Lufthansa booking check, check-in and German transit for Indian travellers

How to look up a booking on Lufthansa

1. 1Go to lufthansa.com, pick the India site and open Manage your bookings.
2. 2Type the surname exactly as it is spelt on the booking and in your passport, without Mr, Mrs or other titles.
3. 3Enter the 6-digit booking reference from the confirmation. The ticket number works only once a booking has been paid.
4. 4Compare each passenger name, both flight dates and the Frankfurt or Munich connection with your visa form and cover letter.
5. 5Note any leg that Lufthansa sells but a partner such as Air India operates. Lufthansa cannot check those in online.
6. 6A booking that shows no ticket number has not been paid, so Lufthansa will not check it in.

Lufthansa’s 48-hour price guarantee or a flight reservation

Lufthansa sells a “Reservation with price guarantee” that holds a fare for 48 hours and sends a reminder email 12 hours before the hold runs out. Its own page puts the surcharge at “starting at 7 EUR per person”, varying with availability, destination and how close departure is. Other Lufthansa pages quote different amounts, so read the figure at checkout. The fee is charged separately, is not credited to the fare and is not refunded.

The conditions are tight. The hold cannot be changed or extended, cannot be combined with miles or promo codes, and covers one journey per transaction on Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian or Brussels Airlines flights only. Seats, bags and insurance have to wait until you pay. Whether it appears when you book from India was not confirmed.

A flight reservation from the desk answers a different need. It is held in your name without payment, meant for the visa file rather than for travel, and it can sit on whichever airline and route your plan uses. You cannot fly on it. The airline, not the desk, decides how long an unpaid hold survives, and the answer differs from airline to airline, so ask for it on the day you submit.

Online check-in from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad

Lufthansa’s India-site check-in page says online check-in opens 30 hours before departure on the website or the app, while the Manage page and the Flights to India page still give 23 hours. Automatic check-in, where it is offered, sends the boarding pass 23 hours before the flight. When the pages disagree, go by what Manage your bookings offers for your own flight.

Two limits matter at Indian airports. A flight that carries a Lufthansa number but is operated by another airline cannot be checked in online with Lufthansa, so use the operating airline’s check-in for that leg. And Lufthansa may not issue a mobile boarding pass “where official regulations prevent it”; you then receive a check-in confirmation and collect the printed pass at the counter.

We found no India-specific check-in rule on Lufthansa’s pages, and the counter closing time was not stated. Keep the visa in your passport for the airport. A flight reservation for the visa never reaches this stage, because only a paid ticket can be checked in.

Changing planes in Frankfurt or Munich on an Indian passport

Germany dropped the airport transit visa requirement for Indian nationals on 3 June 2026. The Federal Foreign Office says Indians no longer need one to enter the transit area of a German airport, provided they stay in the international area and their destination is outside the Schengen area. A Delhi–Frankfurt–Toronto trip now works airside, though you still need the Canadian visa for the last leg.

If your final stop is inside Schengen, such as Frankfurt to Lisbon or Munich to Barcelona, you clear Schengen immigration in Germany on the Schengen visa you are applying for anyway. The Foreign Office also names changing terminals as a reason you may have to enter Schengen, and whether a Frankfurt Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 transfer stays airside could not be confirmed. Keep both flights on one booking with bags checked through.

Only five German airports have an international transit area: Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Berlin-Brandenburg. Düsseldorf’s runs from 6:00 to 21:00 and Hamburg’s from 4:30 to 23:30, so an overnight connection at either needs a Schengen visa. Older blogs and a 2024 German checklist still say Indians need one; they are out of date. Czechia and Romania are now the Schengen exceptions.

Lufthansa’s India routes and the Air India partnership

According to the Lufthansa Group’s February 2026 release, Frankfurt connects to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and Munich to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. A June 2026 release mentions Allegris Boeing 787-9 aircraft from Delhi and Hyderabad and an upgraded A380 between Mumbai and Munich. For summer 2026 Lufthansa added weekly flights from Frankfurt and Munich to Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, using capacity shifted from the Middle East.

On 17 February 2026 Lufthansa signed a memorandum with Air India and Air India Express towards a future joint business agreement. It is not a joint venture yet and still needs regulatory approval, but the codeshare already covers 146 routes to 22 countries after a February 2025 expansion of about 60 routes across 12 Indian and 26 European cities. If you start in a city Lufthansa does not serve, such as Amritsar or Kochi, ask for the domestic leg and the long-haul flight on one booking.

Lufthansa’s Indian gateways by hub

Lufthansa questions, answered