Originally Posted by
Stranger
So only 24 hours late... not that bad. :-) But seriously, I have seen worse.
Just heard today from a colleague. His son and family (three kids and wife) were supposed to fly YYZ-YYC yesterday (maybe same flight?) but flight was cancelled. Rebooked to today. When more or less ready to board someone got sick and they rushed to emergncy. Missed the flight and likely will end up cancelling the whole trip.
Then there was our daughter in law flying from BOS to Regina last summer with two kids. Flight BOS-YYZ canelled, rebooked the next day on Delta to YVE. Ended up spending a night in Vancouver, ultimately two days late...
But coming back to your story, clearly the agent you talked to made a mistake when unchecking you. This said, you should not have called, just gone to the airport. One does not lose a seat assignment by letting checking in to when at the airport.
The seat fees, they should reimburse. But on the positive side, think of all the penalties they'll have to pay by virtue of being late. Either under the EU rules (but do these apply to Switzerland?) or the Canadian ones... :-)
It is pretty sad nowadays we passengers have to know all the fine prints and written and unwritten rules of flights and tickets to avoid our travel plan being screwed by an incompetent phone agent ... and sometimes they still manage to screw it because, of course, they work for an airline ...
I cannot believe anything phone agent (sadly, including concierges) tells me now without independent confirmation (including reading and searching posts here).