I’m hoping someone can tell me if there is anything else I can do to dispute a rebooking fee with Lufthansa. My husband and sux year old son were scheduled to fly from Seattle to Namibia in December to attend his fathers funeral. The first leg of the flight, from Seattle to Frankfurt, was in Lufthansa. When we arrived at the airport, we were told they could not board the plane because my sons passport lacked four days of the required six months’ validity. We phined Lufthansa and were given the option of taking the same flight the following day for a total cost of $600 for two change fees. We agreed but did not pay at the time as we were unsure if we could update the passport that quickly. We did, however, and returned to the airport shortly before the flight departure time to be told by ground agents that we would need to pay $6000 for two new tickets. Then we objected, they discussed our situation among themselves and said we should pay a $2000 rebooking fee. They said they were not able to verify the u formation we had received the pre ious day, and, as the flight was boarding, we felt we had no option other than paying the $2000. I immediately contacted Lufthansa, explained that no one had advised us in advance of the error in our travel document, which of course was also our error, and that we kept our booking, made an emergency appointment with the passport office and returned as quickly as possible to the airport, asked upon the information we had been given if the $600 fee. After a period of over two months, I have just received an email from Lufthansa saying only that the $2000 rebooking fee was appropriate, with no other explanation. I e learned se real valuable lessons, but I’m wondering if anyone can suggest any other steps I can take. Thank you, I appreciate any ideas.

I am really sorry this happened. But it wasn' 'also' your fault, it was entirely your fault. the 'error' in the passport was in no way Lufthansa's fault.

My only suggestion would be to contact Christopher Elliott who sometimes can work miracles.

There was no "error" in your travel documents, you didn't have appropriate passport validity. It's not the airline's responsiblity to take care of your passport requirements. This wasn't their decision, then I could see it, this is a rule by Namibia itself. At least Lufthansa didn't let you fly there and then find out upon arrival you can't enter the country.

https://na.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen...el-to-namibia/

I find it incredible someone who is from Namibia is so careless as to not know the passport requirements of their own country.

I find it incredible that someone would spend time writing such a negative response. As I stated in my post, I was only disputing the discrepancy between the two change fees we were given. The unexpected trip to attend the funeral if a parent undoubtedly had some bearing in our lack of attention to detail with the passport. My sincere hope, if you should ever find yourself in a similar situation needing advice or suggestions, that you will receive positive comments or none at all.

What on earth was negative in my post!?

I merely clarified what you seemed to imply it was partly someone else's fault by posting >>explained that no one had advised us in advance of the error in our travel document, which of course was also our error,<<

>>My sincere hope, if you should ever find yourself in a similar situation needing advice or suggestions, that you will receive positive comments or none at all.<<

I DID give you a positive suggestion -- contact Christopher Elliott -- he will go to bat for you IF he feels you have a valid argument. Heck, I'll even do the legwork for you . . . here is his website Elliott Consumer Advocacy -- a site that advocates for you

Janisi, my apologies. I’m findung this forum somewhat difficult to navigate. My response was to the post from another member. I did appreciate your feedback and referral to the Elliott website. Thanks for your time and suggestion.

Lufthansa would never let them fly when their travel docs are not in order. Airlines get fines for doing that, why do you think they were denied boarding in the first place?

I couldn’t see where the OP says that they are from Namibia. Maybe I missed it. If they are from Namibia there would not be a minimum validity necessary on their passport to enter their own country.

As to why the rebooking fee fee went up from $600 to $2000, I can only speculate that the booking class was no longer available so the next fare up would incur an additional fare of $2000, as the OP states, the whole rebooking was very last minute with the flight boarding/closing so Lufthansa would have been really pushed for time to get the tickets reissued. The rebooking fee is a fare adjustment from what was originally paid plus additional fare for the new flight.

>>I couldn’t see where the OP says that they are from Namibia. Maybe I missed it. If they are from Namibia there would not be a minimum validity necessary on their passport to enter their own country. <<

I'm pretty sure Christina read they were going to a family funeral and jumped to the conclusion they carry Namibian passports. OP doesn't say that one way or the other.

Perhaps the $600 change fee only pertained to that particular day, had you been able to re-book right then. Airfare prices are always a puzzle. Sorry that happened to you.

I think you are probably right, and we made the second mistake of not confirming that. At least we learned several valuable lessons. Thanks for your kind and helpful response.

I am sorry about the loss of your father-in-law.

In these situations, it's never just the rebooking fee. It's also the fare difference between what you paid and the tickets that are available. A same-day walk-up fare from US to Africa is going to run in the thousands of dollars. I suspect that's what's going on here.

The most valuable lesson to take away from this event is to make sure we have proper documentation to enter a country. Verifying that is always our responsibility.

Thanks for your response. Yes, a valuable lesson.

Not knowing if you could get the passport issue fixed, I might have had your husband go ahead without your son, but it is so hard to think clearly of all possibilities in situations like that. Sometimes you just try to fix the one thing and it triggers other things. We can say it is a lesson, but it is something that may never occur again, so not the first thing on your mind at the time, I hope you are all doing OK now.

Thanks, you made a good point.