Swiss International Airlines - Urgent question: involuntary downgrade compensation rules




Andre
Apr 6, 12, 7:53 am
LX left me a voice mail requesting a callback re: my reservation for GVA-ZRH-EWR flight in business (paid) tomorrow. I called them up, and the agent muttered something about a downgrade, kept me on hold for about 5 minutes, then got back on the line, said he needed to call "Basel" to make sense of the issue, and promised a callback "within an hour or 2"...

As I got a bit worried, and OLCI is open for the itinerary, I logged in, and found out what the problem is: the GVA-ZRH flight must be overbooked, and has been switched to an all-Y service... I selected a seat in row 1 -strange to see a Y boarding pass with that seat...

Question: what compensation can I expect for this - admittedly minor - downgrade? Besides not having an empty middle seat, the main disadvantage is that I won't be able to use the priority security line at GVA. I do feel entitled to something, this was purchased as an all biz itinerary.

Thanks in advance for your feedback, so I know what to reasonably request when LX finally calls back...


airoli
Apr 6, 12, 8:40 am
EU regulation 261/04 for involuntary downgrades applies in this case. See the corresponding Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004#Upgrades_and_downgrades) for details.

Andre
Apr 6, 12, 9:31 am
EU regulation 261/04 for involuntary downgrades applies in this case. See the corresponding Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004#Upgrades_and_downgrades) for details.

Thanks, LX just called back and offered me CHF 200 in cash "as a gift"... Not sure how that relates to the EU-mandated compensation of 30% of the ticket price - would I have been entitled to 30% of the total roundrip ticket price? Or of the GVA-EWR fare component?

Anyway, I politely asked if they could just help me with another booking instead (change to a more convenient routing), and they were able to do so ^

In summary, I still don't know what the monetary compensation per EU legislation should be, but LX provided me with appropriate compensation.




SEO by vBSEO ©2011, Crawlability, Inc.