US Airways Dividend Miles - Award ticket misconnect - who is responsible for what in sorting it out?

We waved goodbye to our elderly Australian relatives on their first overseas trip for 15 years at Heathrow yesterday, pleased that there were going first class back home. Little did we know that it was all about to go pear shaped.....

Ticket was LHR (Swiss/business) ZRH then ZRH (Swiss/first) to BKK then BKK (Thai/first) SYD booked using US DM then a (Qantas) cash ticket booked separately SYD - ADL.

When we got home I checked the arrival and departure times only to find out that the LHR-ZRH flight was late and the ZRH-BKK flight left before they arrived.

The next ZRH-BKK flight is not until lunchtime today so hopefully they were put up in a hotel last night. They will not make their original BKK-SYD flight nor the SYD-ADL one. In fact, even if they get the next Thai BKK-SYD flight, it will not get into SYD until after the last flight of the day to ADL so it means another night in a hotel.

I've no experience of this. Who is responsible for doing what and to what are they entitled? I presume Swiss have to put them on the next flight to BKK whether or not award seats are available - is that right? What if there is no first class available? What about the BKK-SYD flight? Should Swiss arrange for them to be rebooked? If not, what should happen? Again what if there are no first class seats available? Presumably the Qantas flight and hotel cost will just have to be claimed back from their travel insurance?

I've not actually got any means of contacting them but if they call, I'd like to know what to say. This is a nightmare for them, they are not experienced travellers and I suspect that unless this is handled in an exemplary fashion by the airlines, this will be their last trip "home", which in turn probably means the last time they'll see my in-laws :(

Any help/advice gratefully received......

I am not familiar with the irrops procedures for all these airlines, but generally this is how it's handled.

Swiss should rebook them on the next available flight. If first class isn't available, your relatives may be given the option to take the next flight in a lower class or wait for the next flight that does have first class.

Since the Swiss and Thai flights were on the same ticket, Thai should be aware of the misconnect. They may have already rebooked them on a later flight.

As for Qantas, your relatives should contact them to see what the options are- they may still be able to rebook on a later flight.

If you have your relatives' PNR or ticket numbers, you can try checking online or calling to see what's happening with their flights.

If you can get in touch with them, tell them to go to the Swiss F lounge or the transfer desk, the ladies there are usually very helpful and will rebook them on the next flight. I just checked availability, both the LX and TG flights to BKK have availability in F tomorrow Friday. Alternatively they could route them through FRA or MUC for the later BKK flights today.



good luck

Good luck with the Qantas ticket. Qantas is under no obligation to do anything since the tickets on them were not a part of the other ticket. Most likely fees/additional fares would have to be paid to have the ticket changed to later flights.

What if there is no first class available? What about the BKK-SYD flight? Should Swiss arrange for them to be rebooked? If not, what should happen? Again what if there are no first class seats available?
If your relatives don't survive any lower class thean First, Swiss will certainly not force them to fly Business Class, if no First available... But most probably they have to pay for the accomodation as transportation in a lower class was denied... Horrible, if your relatives could not fly First, hope they will survie, my compassion!

Regarding the QF ticket... Hope they also survive the fact that any rebooking of their ticket depends on the rules of the fare bought. The miscx on LX does not affect the QF ticket at all, as both journeys were not issued on the same ticket!

So louie presumably you know what happened by now...any update?

Well they left an answerphone message yesterday (unfortunately I had a hospital appointment and it obviously didn't occur to them to ring my or hubby's mobiles!) to say they were in the lounge, flying to Hong Kong then Qantas back to Sydney.

They left a number to ring (in the lounge) which initially went to voicemail when we rang it. Then the call was returned - by someone saying she was ringing from Vienna, not Zurich! Hubby later checked the number we had been given and the country code was for Switzerland, so that's another mystery. Either way, we weren't able to contact them and we've not heard any more yet, so still none the wiser.....

Well they finally made it, 24 hours late.

Only spoken briefly to them (not surprisingly they are very tired) but it seems the thunderstorms put paid to leaving Heathrow on time so they didn't get to Zurich until midnight. They were put up in the Radisson, then spent most of the next day at the airport, then first class on Swiss to Hong Kong and first class on Qantas (A380) to Sydney. Weren't greatly impressed with the A380, too.... I think impersonal was the word used (must say, as I only travel long haul with hubby, I'm not keen on the layouts that emphasise privacy either). No idea why they didn't just move the original flights via BKK back 24 hours, unless they were full of course.

Bit of a result with the Qantas SYD - ADL flight. They made sure they had their first class HKG - SYD boarding passes in their hands and the domestic flights were rebooked free of charge - and they got into the Qantas domestic lounge for breakfast which of course they weren't expecting to given they should have arrived on Thai!

So all in all, it sounds as though they were treated very well. Thumbs up to Swiss and Qantas.

Well they finally made it, 24 hours late.

Only spoken briefly to them (not surprisingly they are very tired) but it seems the thunderstorms put paid to leaving Heathrow on time so they didn't get to Zurich until midnight. They were put up in the Radisson, then spent most of the next day at the airport, then first class on Swiss to Hong Kong and first class on Qantas (A380) to Sydney. Weren't greatly impressed with the A380, too.... I think impersonal was the word used (must say, as I only travel long haul with hubby, I'm not keen on the layouts that emphasise privacy either). No idea why they didn't just move the original flights via BKK back 24 hours, unless they were full of course.

Bit of a result with the Qantas SYD - ADL flight. They made sure they had their first class HKG - SYD boarding passes in their hands and the domestic flights were rebooked free of charge - and they got into the Qantas domestic lounge for breakfast which of course they weren't expecting to given they should have arrived on Thai!

So all in all, it sounds as though they were treated very well. Thumbs up to Swiss and Qantas.

LX F...QF A380 F...I would've been quite happy with that adventure!! :D

Good luck with the Qantas ticket. Qantas is under no obligation to do anything since the tickets on them were not a part of the other ticket. Most likely fees/additional fares would have to be paid to have the ticket changed to later flights.


"Most likely?" Is that you're real-life experience?

In my experience, this is highly unlikely to occur.

Yes, Qantas can stick it to them with fees, but in all my years of travel when a mis-connect is the result of irregular ops, even on separate tickets, airlines don't do it once you explain and provide evidence of an inbound ticket to substantiate the situation.

In more mis-connects than I care to count, it's never happened to me.

And a little post script to this story.... just checked their DM accounts to see 11,576 miles in uncle's account re ZRH - HKG. Result :)

And a little post script to this story.... just checked their DM accounts to see 11,576 miles in uncle's account re ZRH - HKG. Result :)

That's nice ;)

I agree with AZ Travels the World, base on my experience most airlines would cheat you nicely when this kind of miss connection happens.