Q. I paid for a flight from Nuremberg to Toronto. The airline had a stop in Frankfurt. When i checked in at Nuremberg, they told me they were not flying to Frankfurt, instead they gave me a ticket on a train to Frankfurt instead (train ticket costs 2 Euros). I had to lug my luggage to the train station, do a train transfer, and took almost twice as long to get to Frankfurt than the plane would.
Am I not entitled to a refund of the portion of the ticket that they didn't provide the flight for? Is a train ticket a fair substitute?
A. Lufthansa frequently combines high speed rail service with flights, although it may not be absolutely obvious, on connections over short distances. Yes, it's a bit of a pain but in many ways the train is faster and experiences fewer delays than a short flight might, especially in bad weather. It's a good idea to ask the airline if a train connection is involved. In the U.S., Continental Airlines often adds a rail connection for short hops into Newark.