Flight-compensation specialist AirHelp reported a 210 percent spike in German website traffic on 12 March as travellers sought to understand their entitlements under EU Regulation 261/2004 during the ongoing Lufthansa pilot strike. The company estimates that up to 190,000 passengers on Lufthansa-group services qualify for cash compensation of €250–€600, depending on flight length, because the disruption is driven by the airline’s own employees rather than ‘extraordinary circumstances’. AirHelp reminds claimants that they have up to three years to file but advises doing so within weeks while boarding passes and booking references are easy to retrieve. Business-travel managers should compile manifests of affected staff to streamline bulk submissions and demonstrate duty-of-care compliance. German courts have a solid record of upholding EU 261 payouts in strike cases: in 2022 the Frankfurt Regional Court ruled in favour of 28 BASF employees delayed by an earlier VC walk-out, awarding €15,600 plus interest and legal fees. AirHelp predicts similar outcomes this year unless Lufthansa can prove ‘all reasonable measures’ to avoid cancellations—a high bar given the scale of the stoppage. Beyond cash, passengers are entitled to meals, hotel rooms, and two free phone calls or emails. Corporates booking through Lufthansa’s PartnerPlusBenefit scheme can request rerouting on Star Alliance carriers without losing reward points, provided flights are in the same cabin. AirHelp’s data show that only about 42 percent of eligible Germans actually claim, leaving millions on the table. The firm has launched a German-language chatbot that calculates potential compensation in under two minutes, aimed at raising that figure.
Source: AirHelp
