Most Lufthansa journeys involve a change of plane in Frankfurt or Munich, and that changes how a claim is calculated. Delay is counted at the last airport on your booking, not at the hub, and the distance band is set by the whole trip.
Which Lufthansa flights are covered
Lufthansa holds an EU licence, so EU261 applies in both directions:
- every flight departing from an EU or EEA airport (Art. 3(1)(a), Regulation 261/2004);
- flights into the EU from a non-EU country, such as New York to Frankfurt, because the operating carrier is an EU airline (Art. 3(1)(b)), unless you already received compensation in that country;
- flights leaving the UK fall under UK261, paid in pounds.
A long-haul trip with a connection counts as one journey when it was booked together. See missed connection for how the Folkerts ruling (C-11/11) applies.
Tip
Check the “operated by” line. Tickets with an LH number are often flown by Lufthansa CityLine, Air Dolomiti, Eurowings, SWISS, Austrian or Brussels Airlines. The claim goes to whoever operated the flight (Art. 3(5)).
Amounts
| Journey distance | Compensation | If rerouted and you arrive within |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | €250 | 2 hours: €125 |
| 1,500–3,500 km, and flights within the EU over 1,500 km | €400 | 3 hours: €200 |
| Over 3,500 km | €600 | 4 hours: €300 |
These are the Article 7 amounts, and Lufthansa’s own passenger rights page lists the same figures. The three-hour rule for delays comes from the Court of Justice, which confirmed it in a case brought against Lufthansa (Nelson, C-581/10).
Good to know
A reform of EU261 adopted in 2026 keeps the threshold and the amounts; its new rules do not apply yet.
Lufthansa’s page lists strikes among the circumstances that release it from paying. That is not the whole picture.
The Court of Justice has held that a strike by an airline’s own staff is not automatically extraordinary (Krüsemann, C-195/17; Airhelp, C-28/20). If your flight fell during a Lufthansa pilots’ or cabin crew strike, read strikes before accepting a refusal.
Where to file
Lufthansa runs an online application for compensation and reimbursement. It starts by asking for the booking details of the affected flight, then checks the claim under Article 7.
Prepare:
- Booking code or ticket number, and the passenger names.
- The type of disruption: delay, cancellation, diversion, missed connection, denied boarding or downgrade.
- Receipts for meals, hotel and transport if Lufthansa did not provide them.
- If you are filing for someone else, their written authorisation. Lufthansa asks for it to be uploaded with the receipts and other documents.
Keep a copy of what you submit and note the date. You will need both for the next step.
If Lufthansa refuses or does not reply
Conciliation, free of charge. Lufthansa names Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr e.V., in Berlin, as the conciliation body for flight disputes. According to Lufthansa’s site you can apply when:
- the trip was private, not business;
- you have already put the claim to Lufthansa and had no reply within two months, or you disagree with the answer;
- the matter is not and has not been before a court.
The regulator. The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt is the national enforcement body for flights departing Germany. It investigates breaches and can fine the airline, but it does not order payment to individual passengers.
Watch out
Report there to put the breach on record, not to get paid.
Flights from the UK. The Civil Aviation Authority lists Lufthansa under the same German conciliation body for UK disputes.
Court. German local courts hear these claims, and the European Small Claims Procedure is available for cross-border claims up to €5,000 (Regulation (EC) No 861/2007).
Our claim letter is useful if the online application stalls, and how to claim sets out the order of steps. The rights calculator gives the amount for your route.