Story time! Sorry to revive this older post but wanted to give you all an update and some insights if you encounter this with Swiss.
TLDR: (almost ) went to court but Swiss settled out of court in the end before the judge could follow up with directions
After repeated emails to their support request they informed me there was no cost to reimburse and considered the matter closed. From that point they refused to respond to any further emails.
Timeline then as follows:
September 2020 - Wrote final letter before action to Swiss International Airlines Ltd in Heathrow
September 2020 - Filed claim through MCOL
October 2020 - Swiss requested extension to respond to the money claim
October 2020 - Swiss requested further extension to respons to the money claim (in hindsight I should not have agreed to this as the claim would have been instantly approved for me then)
October 2020 - Swiss refuted the evidence and referred the matter to
http://smithpartnership.co.uk/ their solicitors to defend themselves
October 2020 - Swiss claimed I did not incur a waiting period because I returned on another airline which was not Swiss
November 2020 - MCOL not successful and claim was forwarded to the courts
November 2020 - Swiss changed their opinion after I submitted more evidence, suddenly I did incur a waiting time but it was not eligible because there were alternative flights back earlier than the one I flew (yet they never made these available to me for rebooking)
November 2020 -
http://smithpartnership.co.uk/ being total a-holes and requesting the court to move the case to Liverpool "because they have the best airline judges (I kid you not, this was literally in their direction notes). This would have me travel at my own initial expenses all the way to Liverpool if they gotten their way and if the case went to court
December 2020 - I submitted more evidence and also opposed to the courts to move. Courts agreed and was referred first to Holborn, then Strand, then Brentford
December 2020 - I gave Swiss even more evidence and told them if they weren't going to pay even the basic meals I would also lodge a claim for lodging which would be A LOT more than just the meals
December 2020 - Received email from
http://smithpartnership.co.uk/ that they were willing to settle for 50% of the amount
December 2020 - Agreed to the settlement
January 2021 - Reimbursement hit my bank account
This was an extremely tiring process and took quite some time, their solicitors also pulled out every trick in the book (pestering with the move to Liverpool, making up bogus claims by misinterpreting evidence, delaying responses to the last final hour etc..) but I'm happy they settled in the end.
On that note, I will never fly Swiss again though, a non FT-person would definitely not go through all the hassle to recover this and if you see what tricks they pull to even try to avoid paying out after it just means they are a horrible airline, with horrible customer service. The fact that even their solicitors settled in the end just proves it even more.
Be warned when flying Swiss and something goes wrong.
And to end...remember that paltry 20 euro compensation link they send? I just tried it and it still worked so I took that too.