I know everyone in the travel community is buzzing about the recent violent removal of a passenger from a United Airlines flight, and for the record, I think it was handled very poorly and that the man in question, regardless of his past, deserved to be treated with basic human decency in that moment. And United’s initial responses to the event were inhumane and show an inability to connect with the average consumer of their product. I’ve just dealt with my own experience with the Star Alliance folks in Europe (specifically Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines) and I wanted to share a bit of what I’ve learned in my three and a half month journey to be reimbursed for a cancelled flight.

So, a bit of background: Jeff and I had a 6:45 AM flight out of Rome to Brussels to make a connecting 10:45 flight to JFK to get home. We didn’t want to waste our last precious hours in Rome, so we had stayed out fairly late the night before and hadn’t slept much before heading to Fiumicino (I booked a cab through RomeAirportCabs.com, they were fantastic!) at 4 in the morning. So we’re at the airport, tired and getting through security in 10 minutes or less with a lot of time to sit around at the airport and wait for our flight. We finally board (a bit late at this point, maybe 6:30 or so) and while we’re on the plane, they have to restart the whole plane because of “mechanical malfunctions.” After deplaning us, sending us out through security, back in through security again (because the plane was “fixed”) only to finally let us know at 10 AM that the flight was cancelled, Jeff and I were reasonably frustrated. We then had to wait in one line where one ticket agent could use one computer to help all of the passengers from this flight find their way back home. Confusing part A: I booked my flight through Lufthansa; confusing part B: this was a Brussels Airlines flight. So, I reached out to Lufthansa on twitter to find out what to do and a comic modern interpretation of “Who’s On First” ensued with Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines punting responsibility for customer service back and forth. After finally getting on the phone with an agent and basically sobbing because I was so tired and so frustrated and so ready to go home, we were rebooked and assured that we would be reimbursed for our hotel and meal costs and to go ahead and get some rest. After another three months of back and forth with Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines customer service, here is what I have learned.

1. The operating company for your flight is ultimately responsible for taking care of you. Regardless of how/where you booked your flight, that airline’s policies are the ones that will be used to guide agents on rebooking and reimbursement of costs. This became a bit confusing for my partner and I because Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines are part of the Star Alliance and we thought if they could cross book flights, that would mean they could share the burden of customer service as well. So if a flight is cancelled, make sure to run your requests through the operating service, not through your travel agent or even the company through which you originally booked.

2. Stay. In. Line. If you don’t want to have to wait to be reimbursed for your expenses, regardless of how tired or frustrated you are, stay in line until the agent of the operating flight can take care of you. Part of what led to further frustration (and tears on my part) for us was a Lufthansa gate agent opening up her terminal and asking Lufthansa customers to see her. Since we had booked through Lufthansa, we thought we were Lufthansa customers. When we explained our situation to the Lufthansa gate agent, she politely refused to help us saying that she didn’t have access to the Brussels Airline database and therefore was unable to rebook that leg of our ticket or book us a hotel or give us meal vouchers.

3. Know the regulations. Different countries, regional and economic blocs have different regulations for what happens when your flight is delayed. What I learned is that in the EU, if your flight is an inter-EU flight and is delayed for more than five hours, you are due 250 EUR for flights up to 1500km and 400 EUR for flight over 1500km. If you’re taking an international (overseas/outside of the EU) flight, that number rises to 600 EUR plus a refund of your ticket price. So before you travel, do some research in the event something goes wrong with your flight. And know that it is the country in which your flight originates that determines what regulations are considered (so the above regulations also apply to US carriers flying from the EU).

4.Keep your receipts. I almost had to take my case to small claims court (a last resort if you can’t get a response from a company). In order to prove my case, I needed to have documentation of the costs incurred as well as the causal agent for these costs (my cancelled flight). So make sure you keep your boarding pass/ticket and all of the receipts from your hotel, any meals you have and any change fees you incur as a direct result of the cancelled flight. Of course all reimbursement is going to be subject to the regulations and policies of the airline, so make sure you’re familiar with those before you spend a lot in your tired/frustrated foggy state of mind.

5.Don’t lose your cool. One thing I noticed in the midst of all of the running back and forth and confusion at the gate and with the gate agent being overwhelmed, the people who stood out were the people who were losing it. One woman spent 45 minutes with this only gate agent demanding an upgrade for herself and her husband thus increasing the frustration for the rest of us who were waiting just to talk to her. Another woman was in tears from the moment they cancelled the flight until she bullied her way to the front of the line to get rebooked sooner. It’s going to be frustrating and emotional, but just know that a little bit of niceness in a sea of anger can make a gate agent’s day, and that can often land you an earlier flight home, an upgrade or a better hotel voucher than your fellow passengers.

Until next time, lovelies!