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Next month I will be transferring through Frankfurt airport on separate tickets and there's a small chance I will miss the check-in deadline. In that scenario, what penalty would Lufthansa charge me to take a later flight? There are 5 flights per day to my destination and almost all of them have a free seat, so I'm not worried about availability.

I have purchased the cheapest possible fare category, if that matters.

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  • What carrier are you arriving on?
    – DTRT
    Commented Feb 6, 2017 at 14:03
  • Uzbekistan Airways
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Feb 6, 2017 at 14:04
  • Can't you check-in online with Lufthansa?
    – Lassi Uosukainen
    Commented Feb 6, 2017 at 14:48
  • @LassiUosukainen I can but it doesn't guarantee you won't miss the flight
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Feb 6, 2017 at 14:54
  • Online check in would show intent to travel on Lufthansa, so combined with a late arrival might gain you more sympathy.
    – user13044
    Commented Feb 7, 2017 at 1:29

3 Answers 3

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Worst case they could consider you a no show, cancel your booking and force you to buy a new ticket.

They could consider it a change and charge the applicable change fee for your fare class. Plus any fare difference if your fare bucket is sold out.

They could be nice and take your delayed flight arrival into consideration (I assume that maybe your concern) and rebook you on the next flight for free.

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  • @pnuts - it is Lufthansa (actually the Lufthansa agent Jonathan deals with at Frankfurt), that would be making the judgement call in the last scenario. There are reasons why and why not, so impossible to guess the probability.
    – user13044
    Commented Feb 7, 2017 at 1:28
  • Yes but it is the AGENT you deal with plus your attitude when talking with them that controls the outcome, not Lufthansa. Lufthansa has guidelines, but agents have amazing powers they can employ, if they feel it warranted. Everyone disses agents because their personal experience was not good, but these incidents represent a minuscule fraction of life in an airport, I mean how many times have you been in a similar scenario. I have encountered great agents with bad airlines and bad agents at top flight airlines, one just never knows and can't not judge based on limited personal experience.
    – user13044
    Commented Feb 7, 2017 at 1:56
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How they will behave in this situation will depend on the following criteria :

  1. are you a loyal customer to them? If you have a status with Miles&More, it will help you.
  2. what is the reason for not making it in time? If this is because the transit time was too short to allow it to happen under normal circumstances, then they will potentially take it as a no show and cancel your ticket. So you'll have to buy a new one. If this is because your inbound flight was delayed due the carrier fault, they might be a bit more helpful, even if you are flying with another carrier.
  3. what is your ticket fare? If you have bought a flex fare. Then you'll have less problems. I see that you have bought the cheapest one so it is probably not flexible at all. So this won't help you in this situation.

So to summarize, worse case, you'll have to buy a new ticket and best case, you'll make your connection without any issue. Intermediate situations : Lufthansa will reschedule you on another flight for a fee or for free.

I'd suggest you to let them know in advance. This could help...

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Lufthansa tickets in the cheapest fare category cannot be changed, so if you miss your flight, your ticket (also any further flights on the same ticket, if applicable) will be cancelled and you have to buy a new ticket.

You can of course hope, as the other answers are trying to suggest, that a fortune fairy will show up and fix everything for you, but having had some experience with Lufthansa's flexibility and goodwill (or lack thereof), I would not expect anything beyond what your ticket is actually good for.

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