Swiss International Airlines - Will we be compensated?

We have just flown ZRH to JNB in C. Not a good experience as there was an electrical problem which meant there was no AVOD and none of the seats in C would recline in any way. Crew did their best and eventually manually put each seat into flat position but this took ages delaying anyone getting to sleep. We were then woken early by the noise of the crew manually putting the seats upright for breakfast. Service was poor after take off anyway, kids meals were not served until well after adults by which time they had fallen asleep and they then had to be woken up for their seats to be manually reclined.

I don't want to moan too much as it was not the crew's fault but we have 2 young children and spent years planning this trip! Kids were bored and upset when they woke up because they could not watch a movie which is not the crew's fault but added to our stress levels as we were conscious of everyone else in the cabin trying to relax.

The crew handed out cards to everyone to fill in and the captain said he would be complaining. We were told swissair would be in contact with us.

My question is whether we are likely to be offered any compensation. We used cash and miles which will no doubt make a difference but I do feel we did not get the experience we expected and paid for. We are not miles and more members.

Can anyone tell me whether they have had a similar experience and whether they got anything from Swiss other than an apology.

thanks

There will most certainly be some sort of compensation, as this is one of the pre-defined cases of service failure that the customer relation team deals with. I don't know the details, but you should expect compensation - typically cash, voucher or miles I believe.

There will most certainly be some sort of compensation, as this is one of the pre-defined cases of service failure that the customer relation team deals with. I don't know the details, but you should expect compensation - typically cash, voucher or miles I believe.

Thanks - does anyone know what the best option tends to be? Do they offer more for vouchers than cash and are they generous with miles as opposed to vouchers/cash? What sort of amount should we be looking for as a family of four?

I had a similar experience out of MIA last month. There was no active offer of compensation. I wrote to LX and a week later received a discount coupon.

Of greater concern was the failure to do a preflight security briefing. The crew knew that the AVOD was not working, I watched a flight attendant call but there was no old fashioned safety demo.

I wrote about that the LX and they did not even acknowledge the issue.

I'm sure there will be compensation, but it may take a while to process.

In November 2010 I was returning from a Mileage run (BSL-ZRH-LHR-MAD [last one was with BA]) MAD-ZRH-BSL, and due to the Aircraft going tech and suffering a 90 minute delay on the outbound from ZRH, I missed my late Night connection back to BSL from ZRH. I was met by an agent at the Gate who told me to proceed to the Transfer Desk, where I was given a Train Ticket to anywhere in Switzerland. Having got back to Basel Train Station at 1:30am, I had to get a Taxi out to the Airport to collect my Car, and having written to LX with the Taxi Receipt almost straight away, I received a pre-loaded Credit Card that I could use for a Cash withdrawal in April 2011 (5 Months later).

Don't count on getting much of anything.

I recently flew from TLV to ZRH to SFO - all flights were supposed to be in business class on a340's with flat beds. Well, they sent an a321 for the TLV-ZRH flight - European business class seating (i.e. coach seat), no AVOD, nothing special.

I wrote to Swiss, letting them know that we chode their flights based on the guarantee of flat beds in all of their literature on these routes. There were 6 of us, including four children.

Swiss came back and claimed they had no obligation to provide any compensation since we still flew in "business class" on the flight - in addition, they claim they do no guarantee flat beds even though every advertisement, and their own website shows "flatbeds on all flights to and from Israel".

Eventually, we each got 2500 miles for our troubles which was quite a slap in the face considering the fare difference between business and econ class on our flight.

I was not pleased at all with Swiss customer service.

Eventually, we each got 2500 miles for our troubles which was quite a slap in the face considering the fare difference between business and econ class on our flight.

Why, did you seat behind the class dividing curtain in the aircraft?

You flew business-class with all it's benefits (Lounge, Meal, blocked Middleseat, etc.). Why are you claiming a refund of fare difference C/Y-cl? You would'nt got a long sleep on this short flight under 4 hours...

You have got to be kidding... do you have any idea what the difference is in C seats that should have been available and what the OP finally got?

A very big difference!

Why, did you seat behind the class dividing curtain in the aircraft?

You flew business-class with all it's benefits (Lounge, Meal, blocked Middleseat, etc.). Why are you claiming a refund of fare difference C/Y-cl? You would'nt got a long sleep on this short flight under 4 hours...

I´d have to strongly disagree with you.

What the OP booked is: longhaul C product (same product on all widebody aircrafts) with flat beds, entertainment system etc. This product is advertised in all publications / on the LX website etc.

