As we have already communicated to you, our point-to-point services outside of the Frankfurt and
Munich hubs will in future be packaged under the Germanwings brand in a new business model.
Germanwings will therefore be taking over all Lufthansa flights within Germany and Europe which do not fly via FRA or MUC.

 

Over the next few months, passengers booked on Lufthansa flights will be rebooked on to 4U flights.

 

We will, of course, keep you informed both about the dates of further transfers of routes and about the dates of rebookings from LH to 4U on lufthansaexperts.com

 

The following information explains the operational issues relating to rebookings.

Customers on the transferred routes will be rebooked on to a suitable 4U flight with a departure time as close to that of the original flight as possible.

 

• Business Class passengers (J, C, D, Z, P, R) will be rebooked in 4U’s J class on all routes on which the new 4U ‘Best’ fare is being offered from 1 July 2013. On all other routes they will be rebooked into 4U’s I class as before.
  
  
• Economy Class passengers with Lufthansa FLEX fares (Y, B, M) will be booked automatically into 4U’s I class.

 

• All other Lufthansa Economy Class fares will be rebooked automatically into 4U’s O class. The O class is used exclusively for the automated rebookings and cannot be booked manually.

 

Customers with connecting flights or Special Service Requests (SSRs) which cannot be met by 4U (e.g. UMNR, AVIH as per GGAIR4U), will be rebooked on to alternative LH connecting flights.

 

Please note: within the technically complex rebooking processes, it can happen that customers who have booked connecting flights are automatically rebooked on to a 4U flight/connection for which the minimum connecting time (MCT) cannot be met. Lufthansa will identify these cases as quickly as
possible after the rebooking, manually change the booking and then put it back in your queue. Of course, you are also welcome to contact your Lufthansa Sales & Service Team to request an immediate
rebooking.

 

To have these tickets reissued, please contact your Lufthansa Sales and Service Team. Alternatively, you can do the reissue yourself. In this case, please note the following in the endorsement box: INVOL DUE LH/4U COOP. Lufthansa’s approval is not required for these reissues.

 

Currently, Germanwings has interline agreements with LH, OS, LX, SN as well as UA and AC. Coupons from other airlines’ documents that are affected by a rebooking on to 4U will be amended centrally by LH on an LH
document.

 

 

 

 

• All rebookings from LH on to the alternative 4U flight will have the Lufthansa tickets automatically revalidated. This means that the ticket number is automatically transferred to 4U and neither a manual revalidation nor a reissue is required.
  
  
• If, in individual cases, the revalidation has not worked because of a technical problem, your
  Lufthansa Sales and Service Team can undertake a manual revalidation or reissue the ticket.
  Alternatively, you can reissue the ticket yourself. In this case, please note the following in the endorsement box: INVOL DUE LH/4U COOP. Lufthansa’s approval is not required for these reissues.
  
  
• For cases of reissue or manual revalidations by LH, 4U has uniformly increased the Ticket Time Limit (TTL) in the system for O class to 21 days before departure. For technical reasons no 4U SSR element for this can be placed in the PNR.
  
  
• The TTL for all other 4U booking classes remains unchanged at 24 hours after booking.
  Exception: the TTL for I and J classes is 24 hours before departure.
  
  

• If an LH flight is cancelled, a free refund of the Lufthansa ticket is of course possible. Unused tickets can be refunded in full; partly flown tickets can be refunded in part (e.g. on ½ return
  basis).
  
  

• Lufthansa’s approval is not required for refunds of Lufthansa tickets as a result of cancelled LH flights.
  
  
• If no refund is made and instead you require another 4U or LH flight on the original ticket, please contact your Lufthansa Sales and Service Team.

 

• For many instances of manual rebookings on to 4U flights, the simplest and cheapest option is to refund the original ticket and then issue a new ticket.

 

Information about the cooperation between Austrian Airlines and Germanwings can be found on
lufthansaexperts.com

 

All existing OS own flights, operated by Tyrolean (VO), between Germany and Austria will be maintained. The code-share flights operated by Lufthansa which have existed up to now will be transferred to Germanwings.

 

Existing OS code-share bookings on LH-operated flights between Germany and Austria will be rebooked on an OS code-share number (operated by 4U). The revalidation happens automatically, so no manual revalidation or amendment is required.

 

Your Lufthansa Sales and Service Team will be happy to help you with any questions about Austrian-Germanwings flight bookings and tickets.

 

 

 

All confirmed passengers travelling individually and group passengers will be rebooked automatically, irrespective of whether or not a ticket has already been issued.

 

For affected bookings with no issued tickets there are basically the following alternatives:

 

1. You issue the airline tickets on the appropriate fare before the automatic rebooking.
   
   
2. You contact Germanwings for a direct transaction with Germanwings (ticketless) — in this case the Germanwings fares and conditions apply.
   
   
3. You issue the airline tickets on a fare agreed with LH no later than 21 days before departure. The agreed fare will always include both the agreed YQ and taxes/fees and other surcharges.

