Help! Lufthansa strike effecting the missus. Any advice from seasoned travellers

equalsql

Mrs equalsql and my daughter were due to come back from Italy tomorrow. The flights were with Lufthansa who have decided to go on strike tomorrow!  It was a two stage journey Bari to Munich then Munich to Birmingham. I can't get any sense with the booking information as Lufthansa's web site has ground to a halt.
We travel very little by air and have never encountered this problem before.

Can anyone offer advice on this that I can pass onto my Wife as she is a bit stressed out.

MattBanshee

She should report to the check-in desk at the normal time, unless they have contacted her in advance. The airline is legally required to re-book flights, with a competing operator if necessary, and provide food and accommodation where necessary.

ICBM

Going to Munich?

Get her to write ‘I hereby guarantee to respect the independence of Czechoslovakia, best wishes, A. Hitler’ on a piece of paper and wave it at the check-in desk while marching up and down doing a Nazi salute with her finger under her nose.

That’s the sort of thing Brits usually do when confronted with Germans being difficult, anyway...



Or more sensibly, what MattBanshee said.

(Edit - smiley added just in case it wasn’t obvious!)

equalsql

MattBanshee said:

She should report to the check-in desk at the normal time, unless they have contacted her in advance. The airline is legally required to re-book flights, with a competing operator if necessary, and provide food and accommodation where necessary.

She went to book print off her boarding pass for the journey and that's when she found out that tomorrows flights were cancelled. Should she just go to the airport tomorrow anyway and get the Lufthansa check-in desk to sort out another route back?

NPP

if she's on the morning or afternoon flight it's been cancelled and she can rebook free of charge. The 22.05 flight will be ok. 

The instructions are here: https://www.lufthansa.com/de/en/Travel-information

For the record, it's ground staff that are striking, not Lufthansa, so other airlines are likely to be affected as well. 

boogieman

A similar thing happened to my wife a while back, French air controllers went on strike without any warning and she got stuck in Spain with a bunch of mates. It was another 5 days before she got home, her and her group had to find alternative flights because EasyJet (who she should have flown home with) were booked solid for a fortnight because everyone was in the same boat.

Best advice is to have a look at the airline’s website and see what info they’re giving. Also keep any receipts for accommodation and food spends, you can claim compensation for both if it’s the airline’s fault you can’t travel. 

wave100

I was stranded in Portugal by Ryanair recently, luckily i had a credit card and a mobile with data so was able to book with a different operator as I was due back at work the next day. I was recompensed (just) sufficiently for my expenses, but not for the agony of the journey. On the upside, I got to sit in a nice outside bar in Barcelona airport for a few beers and some lunch which was an unexpected treat.

Don't know if that has any bearing on the your situation, but I feel better having had a rant!