What the OP received is: basically a Y seat in a row with three Y seats with the middle seat blocked, very limited comfort, no AVOD, no power outlets etc.

Of course there´s some value in better drinks and food and better service, but one major reason for buying C tickets is the hard product.

IMO a refund of 60% of the fare difference between C and Y (using fare classes with similar booking restrictions) would be reasonable.
Or if you want to make it less complicated: 200-300€ would seem reasonable to me. (as non-functioning AVOD in C would usually get you 100€+ compensation alone.)

I'll try to clarify my thoughts a bit - our primary concern was going from a flat bed to a European business class seat (as many noted here, essentially, an econ class seat with econ class legroom).

For a daylight flight, I would not have been too concerned. But this was a very early morning departure, and the start to a long 20 hour travel day with four children. Our flight departed TLV at 5am, which meant a 1am wakeup and departure from our hotel in Jerusalem. We knew security at TLV would be lengthy, and we were right - it took us nearly two hours to get thru all the security, check-in, immigration. To be honest, we were already tired by the time we got to the plane. Lounge access, better food, service etc were never considered by us as a perk for this flight - we just wanted to get on board and sleep and that was not possible in the seats Swiss provided.

When I brought up this issue with Swiss, they took a very clinical and non customer friendly attitude about this by simply saying THAT we paid for business class and that's what we got.

When I pointed out that the type of seating was not what was advertised or what we had paid for, they very calmly told us that they do not guarantee specific types of seats on any flight. This is what I found most upsetting - according to Swiss, they could substitute any kind of aircraft with inferior seating, and claim that it was still business class when their website, advertisements, and even the GDS (amadeus shows FULLY FLAT BED IN BUSINESS CLASS on all flights that offer it) promote their flat beds.

In the end, our opinion of Swiss, even after taking so many great flights with them, has been greatly lowered, and we hesitate to utilize their flights if we have other options available.

Equipment changes on this route are a regular occurence.... And although they might legally be right that they do not have to guarantee longhaul business seats, they really aren't earning friends with this behaviour.

If you search this forum you will find a few other complaints about this route.

I would never fly LX to TLV if I was paying for business.

Does LX have some sort of fine print on their ads stating that they may not be able to guarantee long haul J on certain occasions due to aircraft changes?

I think they don't need to do this since they never seem to confirm the aircraft type on their tickets.

I think they don't need to do this since they never seem to confirm the aircraft type on their tickets.

I think the question here is not about breach of contract (I'm pretty sure nothing is guaranteed in tickets) but about false advertising

As an update on my original post we have been given a £250.00 voucher each. Valid for 12months only. I have emailed swissair 6 times asking them to review their offer because we do not have any more holiday entitlement. 12months is not long to use this voucher and to be quite honest would not really be of use anyway because it would only get us somewhere in Europe and by the time we have changed inZurich or Geneva it is a long journey which we could have done direct with another carrier. Swiss refuse to change the voucher and say they will no longer reply to my emails as they say the matter is closed. I should also say I do not think 250.00GBP is adequate but reading these posts perhaps it is a reasonable offer. I would be grateful for any suggestions for how I can get Swiss to reconsider.

I'll try to clarify my thoughts a bit - our primary concern was going from a flat bed to a European business class seat (as many noted here, essentially, an econ class seat with econ class legroom).

For a daylight flight, I would not have been too concerned. But this was a very early morning departure, and the start to a long 20 hour travel day with four children. Our flight departed TLV at 5am, which meant a 1am wakeup and departure from our hotel in Jerusalem. We knew security at TLV would be lengthy, and we were right - it took us nearly two hours to get thru all the security, check-in, immigration. To be honest, we were already tired by the time we got to the plane. Lounge access, better food, service etc were never considered by us as a perk for this flight - we just wanted to get on board and sleep and that was not possible in the seats Swiss provided.

When I brought up this issue with Swiss, they took a very clinical and non customer friendly attitude about this by simply saying THAT we paid for business class and that's what we got.

When I pointed out that the type of seating was not what was advertised or what we had paid for, they very calmly told us that they do not guarantee specific types of seats on any flight. This is what I found most upsetting - according to Swiss, they could substitute any kind of aircraft with inferior seating, and claim that it was still business class when their website, advertisements, and even the GDS (amadeus shows FULLY FLAT BED IN BUSINESS CLASS on all flights that offer it) promote their flat beds.

In the end, our opinion of Swiss, even after taking so many great flights with them, has been greatly lowered, and we hesitate to utilize their flights if we have other options available.



