supatight80

Hi guys,

Need some assistance here as I believe SWISS is trying to scam me into paying for checked-in baggage. The details are summarized below:

- Purchased 2 tickets AMS-ZRH-PRG Economy Classic (with 1 checked in baggage each + Gold benefits) on outbound leg. And Economy Light (no baggage on return flight) through Lufthansa.com.
- Ticketed by LH but LX operated (no code share).
- Got an upgrade offer for outbound leg to business class on swiss.com
- Took that offer and paid for it.
- When I got my updated eticket. Outbound leg now shows Business Light (P) no baggage allowance.
- Called LX and got routed to India Call centre and was told that there is nothing they could do because eticket got reissued as Business Light Fare.

I don't think this is fair and even though luggage is 25 euros each, the point is my originally booked ticket on my outbound leg was economy classic (which included checked luggage).

What should I do? Everytime I call LX I get routed to India and the agents there keeps saying I'm SOL.

Any advices would greatly be appreciated!

NewbieRunner

There's no such thing as Business Light according to www.swiss.com. You should be allowed two checked bags each (+ *G allowance) up to 32 kg. Call a number in Switzerland during their office hours or just turn up at the airport in AMS with your boarding pass.

It's probably due to their IT system which is not one of the best in the world.

supatight80

I know right? that is what i said too!

I did call Swiss # during office hours exactly for the reason that I don't want to be routed to India due to IMO bad customer service experiences.

But agent said your ticket shows Economy light upgraded to biz. And I was like no, I'm looking at it right now and it is economy classic. Then she said there is no such record that it is economy classic whatsoever on their end so there's nothing she can do. But even though I purchased my ticket on LH.COM, I even have a SWISS.COM email that shows my original eticket as economy classic.

This is just giving me a bloody headache. Can i refuse to speak with an Indian Call centre agent and demand to speak with a Swiss agent when I call again?

Would twitter or Facebook help?

Kacee

Why are you even dealing with phone agents? They can't do anything with respect to checked bags but give you bad information. You don't have a problem until you get to the airport and they try to make you pay. Which should not happen. If you are in business class, you get the business class baggage allowance.

My advice is, just let this go. There's simply no point in spending two seconds worrying about it prior to the airport.

Key8

Just to be clear: When you upgrade from economy to Business on LX with LX ticket stock for purely intra-europe flights: The lugagge allowance stays as per your original ticket. That is clearly stated in the rules. So a light fare upgraded to Business remains withhout lugagge allowance (is not called light any more).

Is your new ticket an lx or a lh ticket? I always thought you could only upgrade LX tickets.

Lugagge allowances have constant issues in the LH/LX Systems.
I once added lugagge later on light fare with LX Was not possible online for some wired reason. Agent literally told me: Do ignore everything you see online - even your Boarding pass will say no lugagge. However it will work at the Airport.
So it was - lugagge allowance went crazy on my recorde (show two on the Outbound an Zero on the Inbound) Boarding pass said "no lugagge" - still they took it wouthout discussion at the Airport both ways...

My take: Go to the Airport and argue there - if they really want money. Agents ther are mor knowledgable. If they really make you pay: sort it out by writing a letter to Basel (their head office). They are usually quite fast in dealing withe these kind of issues.

Two pieces of advice with Swiss:
a) if you can try to avoid English (German and French gets you more knowledgable agents) - valid for both phone calls and written comms
b) write physical letters to Basel (no e-mail or webforms - these will primarily treated by some bots and you get the most hillarious answers - without any relevance to your case)

NewbieRunner

But the OP upgraded from Economy Classic to Business, not from Economy Light according to the first post.

Not in my experience. I have dealt with LX in English many times without any problem.

Incorrect messages about free baggage allowance on LX appear to be quite common. Check this recent thread.

supatight80

Thanks guys,

Just that had a bad experience with LOT (checked in at OS counter) last month where upon check-in, was told i get 2 free check in luggage. I thought i only get 1 free with LOT (which I was right). So told my friend to just check-in 1 of his hand carry as he had 2.

Then got paged at lounge in VIE that i have to pay for the 2nd luggage i think 85 euros total at the service desk or else i wouldnt be allowed to board. That's why i prefer to have this fixed prior to airport. Anyways this is a different story.

Anyways indeed, my original ticket (LH stock/LX operated) was economy classic for the upgraded flight (with 1 free checked baggage + the usual gold bennies as per original ticket rules). When I got the upgrade it became LX stock.

I just called LH as it was their stock originally and they told me if everything else fails, just purchase the luggage fee and do a charge back with CC.

Did send all documents to swiss as i called them again and hoping for the best.
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zrh2yvr

This is exactly incorrect. I have 2 business light bookings but both are upgrades from economy light for fixed price at booking.

If you book classic and then accept the upgrade - you should end up with business classic. . . So - I would fight it somehow but good luck.

NewbieRunner

Well, I wrote "according to www.swiss.com" and the page I linked only mentions Economy Light, Economy Classic & Flex, and Business.

htb

Sure you can, but that would be rather racist, wouldn't it?

I'm pretty sure you didn't mean it the way you wrote it.

HTB.

amanx

It isnt racist to ask for an agent in your country/the EU.

oliver2002

Since LX call centers are not located in India it would be rather pointless any way. Mindpearl who handles LX is in Fiji. Or you had the pleasure of being routed to CPT. So euther may have been of Indian origin... in any case there is no Swiss call center they can transfer you to, BSL really doesn't take such calls if you are not HON/SEN.

Air Rarotonga

LX "service centers" have the worst agents in the world... Now calls will also be transferred to the callcenters that handle LH calls (YYQ / IST / CPT). Those agents are just arrogant and mean that they've been feeded the wisdom with spoons... Recently one agent told me: "No, I don't transfer you to the supervisor, I am competent enough for your matter"... Another one: "We have no supervisor and you don't need my name " and hung up...

With this third world customer service of this wanna be "luxury airline", you can just deal to write every single complaint to customer relations onlie as an attached PDF and ask for qualifying refunds and compensation for this bad service... Usually they spend CHF 50.- or CHF 100.- per coplaint!

Sad but true story!

Air Rarotonga

The only service staff of LX that were quite 'usable' is the social media team on Twitter!

mmff

Don't they also attend to queries made by (rev) F customers?