 

*****************************************************

 

 

• All confirmed segments in a single PNR^* affected by the changeover will be automatically rebooked, irrespective of whether or not a ticket has already been issued.

 

• Also automatically rebooked will be all confirmed segments in a Group PNR affected by the changeover, irrespective of whether or not a ticket has already been issued.

 

• Business Class passengers (J, C, D, Z, P, and R) will be rebooked in 4U’s J class on all routes on which the new 4U ‘Best’ fare is being offered from 1 July 2013. On all other routes they will be rebooked into 4U’s I class as before.
  
  
• Passengers in the flexible Economy Classes (Y, B and M) will be rebooked into 4U’s I class.

 

• All other passengers will be rebooked into 4U’s O class.
  
  
• 4U’s O class is a Germanwings special class — it cannot be booked manually and nor are fares available in this class. In O class, Germanwings’ Standard Ticketing Time Limit (24 hours) has been deactivated and uniformly set at 21 days before departure. You can issue the tickets up to 21 days before departure. For technical reasons the 4U TTL cannot be displayed in the SSR element, which is why no 4U SSR element referring to the TTL is set in the PNRs.

 

*With regards to rebookings of customers from an allocation (Amadeus Nego Space), please contact your Lufthansa Sales and Service Team.

 

When it comes to issuing tickets for your customers booked on what, up to now, were Lufthansa flights and for whom an LH tour-operator fare is to be issued, you have the following alternatives:

1. You issue the tickets before the rebooking on to 4U at the appropriate fare.

1. You contact Germanwings for a direct transaction with Germanwings (‘ticketless’) à keyaccount@germanwings.com. In this case, Germanwings’ fares and conditions apply.

 

1. You issue the tickets after the rebooking on to 4U at the fare agreed with LH no later than 21 days before departure. In doing so, please take account of the following:

 

Since no fares are lodged in 4U’s O class, no automatic pricing is possible. The fare must therefore be entered manually. You are welcome to construct the fare yourself at the agreed price according to the Lufthansa tour-operator fare filed for the route/booking class. Besides the net fare, the agreed price also always includes the agreed YQ as well as taxes/charges and other surcharges. Alternatively, Lufthansa will construct the fare for you. However, Lufthansa can only do this for bookings in Amadeus as your Sales and Service Team does not have access to any other GDSs. To ensure the process runs smoothly, we ask that you use the following procedure:

 

• Place the PNR for the TST construction in your Lufthansa Sales and Service Team’s Queue 37.
  
  
• You can do this at any time after the automatic rebooking has been made on the 4U flight, i.e., either immediately after the queue message regarding the rebooking or no later than 25 days before departure.
  
  
• If you have summary lists of affected PNRs, you are of course welcome to send these lists to Lufthansa.
  
  
• Your Lufthansa Sales and Service Team will check in the history of the PNR which LH booking class was originally booked and structure the TST with the appropriate tour-operator fare (e.g. X AXTODA – X is replaced by the relevant booking class).
  
  
• After the TST construction, the PNR will again be placed in your queue and you can issue the ticket at any time up to 21 days before departure.
  
  
• For any subsequent rebookings that may arise under the applied fare conditions originally agreed with LH, please contact your Lufthansa Sales and Service Team.

 

 

For cruise passengers, the increased free baggage allowance of two pieces of baggage that was agreed with Lufthansa will be retained, even after the rebooking on to the Germanwings flight.

If the ticket is to be issued on a cruise fare then, in addition to the process described above, please enter a corresponding SSR element in the PNR:

SR OTHS YY-CRUISE IT3YY2GCF FBCXAOCRU

(Please replace X with the relevant booking class)

 

 

• In this case, your Sales and Service Team will construct the TST (including the increased free baggage allowance) at the appropriate cruise fare.
  
  
• In order to process this special condition automatically, it is essential that besides the correct free baggage allowance in the ticket, the SSR element is also entered in the correct format in the booking.
  
  
• If the ticket on the cruise fare has already been issued before the rebooking on to 4U, it will be automatically revalidated and the baggage entry will remain. In this case, please add the SSR element accordingly or ask Lufthansa to undertake the SSR entry.   

 

 

The above-mentioned information for tour-operator fares also applies in principle to your Lufthansa group bookings confirmed at the time of the automatic rebooking (LH segments in ‘group PNRs’), i.e. you can issue the tickets as usual at any time before the listed rebooking date.

 

Alternatively, you can issue the tickets after the rebooking at the price agreed with Lufthansa up to 21 days before departure. Besides the net fare, the agreed price also always includes the agreed YQ as well as taxes/fees and other surcharges. In this case please take into account the following:

 

• Up until the new 4U TTL is published, you can input names and undertake name changes directly in the Amadeus PNR before ticketing according to the agreed Lufthansa rules.
  
  
• You can make splits as well as group cancellations/reductions in the Amadeus PNR.
  
  
• When group tickets are paid for by credit card, you must manually add the OPC incurred.
  
  
• For rebookings in group PNRs, please contact your Lufthansa Sales and Service Team.
  
  
• Group increases must be requested directly from Germanwings.