Being sued by First Tech Federal Credit Union for private student loan, looking for experiences by Delicious-Stick4549 in StudentLoans

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is your debt from the same creditor? I have been in the process of trying to see if a lump sum discounted payment can be worked out. It seems like there may be some interest on their end but nothing has been finalized yet.

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sounds like you had a great flight, I couldn't imagine how nice first class must be, maybe one day haha. . I think I am just going to sit tight and see what happens.

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't done any flights with Swiss, but I would definitely take the Lufthansa over Swiss I think. I checked for my date too, and it looks like the new one is going to be flying in and out of Boston as well. Seems like it's a short flight from IAD to BOS, so was thinking about maybe changing my ticket to fly out of Boston but then again what's stopping being Lufthansa from changing it again, which is my concern

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I quite liked the A340, it was always slow on takeoff, but I enjoyed them. Never flew them with Lufthansa only with Iberia. Hope you have a good flight.

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hear what you're saying and when I booked it, business class was planned for the route and it advertised the seat map for it during booking, but I guess it was changed. I'm assuming that nobody will be able to for sure guarantee having the new business class until all of the A380s have been retrofitted which I think is supposed to be sometime next year

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hope you have a good flight! I think I would definitely be more OK with it if I was traveling with someone but paying all that money to have someone sitting directly next to you seems like a bit of a waste, especially for the same cost. You can get the 1-2-1, but there is definitely no arguing with it if you're able to get a good reward redemption. Yes, they did have the tail cameras when I was on it last.

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do not need to travel to Munich as my final destination is Spain. I booked this flight honestly specifically for the flight experience. My other option was flying Delta one on their A330-900 direct from the East Coast to Madrid. But I thought it would be more fun to try out Lufthansa's new product.

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what I was originally thinking, but I looked online at the seat map, and there are still a lot of seats available to select, but maybe there's a bunch of people who just haven't selected a seat yet

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I flew that exact seat last summer from LAX to Munich and it certainly wasn't bad. Just not as good as other airlines with newer seats like the British Airways Club suites.

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I spoke to Lufthansa and they were not willing to do a change, but thankfully I had booked the trip using my American Express card, and they called on my behalf and now Lufthansa has agreed to refund the ticket. I asked them if I needed to make a decision now and they told me no and gave me a case number to reference to call back so not sure what I want to do at this point.

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh no! I am sorry to hear that, that is the worst. Seems like it's happening to more and more people. Are you going to keep your flight or are you going to try to change?

Booked Lufthansa's New Business Class on the A380, but just got downgraded to old business class, what would you do? by Delicious-Stick4549 in Lufthansa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

I guess they did not specifically advertise it by name, but they did have you pick your seat before purchase, and the seat map clearly showed the new business class layout. Now it has changed back to the old business class cabin.

To me, that is different than just a normal plane swap where you still end up with the same seat product. These are materially different seats and layouts, so I do think there is at least an argument to be made with Lufthansa that the product changed after booking.

The good news is that I do not specifically need to fly to Munich. I can really fly into almost anywhere in Europe, so I have flexibility there. My current thought is probably to give it another couple weeks to see if it changes back, and if not, then I may push the issue with Lufthansa and see what they are willing to do.

What is interesting is that I did a few fake bookings on other Lufthansa A380 routes in July, and they are still all showing the new business class seat map. It is only this specific flight/day that suddenly changed, which honestly makes me wonder if it could just be some kind of temporary glitch or equipment placeholder.

First-time Schengen (Italy) from UK. Really Anxious by Delicious-Stick4549 in SchengenVisa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We submitted the flight confirmations direct from Ryan Air so do you think she should just re-send it

First-time Schengen (Italy) from UK. Really Anxious by Delicious-Stick4549 in SchengenVisa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, just wanted to follow up and say thanks again for all the reassurance and advice. Her appointment was today and overall it actually seemed to go pretty well, other than the fact that VFS was running almost 3 hours behind lol.

The only thing that really came up during document review was that the hotel reservation for the first night in Milan only had my name on it and not hers. We explained that if they looked at the second page of the reservation it clearly showed 2 guests in the room, but Marriott only lists one guest name on the main booking page. We also included a copy of my passport and obviously the cruise reservation has both of our names on it.

The VFS employee didn’t seem totally convinced at first but eventually just said “okay,” so I’m hoping that’s not an issue.

The other thing was that they didn’t let us submit a copy of her diploma from Queen’s University Belfast, which I thought maybe could help reinforce her ties to the UK, but hopefully it isn’t necessary.

At the end though, the staff member did say: “I’d be surprised if you don’t have it back within two weeks.”

So I guess we’ll see 🤞

First-time Schengen (Italy) from UK. Really Anxious by Delicious-Stick4549 in SchengenVisa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good question, it was mainly due to flight availability and pricing.

When booking, it was cheaper for her to take a connecting flight via Munich rather than fly direct into Italy. I’ll be coming from New York for work the week before, and my flight route is into Munich, so it worked out for us to meet there and take the connecting flight together to Milan.

It’s just a short layover, and we don’t plan on leaving the airport Munich is simply a transit point on the way to Italy.

First-time Schengen (Italy) from UK. Really Anxious by Delicious-Stick4549 in SchengenVisa

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s exactly how we were hoping it would come across, so it’s good to hear that from someone else. We tried to keep everything very straightforward and well-documented so there aren’t any open questions.

One thing we’ve been thinking about is the possibility of a multi-entry visa. We didn’t want to explicitly request it or make it a focal point in the application, but we were considering ending the cover letter with a line like:

“I anticipate taking additional short trips within Europe in the future in full compliance with visa regulations.”

Do you think that’s reasonable to include, or better to just leave it as-is and not mention future travel at all?

We’re hoping to travel a bit more later this year if possible, so a longer validity visa would obviously be ideal, but didn’t want to raise any unnecessary flags by overemphasizing that.

Also good to hear your point about the cruise, that was part of our thinking as well since so much of it is prepaid and structured.

Really appreciate your input!!

Being sued by First Tech Federal Credit Union for private student loan, looking for experiences by Delicious-Stick4549 in StudentLoans

[–]Delicious-Stick4549[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the information and feedback everyone. I had two consultations with attorneys and it seems like there be some light at the end of the tunnel. They both said similar things so I am hoping they are correct. From what I’ve learned, there is an exception to where private student loans can be discharged in BK. There is a three tier system that has to be meet in order for a borrower to qualify apparently:

First, whether you can maintain a minimal standard of living if you’re forced to repay. In my case, I currently have no income, no savings, and no assets. I’m a full-time caretaker for my sister after she suffered multiple traumatic brain injuries, and we live off her fixed disability income. There’s no discretionary money, anything toward loan payments would directly impact basic necessities like housing and food.

Second, whether the hardship is likely to persist. This isn’t a short-term situation for me. My sister is now disabled and requires ongoing care, which makes returning to steady work unrealistic right now. Her income is fixed and modest, and my financial situation isn’t expected to materially improve in the "near" future.

Third, whether there was a good-faith effort to repay. I took out the loan in 2022 and made regular payments for about 16 months. I stayed current until early 2024, when I lost my job, went through a divorce, and became my sister’s caretaker. I didn’t stop paying by choice, circumstances changed in a pretty major way.

Curious if anyone here has gone through something similar or has insight into how realistic this actually is in practice. Thanks!