Refunds, Reimbursement, and Compensation: Lufthansa

If you've heard your journey will be affected by Lufthansa flight cancellations it pays to know about Europe's EC 261 air passenger rights.

In an effort to discourage airlines from cancelling flights at the last minute, Europe introduced a set of clear air passenger rights known as EC 261. The sections on flight cancellation say that if an airline like Lufthansa cancels a flight less than 14 days before it was due to depart, they must pay out up to US$700 in compensation to each affected passenger.

Because the laws focus on avoiding disruption to passengers, there is no Lufthansa flight cancellation compensation owed if you're offered a replacement flight that arrives at a very similar time to the original.

Lufthansa also won't have to pay compensation if there were extraordinary circumstances which made the cancellation necessary. For example, airlines are sometimes left no choice but to cancel flights due to an incident at the airport, or bad weather. Because the airline isn't responsible for the problem, they don't have to pay compensation. Although they must still offer passengers a replacement flight or full refund.

European air passenger laws also help travelers when their flights have been delayed. If your flight landed at your final destination over 3 hours late you should check whether you are owed up to US$700 per person in compensation.

It's worth checking what caused the Lufthansa flight delays — airlines are required to pay compensation whenever they are responsible for the delay. But if the delay was caused by an unavoidable situation which was out of their control, no compensation is owed.

If, for example, the delay is due to a technical issue, or operational problem, all delayed passengers are eligible for a Lufthansa flight delay compensation. But if there's an incident at the airport, a strike by air traffic control staff, or bad weather en route there's no compensation available.

AirHelp is here to make flight delay compensation Lufthansa claims as straightforward as possible. Our compensation check tool will confirm what you're owed. On top of that, we have one of the world's biggest databases of flight stats to back up your claim. Another thing to note, is that you can usually claim for flights from as far back as 3 years ago as well.

As Lufthansa has its headquarters in Europe, its passengers are offered a great deal of protection by EC 261, Europe's comprehensive air passenger rights.

All Lufthansa flights that depart from or land at European airports are covered by EC 261. That means passengers can expect care in the event that their flight is delayed, canceled, or overbooked. And in some situations, they're owed compensation on top of a full ticket refund, should they no longer choose to fly. Passengers may always request their money back if they aren't offered a suitable replacement flight in the event of cancellation or overbooking.

Passengers are also entitled to claim for past flights — often you can still claim for flights that were affected in the past 3 years.

Which Lufthansa Flights are Covered by EC 261?

Table shows values in € as specified in EC 261

As you might expect with any law, there are exceptions and special circumstances that can affect how much compensation is owed in every individual case. AirHelp makes it simple to check what you’re owed with our free compensation calculator.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG, commonly known as Lufthansa, is the largest German airline and, when combined with its subsidiaries, also the largest airline in Europe both in terms of fleet size and passengers carried during 2017.