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Has anyone experienced what happens when you book a Lufthansa flight with a stopover in Munich/Frankfurt, but the second leg is operated by LH Bus and you don’t show on that leg?

Will Lufthansa cancel all your itineraries or miles?

Thanks.

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The bus seems to follow the same rules as a connecting flights, i.e.

  1. It's booked together with a flight as a single ticket
  2. You need to check in for it
  3. You need to have a valid boarding pass
  4. Your connecting is protected by the carrier
  5. The bus driver has a list of passengers and checks them off when they board, so they know if someone is missing.

Specifically from

https://www.lufthansa.com/ao/en/special-terms-of-transport-bus#3

3.4. If carriage by bus is booked in connection with a flight, the bus carriage is governed by the terms and conditions for rebookings and refunds that apply to the flight booking and the General Conditions of Carriage for Passengers and Baggage (GCC Passage).

While I didn't see any reference that specifically covers missing the bus (intentionally or not), its reasonable to assume that normal LH rules apply and they could indeed consider this hidden ticketing (or skiplagging)

Will Lufthansa cancel all your itineraries or miles?

That would be highly unlikely. Generally what happens is that either the remainder of your current itinerary is cancelled (if there is anything left to travel) or nothing at all. If they try to cancel your return joureny, you can always plead that you have missed the bus by accident (hold up in immigration, bathroom emergency, couldn't find the bus stop, etc.

See also https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufthansa-austrian-swiss-brussels-lot-other-partners-miles-more/2121474-lufthansa-bus-muc-nue.html

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    Correct. It's no different from were you to fail to board an aircraft or train that's part of a multi leg ticket. You're likely to have the rest of the legs (including likely the return part) canceled without compensation.
    – jwenting
    Commented Jun 18 at 14:10
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    I don't know what it's like in other places, but on trains here in in the UK, there is no reliable record of whether you actually travelled. For paper tickets there is no record other than possibly scribbles on the physical ticket. For e-tickets and other smart tickets there is a scan database, but when and where your ticket gets scanned is a lottery of staff availability and attitudes.
    – Peter Green
    Commented Jun 18 at 19:18
  • @PeterGreen that is the same in trains in Germany. But in long-distance buses, everyone's ticket and ID is checked. I guess it has to do with the ratio (number of staff)/(number of vehicle entrances).
    – wimi
    Commented Jun 18 at 21:26
  • @PeterGreen: Lufthansa has 2 different train mechanisms: "Rail and fly" is just a co-marketed ticket. No one cares if you take the train or not, but the connection is your responsibility and it's not protected. "Lufthansa express rail" on the other hand is a single ticket with a protected connection: you need to check in for it and the boarding pass is your train tickets as well. On these trains they DO check attendance and sometimes its done by dedicated LH staff, and not by the Bahn conductor.
    – Hilmar
    Commented Jun 19 at 2:07

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