Lufthansa offers compensation if rain spoils holidays

Here is good news that cheers holidaymakers from Germany whose trips the rain may spoil.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the flag-carrier airline of Germany, has launched what it calls ‘Sunshine Insurance’ that offers passengers their money back if it rains on their holiday.

(Airlines define a ‘rainy day’ as a day with a rainfall of at least 5 millimetres of rain per square metre).

Lufthansa’s announcement of the so-called rain compensation, obviously intended to give a fillip to sales, follows similar announcements by France-based holiday groups Pierre et Vacances and FranceLoc in July 2009 to reimburse money to holidaymakers if rain spoils their tours.

For an extra fee – about 20 euros for a flight within Europe – customers of Lufthansa in Germany will be able book flights with the added insurance to the carrier’s 36 destinations globally for travel between September 1, 2009, and October 31, 2009.

The 36 European destinations that Lufthansa covers include Barcelona and Madrid (Spain), Rome (Italy), and Tel Aviv (Israel).

However, the ‘Sunshine Insurance’ is now only available on flights from Germany, and destinations in the United Kingdom have not been included.

The offer is valid till August 18, 2009, Lufthansa said in a statement.

Holidaymakers who buy the insurance will receive a rebate to the tune of 20 euros ($28.76) for each day when over 5 millimetres of rain is recorded on the website wetteronline.de and the maximum compensation for a passenger will be 200 euros.

Lufthansa, one of the biggest carriers based in Europe in terms of overall passengers flown, said that there is excellent response from customers to the offer of insurance for rainy days.

The announcement of the ‘rainy day cover’ by Lufthansa comes just about a week after the airline received what it described as “positive signals” from the authorities about going ahead with its move for merger with Austrian Airlines.

The Competition Commission of the European Union (EU) has extended the deadline to complete the proposed merger deal between Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines. Earlier, the Competition Commission had maintained that the takeover would be injurious to competition.