I would like to copy my thread in here. I really hope Swiss Lurker is still around and would be able to assist.
My friends who do not speak English were flying today LHR-ZHR-DME on Swiss, but their journey started in LAX the day before on United.
The first flight in Europe from LHR was delayed which caused missing connection. Flight LX325 arrived around 9.30 pm to Zurich. Noone assisted them and customs left and now they are literally locked in the transit zone. There was one rep from the hotel that I spoke with, he tried calling Swiss in the aiport but they could care less and did not pick up the phone.
I started calling US number - and after awhile was able to rebook them. But they are spending 15 hrs at the airport. They were given a number in Switzerland which led to the same customer service but in different country - South Africa. Swiss rep was arrogant and stated that it is passengers fault?! for missing connection and not being able to go thru customs and hung up!!!!
reps that were trying to assist were in Fiji. Gave me number to ZHR, called it but security stated they are indeed closed!
That is despicable - to hold 3 people hostage in transit zone without even acknowleding their existence, w/o food and water and w/o accomodation (they could not go to the hotel in transit zone as it was "sold out" - probably other passengers were accomodated there).
How will Swiss Airlines compensate for putting the passengers thru this?
Thank You