I too have used consolidators to travel to Asia before. I got a GREAT deal on a trip to Hong Kong and Bali using one. I so rarely travel cheapest flight tickets to Asia that I didn t think about that when I made my post. But that really is the only market I can think of where you might get a better deal using an online agency vs. purchasing direct.
Jenny I can tell you that I used Escapes Unlimited for a trip to Hong Kong and Bali, and they had great deals and a lot of flexibility. cheapest flight tickets They offer trips to a variety of destinations in Asia. I had a fabulous experience with them.
My condolences to the OP as well. That must be really hard, and then to have to deal with this. OP, you must be a strong person cheapest flight tickets to pursue this under these circumstances. And thank you Chris for helping her.
I d only use Expedia, Travelocity and the likes to book tickets on airlines without representation or offices in US which don t allow easy booking from abroad, or don t have English websites, like I once did with a Brazilian domestic flight for my vacation in Brazil.
The whole issue I take, however, is it LH s customer service. Each time I m unfortunate enough cheapest flight tickets to have to deal with one to solve I problem, cheapest flight tickets I get the impression they are more dumb down and more scripted cheapest flight tickets than before.
Seriously, once talking to an Air France agent couple months ago, I had to ask could you answer my question instead of reading your script? I know your next answer cheapest flight tickets will be xyz . She became unsettled and transferred a call to another one who (supervisor?) who in 5 minutes solved an issue that had taken 3-4 long calls with no results.
My father cheapest flight tickets recently died before he could travel cheapest flight tickets to my Daughter s graduation.  The flight was on British Airways and purchased via Expedia.  Expedia refuses to refund the ticket and British Airways says that they cannot refund it because it is an Expedia ticket.  Neither party will take responsibility. It does not make any sense.
What is the fare basis?  This then will allow you to find out the rules of the ticket purchased.  What was the routing of the ticket.  With this information, perhaps Tony A or I could provide you with some additional details that might be of help.
What s your problem? If you're having cheapest flight tickets trouble with a business - any business - and you've reached a dead end, maybe I can help. Send me an email and I'll investigate. (I can't promise a fix, but I take every request seriously.) If you want to connect with other consumers, why not sign up for my free weekly newsletter , RSS feed or free daily email updates ?
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