Swiss advertises a340 or a330 , but they do have a right to change the aircraft. For example they use a340 to hkg, bkk, nrt, jcb these are much longer routes . If for some reason one of the aircrafts has a problem they have the right to use the a340 (to tlv) & use a321 tlv.
I guess in your case it was just bad luck that they had to switch planes.

As an update on my original post we have been given a £250.00 voucher each. Valid for 12months only. I have emailed swissair 6 times asking them to review their offer because we do not have any more holiday entitlement. 12months is not long to use this voucher and to be quite honest would not really be of use anyway because it would only get us somewhere in Europe and by the time we have changed inZurich or Geneva it is a long journey which we could have done direct with another carrier. Swiss refuse to change the voucher and say they will no longer reply to my emails as they say the matter is closed. I should also say I do not think 250.00GBP is adequate but reading these posts perhaps it is a reasonable offer. I would be grateful for any suggestions for how I can get Swiss to reconsider.

You got 250£ each - I would call that a rather fair compensation. Sure, having no AVOD isn't nice, and maybe you also got disturbed a bit by the "manual" seat adjustments, but it was not like having no AVOD on a night flight is THAT bad. Compensation seems "ok" - certainly not very great, but nothing too little either. Usually when compensated with miles, a broken AVOD gives about 10k in C. Broken seat might be more, but your seats were, after manual correction, still usable. Say, 20k Miles for both together. If I buy miles with the "Coop" Märkli, which is the cheapest way to buy "guaranteed amounts", then you pay about 12£ for 1000 Miles - so your 250£ would come to be worth.. tada.. exactly 20000 Miles.

So, hopefully you understand that LX indeed did offer you fair compensation, about as much as (in my own experience) the elite members from M&M are getting.

I assume you're living in Britain (as you got the voucher in £).

I don't know whats the regular holiday amount you get there, but certainly you do get some holidays on a yearly base like 4 weeks or something like that. The voucher is valid 12 months, which means you only have to book, not to fly with it, in the next 12 months. Booking ahead is possible for a long period, during which you certainly will have some holidays. Or you could also just do a city trip over the weekend with it. There is really plenty of things you can do with such a voucher.

If you're a less frequent flyer, you could even give the vouchers as a present to another friend in GB - would for sure be a very welcome gift.

I really can't see that you would get anything more from Swiss. Their compensation is fair and while not overly generous, not too little either.

As an update on my original post we have been given a £250.00 voucher each. Valid for 12months only. I have emailed swissair 6 times asking them to review their offer because we do not have any more holiday entitlement. 12months is not long to use this voucher and to be quite honest would not really be of use anyway because it would only get us somewhere in Europe and by the time we have changed inZurich or Geneva it is a long journey which we could have done direct with another carrier. Swiss refuse to change the voucher and say they will no longer reply to my emails as they say the matter is closed. I should also say I do not think 250.00GBP is adequate but reading these posts perhaps it is a reasonable offer. I would be grateful for any suggestions for how I can get Swiss to reconsider.

I think 250GBP per person is very reasonable. I´d take it or gift it to a friend if you really can´t use the voucher. I doubt you´ll achieve anything by further complaining.

I think 250GBP per person is very reasonable. I´d take it or gift it to a friend if you really can´t use the voucher. I doubt you´ll achieve anything by further complaining.

Thanks for your advice. I really was not sure what was reasonable and what was not. The real gripe was validity but will check whether this is use in 12 months or ticket in 12 months. Hopefully the latter.

Thanks to everyone who has posted.

SFO



are you Israeli?

if yes...i would contact them (Israel consumer council) and write a complaint

http://www.consumers.org.il/

Could someone tell me how long it generally takes for LX to reply to a comment made by email?

Could someone tell me how long it generally takes for LX to reply to a comment made by email?

Unless you have status, it could be weeks or months

Unless you have status, it could be weeks or months

Even with status (SEN) - my last contact to LX by them by their web form hasn't been answered yet. Was much better till this spring, always got answers within 2 weeks by phone. Now, waiting already for about 6 weeks - nothing. Plus, a "on board feedback form" was apparently never answered as well - 8 weeks and counting.. I don't know what happened to them, but they seem to have lost it totally in the last few months..

Thanks GK1998 and YuropFlyer.

I'll give them 6 weeks and give them a nudge if I don't hear from them then.

Had a fairly major issue with them, have status but I'm used to waiting (still waiting after 2 years for an agreed refund from QF! :eek: ).