Strike of UFO union from 11 to 13 November 2015

The ‘Organisation of Independent Flight Attendants’ union (UFO) has announced that it will take strike action on Lufthansa flights from Friday, 6 November until Friday, 13 November.

The ‘Organisation of Independent Flight Attendants’ union (UFO) has announced that it will take further strike action from Wednesday, 11 November to Friday, 13 November 2015 between 04.00 and 24.00 hours on all Lufthansa flights (short-, medium- and long-haul) to/from Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf.

Lufthansa has issued a special timetable for Friday, 13. November. The necessary flight cancellations have already been made and are published on LH.com. 

Continuously updated list of all cancelled Lufthansa flights

As a result of the strike, there will also be a change to the departure times of selected long-haul flights departing from Frankfurt.

The following flights have been postponed to an early-morning departure on Saturday, 14 November 2015:

• LH 778 FRA-SIN
• LH 796 FRA-HKG
• LH 500 FRA-RIO
• LH 506 FRA-SAO

For technical reasons it is not possible to display these timetable changes in the Availability Displays of the GDSs or in the PNR. In Amadeus the time changes will be evident in the DO transaction, e.g. DO LH778/14NOV; an SSR element in the PNR will notify you about the time change. Possible connecting flights will have to be rebooked manually. Lufthansa will inform those affected customers, who have set up a profile, about the time change by text message. If you have any questions, please contact your Lufthansa Sales & Service Team.

Flights operated by Lufthansa City Line, Germanwings, Eurowings, Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and SWISS will not be affected by any strike action.

After the end of the longest strike in the company’s history, Lufthansa will return to almost normal operations on Saturday, 14 November and will offer its customers the usual service as soon as possible.

All scheduled long-haul connections will be able to operate on Saturday. Lufthansa will also return to almost normal operations on short- and medium-haul flights on Saturday. Due to operational reasons, there can be occasional flight cancellations, if the aircraft or crews are not yet at the site of operation.

Flight status request for individual flights

Lufthansa is willing - without any preconditions - to go to mediation with the UFO cabin staff union on all the currently-open issues regarding the collective labor agreements for Lufthansa German Airlines cabin personnel.

After a renewed call to strike by the Independent Flight Attendant Organisation (UFO), Lufthansa is doing everything it can to mitigate the impact of this utterly excessive action on its customers as much as possible.

The following extended goodwill rule applies:

Any passenger with a booked Lufthansa flight from/to/via Frankfurt, Munich or Dusseldorf on an LH document between 6 and 13 November 2015, whose flight is not cancelled and whose ticket was issued up to and including 6 November 2015, may rebook once free of charge.

The following rules apply to these rebookings:

• Rebooking on an alternative Lufthansa Group flight/connection (flight number and operated by: LH, LX, OS, SN, EW, 4U) – in the original booking class or alternatively within the same class of carriage
• New travel date no later than 28 February 2016
• Rebooking on an alternative Lufthansa flight which is operated by another Lufthansa Group airline – in the original booking class only
• The departure and destination points for the journey must remain unchanged. Exception: rebooking/reissue to an alternative nearby departure/destination airport within Germany, e.g. DUS instead of CGN, HAM instead of HAJ.
• In the case of reissues the endorsement entry should read: 1215

For refunds of tickets that are not affected by flight cancellations, the fare conditions apply.

You can undertake the reissues yourself – a waiver by Lufthansa is not required for cases reissued in accordance with the stated rules.

As soon as the UFO union release details of the extent of the strike, Lufthansa will create a special timetable as quickly as possible, extend the published goodwill policy accordingly and make the necessary flight cancellations. From that point onwards you can rebook flights for customers affected by flight cancellations based on the Standard Lufthansa INVOL rules.

We will keep you informed of further developments and of the effects of any strikes on flight operations on irreg.lufthansaexperts.com.

All passengers are requested to check the status of their flight at LH.com before setting out on their journey. Lufthansa passengers who have saved their mobile phone number in their customer profile will be notified about relevant cancellations by text message.

In the event of flight cancellations, the affected segments will be set as ‘UN’ if possible and appear in your queue. They will include an SSR element:
SSR OTHS 1A CNL D/T STRIKE.

For technical reasons delays can occur with the ‘UN’ messages. If customers on cancelled flights are rebooked by Lufthansa on to alternative flights, the new segments are apparent in the PNR; the tickets will be revalidated automatically if possible. If no revalidation is possible (e.g. in the case of a route change), Lufthansa will automatically reissue a ticket. If your customer requests another alternative and a new reissue is required, please contact Lufthansa. Please note: no ‘UN’ is set for flights cancelled on the departure day and for flights cancelled one day prior to the departure day.

Customers affected by a flight cancellation can rebook free of charge or have their ticket refunded. You are welcome to make rebookings/reissues for cancelled Lufthansa flights yourself in accordance with the Lufthansa Standard INVOL rules. You can make the refund on an involuntary basis directly in your GDS. No approval/waiver by Lufthansa is required in this case.

Passengers travelling within Germany whose Lufthansa flights have been cancelled because of the strike can use Deutsche Bahn trains and issue their own rail voucher either under ‘My Bookings’ on our website LH.com or at a Lufthansa airport check-in machine.

You will find general information on handling flight irregularities on OS documents here.

You will find general information on handling flight irregularities on LX documents here.

SWISS Policy: Irregularity Handling Procedure of 724/LX E-Tickets for flight cancellations due to LH cabin crew union (UFO) strike action

Additional background information and press releases

Lufthansa very much regrets the inconvenience caused by this further strike action and would like to apologise to you and the passengers affected.