Swiss International Airlines - Bumped LX - LH, and delayed 3.5 hours

I was due to fly this morning BHX - ZRH - PEK, which arrives in Beijing at 5:00am, booked on a Z class fare. I have (had) a 9:00am meeting in Tianjin, around a 1.5 hour taxi drive from Beijing.

When I checked in at BHX this morning, they couldn't find my reservation and asked me if I'd cancelled it. Then when I opened my laptop and showed them my reservation in Outlook they told me that as the BHX - ZRH flight was delayed, I had been rebooked onto LH flights, which gets me into Beijing at 08:30, meaning I have had to cancel my meeting.

They said this was the only flight available, but my travel agent said there was availability on the Air China flight CA966 which gets to Beijing at 05:50. They refused to book me onto this as Air China are not a Lufthansa group airline.

They offered me a £10 voucher as compensation.

I do feel partly to blame however, as I normally stay overnight the day before a meeting - I was lured into an extra night at home by the early arrival time into Beijing. Lesson learned.

Try again in FRA/MUC... at outstations agents have less power to rebook flights.

Since your delay at arrival is more than 3hours your compensation should be a lot more..... But planning on arriving just 4hours before a meeting that you cannot shift to a few hours later is taking a risk. Why didn't your TA do more?

Since your delay at arrival is more than 3hours your compensation should be a lot more..... But planning on arriving just 4hours before a meeting that you cannot shift to a few hours later is taking a risk. Why didn't your TA do more?

I fully agree - normally I would have flown out the day before, but a combination of our wedding anniversary and the early arrival in Beijing tempted me to risk it. I gambled and got burnt.

My travel agent offered to book me onto the Air China flight, but Swiss told me that I would have to cancel my ticket with them, and I would only get the tax back as it was a non refundable Z fare.

I did ask when I arrived in Frankfurt if they could book me onto the Air China flight, but they said that it wasn't possible, due to me having checked baggage.

I still feel your TA should have been on the phone with LX if they had provided the ticket.... otherwise why use a TA if all they do is take your money and send you the confirmation.
I can understand LX not wanting to rebook you on another carrier when they are able to get you to your destination "only" 3,5 hours late. But they do owe you a better compensation.

I hope that meeting wasn't your only reason for flying....

I was due to fly this morning BHX - ZRH - PEK, which arrives in Beijing at 5:00am, booked on a Z class fare. I have (had) a 9:00am meeting in Tianjin, around a 1.5 hour taxi drive from Beijing.

When I checked in at BHX this morning, they couldn't find my reservation and asked me if I'd cancelled it. Then when I opened my laptop and showed them my reservation in Outlook they told me that as the BHX - ZRH flight was delayed, I had been rebooked onto LH flights, which gets me into Beijing at 08:30, meaning I have had to cancel my meeting.

They said this was the only flight available, but my travel agent said there was availability on the Air China flight CA966 which gets to Beijing at 05:50. They refused to book me onto this as Air China are not a Lufthansa group airline.

They offered me a £10 voucher as compensation.

I do feel partly to blame however, as I normally stay overnight the day before a meeting - I was lured into an extra night at home by the early arrival time into Beijing. Lesson learned.

Swiss owe you 600 euros in compensation for the delay in excess of 3 hours in arriving at your final destination (PEK) according to the Sturgeon judgement: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62007J0402:EN:HTML, unless the airline can prove that the delay was due to extraordinary circumstances.

The inbound LX flight ZRH-BHX was delayed 2 hours but other flights departing ZRH at the same time suffered few if any delays so that seems to rule out weather and suggests some form of mechanical or human failure, neither of which would normally be covered by ext circs.

You may have to wait a month or two before the ECJ confirms that the legal challenge to the Sturgeon judgement has been dismissed but that shouldn't stop you from launching a claim in the autumn.

Definitely claim compensation according to EU261/2004.

The ZRH-BHX-ZRH LX420/LX421 rotation this morning was operated by HB-JVG (Fokker 100 belonging to 2L/Helvetic).

The plane was inbound from OTP this morning as LX1883.

STA for LX1883 was 8.10am (actually arrived a few minutes early), STD for LX420 was 7.15am (left about two hours late). So as you see, the delay is either the result of a mechanical on the original plane which required to wait for the OTP inbound or of some sort of aircraft shortage which forced LX to willingly build in delay in today's HB-JVG rotation.

