Business-class tickets downgraded to economy class

Reader Paul Netscher paid for business class flights, and ended up in economy.

This is correspondence on the issue, after four months of trying to get a refund.

YOUR SAY

Paul Netscher tells his story

On May 13, 2026, we were scheduled to fly Lufthansa business class from Marseille, via Frankfurt and Singapore to Perth. After checking in for our flight at Marseille and shortly before boarding, our flight was cancelled. We received a text message with five different flight options to return to Perth, none of which was with Lufthansa. A couple of the options were not viable as we may have required visas. We selected the option for the next day via Paris to Perth. When the flight details came up after we accepted the option, it showed the Paris-to-Perth flight was in economy class. There was no way to change this. On contacting the Lufthansa help chat line one assistant confirmed the flight was indeed economy class and that there were no business-class flights to Perth for at least the next four days.

For the past four months I have been battling Lufthansa claims for a refund for the business class tickets we paid Lufthansa for. They have made every excuse, including trying to blame me for not receiving an email, which we had received hence why we were at Marseille to catch the flight that was cancelled. Lufthansa has also told me to chase Air France for a refund. Then Lufthansa claims they have no record that we were booked economy class. They however haven’t sent us proof that Lufthansa booked us business class via Paris to Perth.

Now from all this there are a number of lessons for fellow travellers, as I am sure that most airlines follow similar practices of no one to talk to and everything done to save money.

1. Always screen-shot, or photograph, and save all discussions you have with an airline. I mean everything. In our case this would have been invaluable, especially with the first flight options, and the one we accepted, as Lufthansa never sent us the replacement tickets to fly via Paris. So we had no record of the flights we had selected from those provided by Lufthansa. The only copy was in a chat that was deleted when we exited the chat. Which meant from memory only we had an idea of the new times and airlines Lufthansa allocated us. This was a problem as we could not remember how much time we had to change flights in Paris and exit the EU.
2. If an airline provides options for alternative flights, always check the flights are suitable (so for visas, time between connections, class, etc). Once you click to select a flight, there is no going back. We tried. If the accepted flight is with another airline other than your original airline, then your original airline (Lufthansa in our case) washes their hands of you – they’ve passed you on.
3. When lodging a claim for a refund ensure that you include every bit of evidence. I wrongly assumed that Lufthansa would have a complete track of all our flights and access to my correspondence with Lufthansa. No such thing, as was proven by their excuses. So include everything, such as boarding passes, notifications from the airline, copies of chats, and even baggage claim tickets to prove you had physically checked in.
4. In Lufthansa’s case (and I’m sure with most airlines) there is no space to provide an explanation or additional proof. However Lufthansa has a standard reply when you lodge your claim with a claim reference number, which says do not reply to this email. But it then adds, unless you have more supporting documentation. This is your chance to send all your supporting documents. I recommend including everything in one plain text document/email and not separate attachments. Write a coherent story of the events and explain your evidence.
5. In Lufthansa’s case if your claim is rejected, or does not include all your costs, you can reply to the email.
6. Just because you are flying in a premium airline doesn’t mean you will be treated fairly. In this day all airlines are cutting costs. Airlines are changing flight times and cancelling flights daily. Help chat lines and customer care agents are mere misnomers. In my case little help and certainly no customer care.

Well, four months later I’m still waiting for Lufthansa to refund the difference between business and economy class. Every time I send proof to them of the economy class boarding passes it all goes quiet. No acknowledgement. Silence.

Paul Netscher

+ Lufthansa has been given the opportunity to comment.