Swiss International Airlines - LX call centre agrees to booking change, only to change it back 2 days later

Not sure what the legal situation is with this:

Had booked BHX-BER and BER-BHX for July/August on two seperate LX bookings (direct LH flight - very cheap revenue fare). This was before BER airport closure was announced. LX duly onformed me that I should contact them regarding a schedule change. As TXL has no rail connection, which was the main reason for me to book BER, I asked whether a rerouting to HAJ would be possible (as I'm heading to no-man's land between BER and HAJ, HAJ provides the better rail connection in BER's absence).

I had to wait for a few minutes, but the change to bookings was agreed eventually for both bookings, now BHX-ZRH-HAJ, HAJ-ZRH-BHX.

Two days later, I had an email to contact Swiss regarding one of the two above bookings.

I replied by email that I had already changed that booking and that they should call me if anything else was needed.

Got call two days later, saying that their Revenue Department opposes the rebooking and I can either fly to TXL, or refund. Said I'll call back a few days later, as I was travelling. Back today, and can see that on BOTH bookings HAJ disappeared, and they just changed it back to BHX-TXL.

According to the call centre lady, given the ticket had not be issued yet, this is all OK. However, I clearly saw my flights via ZRH confirmed in the booking system.

Now what's the legal situation with this?

TXL not having a direct connection to the rail network is really not that big a problem.

It's a quick and easy trip to Zoologischer Garten by either bus or taxi from TXL.

TXL not having a direct connection to the rail network is really not that big a problem.

It's a quick and easy trip to Zoologischer Garten by either bus or taxi from TXL.

Thanks, but regardless of that - LX agreed to a change in routing and later withdrew that - I doubt that's within their rights.

Unfortunately, it does happen from time to time that a phone agent agrees to and initiates a booking (or in your case a re-booking) and that the booking cannot be ticketed as promised. This has happened to me several times with rather complicated award bookings where the agents did not know all the fare rules. The agents already make the reservation, which then shows up in the reservation system. Then a request for ticketing is send to a different department. If that request is rejected, the airline will contact the passenger (or even worse the reservation will just be cancelled/changed because no ticket was issued in time.)

This means that any information given by the phone agents is not “final” until it has been ticketed. The question in your case would be, if you already saw a re-issued ticket for your re-routing, or if you only saw a changed reservation. I would think that once a new ticket is issued they cannot change it back.

The second question of course is, why LX refused to ticket the re-routing and if you have to accept this decision. As BER and TXL are both serving Berlin, and because it was out of the airline’s control that BER will not open in time, I would think that your position is not very strong.

Good luck trying to convince LX of your case.


By the way, does anyone know if it is possible to directly talk to the ticketing department in cases like this?

Thanks for feedback. Odd that the call centre would agree to sth. that can later be overruled. There was nil indication that this may be the case by the service agent. I wonder how it cannot be a legally binding contractual agreement once the agent confirms the flights have been amended.