Weather this morning in ZRH was rainy (heavy rain during the night getting lighter in the early morning hours), but planes were leaving and arriving more or less on time.

A mechanical problem is not enough per se to deny compensation. LX will have to bring evidence for having done everything in their power to avoid the delay.

Thanks SwissexLUG and Centipede100 for the info about claiming compensation.

I still feel your TA should have been on the phone with LX if they had provided the ticket.... otherwise why use a TA if all they do is take your money and send you the confirmation.
I can understand LX not wanting to rebook you on another carrier when they are able to get you to your destination "only" 3,5 hours late. But they do owe you a better compensation.

I hope that meeting wasn't your only reason for flying....

You're probably right about the travel agent, normally the most onerous thing they have to do for me is ticket a slightly complex itinerary or change my flight date, which they manage to do quite well.

The meeting was my only reason for travelling to China, but one of several I am doing while I'm in Asia. I managed to reschedule for Friday afternoon, so everything worked out in the end.

So I spent that last few months writing annoyed emails to Swiss, basically asking for an apology and asking for miles that I felt I should be awarded under the promotion that was active at the time (there was a double miles promo on the ZHR - PEK flights with Swiss at the time - that I didn't get because I got bumped onto Lufthansa).

The only thing that they could do was send me an email saying 'we will ask Miles and More if they can make an exception in this case and give you some miles', which they wouldn't.

This annoyed me so much that I responded by saying I was going to claim 600 Euro from them under EU261. Surprisingly they replied by asking for my bank account details and said they would give me the 600 Euro.

Wouldn't it have just been easier for them to give me the miles? Or book me onto the Air China flight in the first place? I don't see the point in fighting tooth and nail to not give me something, then capitulate when I ask for something more than I originally wanted.

I guess it's like with most big companies that it's easier to follow existing procedures. Something that's clearly in place for the EU regs, not so much for non-automated extra miles promotions.

So it's not so much the amount of the compensation but how to approve it ;).

Wouldn't it have just been easier for them to give me the miles?

From my experience LX has no control over M&M whatsoever. Only LH can force M&M for such action.

However, LX can't and they prefer to give you back some cash money instead of having a conflict with M&M management.

I guess it's like with most big companies that it's easier to follow existing procedures. Something that's clearly in place for the EU regs, not so much for non-automated extra miles promotions.

So it's not so much the amount of the compensation but how to approve it ;).

From my experience LX has no control over M&M whatsoever. Only LH can force M&M for such action.

However, LX can't and they prefer to give you back some cash money instead of having a conflict with M&M management.

Seems like a strange way to run a business to me, particulary as LH owns LX. 600 Euro is worth a lot more than 7000 or so air miles (especially at the rate they are being devalued).

Welcome in the world of big (and some small) companies. But stating that all are owned by LH might be true at the very top, but they are all separately run entities, even M&M.

But it seems the OP was the winner for once :-).

So I spent that last few months writing annoyed emails to Swiss, basically asking for an apology and asking for miles that I felt I should be awarded under the promotion that was active at the time (there was a double miles promo on the ZHR - PEK flights with Swiss at the time - that I didn't get because I got bumped onto Lufthansa).

The only thing that they could do was send me an email saying 'we will ask Miles and More if they can make an exception in this case and give you some miles', which they wouldn't.

This annoyed me so much that I responded by saying I was going to claim 600 Euro from them under EU261. Surprisingly they replied by asking for my bank account details and said they would give me the 600 Euro.

Wouldn't it have just been easier for them to give me the miles? Or book me onto the Air China flight in the first place? I don't see the point in fighting tooth and nail to not give me something, then capitulate when I ask for something more than I originally wanted.

Congratulations! You certainly received a very good outcome- asking "wouldn't it have just been easier" is one of those mind boggling questions reserved for airlines, certain ministries (government divisions), and Dilbert cartoons.

I still feel your TA should have been on the phone with LX if they had provided the ticket.... otherwise why use a TA if all they do is take your money and send you the confirmation.


I forgot to add - based on you earlier comment to my original issue I ended up changing to a new TA. They have turned out to be a world of difference and I wish I'd done it years ago.

My original TA was a huge organisation, but the new one is much smaller. Maybe they care more?

Good to hear. Sometimes big is good, but for that extra attention smaller is betterva lot of the time. And a TA should have some added value, else we could just as well book ourselves...