Deutsche Lufthansa AG, commonly known as just Lufthansa and sometimes internationally as Lufthansa German Airlines, is the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe, both in terms of overall passengers carried and fleet size.
I booked tickets with Lufthansa in October for my travel from USA to India. I needed to change my travel plans in 2 hours so I called Lufthansa before cancelling and the customer service representative assured me I will get a FULL refund since the tickler was being canceled within 24 hours of booking. I canceled the ticket and I received a confirmation email from Lufthansa stating I will be issued a FULL refund since the ticket was canceled within 24 hours. It’s been 4 months I have not received the refund. The customer service line asks to submit a feedback and email their customer service email. I’ve done both numerous times but have not received any correspondence back from Lufthansa. I’m all out of options short of taking legal action. Please share your experience if you’ve faced similar treatment by Lufthansa. Worst customer service I have received for anything so far!!!
UPDATE- Lufthansa refunded the amount after 5 months of follow up. Here are the things we did, don’t know what worked:(not listing calling customer care because it was useless)
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We filled out a form on (https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/refund). I kept filling it out daily until I got a response. Lufthansa will send you an email with a ticket number/ request number. This is the best way to track and follow your request. This is what I think helped the most. 2. We reported the issue to DOT, they got back to us but by then we had received our refund. I don’t have the link to it but you should be able to google it easily.
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File a complaint with the United States Department of Transportation. Failure to refund on a timely basis is an issue that they take concern with.
https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint
Thank you for the advice! I submitted the complaint to DOT.
Lufthansa is a scam airlines they weaponize their attrocious customer service and do not respond to mail demands for information.
Tweet them.
In a similar boat--booked online with Lufthansa in December and then cancelled within 24 hours. Received less than a 10% refund and was completely baffled. Never had an issue with refunds like this (within 24 hours) with an airline.
I called and called, never could get any phone representative to help. I jumped through the hoops of sending a message to their customer relations email address, filling out online refund form, etc. I got some emails back that claimed they had already refunded me (but citing the less than 10% amount) to original form of payment. I responded that, no, that hadn't been the full amount. Eventually someone emailed back again to say that the refund was being processed. That was about a month ago, and nothing changed. No refund to be seen yet.
I opened a dispute with my credit card company. That's now ongoing...I'll try to update on the outcome of that, once it closes. I think some folks have said in similar threads that airlines tend to win these disputes, but I've got a clear paper trail of emails where they eventually said they were going to do the refund and, of course, the confirmation of cancellation email that literally says you will receive a full refund for cancelling within 24 hours. To me, this is a clear instance of not following through on a stated (and I think, legally mandated?) policy--not a gray area dispute.
Best of luck! Solidarity.
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. It’s really terrible that this is a pattern and system of neglect. I disputed the charge with my credit card company and went through 2 rounds of reviews and they concluded that the charge was legitimate and the charges will stay. Hopefully you have better luck with your CC! We submitted a complaint to the DOT (https://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm) which is dedicated specifically for air line complaints.
That is absolutely bananas to me that, having proof that they said they would refund and haven't, the CC ruled in Lufthansa's favor. Hope the DOT piece helps you get some resolution. This is just ridiculous.
Forgot to say that I got responses when I emailed MEX_REFUND@icat.dlh.de (cced customer.relations@lufthansa.com as well, but all replies came from the former email). I don't even remember where I found the email address, but it's the only way I could get someone to speak to me.
Did you ever get any closure on this? Helping my neighbor out who had the exact same experience here and has been fighting a war of attrition with them for nearly a year. Amex has been zero help.
Hello, sorry I didn’t post afterwards but we finally got it resolved. We did a bunch of things, not sure what worked. We did these 2 things:(not listing calling customer care because it was useless)
We filled out a form on (https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/refund). I kept filling it out daily until I got a response. Lufthansa will send you an email with a ticket number/ request number. This is the best way to track and follow your request. This is what I think helped the most.
We reported the issue to DOT, they got back to us but by then we had received our refund. I don’t have the link to it but you should be able to google it easily.
I also noticed that they have a Chat for refunds now. I didn’t do this but it might be of some help.