India After 2300 : Lufthansa Pilots Go On Strike

Just when I thought, everything is going on as planned and was browsing happily, one headline caught me by surprise: Germany braces for Lufthansa Strike by The New York Times. I was literally shocked to read that Pilots of Lufthansa are going on strike for four days starting from 22nd Feb to 25th Feb (4 days) and about 800 flights a day will be cancelled.

What was more shocking than the news itself,  I have received absolutely no communication from either my Travel agent or Lufthansa about this cancellation.

Here is the screenshot of that news Article that I accessed through Google News on Sunday 21st February 2010 around 8AM in the morning.

The New York Times: Germany braces for Lufthansa Strike

So, I browsed more stories on the web, went to Lufthansa website. They left a note on their website and included a list of flights they will be operating in these 4 days. I checked the listing, and my flight wasn’t included. So its now official that my flight got cancelled too. Just to make sure, I checked my bookings page on Lufthansa website and it shows confirmations for all legs except for the first leg towards Frankfurt on 25th Feb.

I immediately called up Lufthansa. After about 20 minutes wait, the Travel agent started talking like nothing has ever happened and confirming all other legs that were already confirmed and didn’t even say a word about the cancelled leg. When I asked about that, he said, he may have to rebook on a different carrier as that flight was cancelled. He tried on Etihaad but no luck. Then he confirmed on a flight next day, the 26th Feb, 2010.

In the next few minutes, I called up and rescheduled my hotel and flight bookings back home. Whew! At least, the disruption is just for a day.