Help! The Law Says Lufthansa Owes Me Money, but I Can’t Collect.

Dear Tripped Up,

Last May, my wife and I were headed from New York to Valencia, Spain, via Munich, when the first leg of our Lufthansa flight was delayed, causing us to miss our connection. The Munich airport was a chaotic scene of passengers trying to rebook, but we eventually got a flight to Palma de Mallorca and then on to Valencia, arriving eight hours later than originally scheduled. According to European law, Lufthansa owes us 600 euros each (about $1,280 total) in compensation. After five months of maddening back-and-forth messages in which we repeatedly provided Lufthansa with our flight details, the airline finally asked us to email our bank information to them. We did, but nothing showed up in our account. They have four times told us the transfer is complete, but three more months later, we still don’t have our money. Can you help? Volkan, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Dear Volkan,

If I had a nickel for every time someone wrote me saying they’d been stiffed by a major European airline, I’d be rich — unless I had to collect the money from a major European airline, in which case I’d probably still be waiting. Lufthansa is hardly the only source of these complaints, but since they are such a frequent one, I hope you don’t mind if I bundle a few other cases with yours. Let’s bring in …

• Carolyn from Northbrook, Ill., whose family is owed 1,800 euros for similar flight delays. Unlike you, she balked at sending her bank information via email, but her multiple requests to have someone call her to get the information, and her two postal letters to Lufthansa with the information, went unanswered, and her case was summarily closed.

• Jennifer of Denver who was similarly ghosted when she refused to provide bank information over email, instead requesting a check or other means of payment for the $275 she claimed she was owed for expenses incurred when Lufthansa lost (but eventually delivered) her luggage.

• Rory of Oakland, Calif., who called Lufthansa to book a flight for him, his wife and their cat from San Francisco to Slovenia, only to find out later that the first leg was a code-share flight on United, which doesn’t permit cats in premium economy. Though Lufthansa had booked the flight knowing he was bringing a cat, they would not downgrade him, forcing him to buy a new ticket to sit in economy with his pet.

• Stacey of Austin who canceled a flight early in the pandemic, tried to rebook it for exactly a year later and could not, despite Lufthansa’s rule…