nexes

I've tried everything that I can think of to make this work... but, nothing seems to work!

Summary: My wife and I have 2 business tickets on SwissAir that we purchased via Priceline, for a flight to Johannesburg. It's for a wedding.

Recently, my wife learned that her father has a terminal illness, and won't be able to go for the wedding. She will be in Malaysia.

We have a baby that I am still going to take with me (I'm performing the wedding ceremony for our friends; and no, I'm not a priest . And, I wanted to use the empty seat, that my wife won't be sitting in, for our baby. Our baby is big enough and heavy enough to sit alone in a seat. When I called Swiss to inform them of what was going on, they said they wouldn't do anything and to call Priceline. Priceline unfortunately couldn't do anything except refund our tickets- which is amazing they are willing to refund the tickets! (thank you Priceline!).

The problem is, I am happy keeping the tickets- they're a great price for business class. The only thing I want to do is ensure that SwissAir does not give someone else the seat that I have already paid for. And, instead of my wife using it, allow our baby to use the seat (the baby is booked in as a lap child at the moment).

After speaking with Priceline, I called SwissAir again, but this time I called the main number in Zurich and spoke with a supervisor. I explained the whole situation. But, she basically just said we are out of luck, and they will not guarantee that they will keep the seat vacant or switch the ticket to our baby -also at no point did she even say she was sorry for my wife, even when I commented to her that she didn't seem to care at all about what was going on... but, that's just a complaint of mine...

I understand that airlines are completely strict about name changes on tickets.... but, anyone have a suggestion on how I can just keep the additional seat so I can at least use it occasionally to put our baby in. It's a long flight!


Thanks in advance!

AAMillionaire

I have no idea if this will work, but.....Is your baby a girl or can pass as a girl? Maybe you can use your wife's boarding pass at the gate and say it's for your daughter (or not say anything at all and just hand them your two boarding passes.)

Or, does Swiss offer an infant fare? If so and it's reasonably priced, cancel your wife's ticket and buy a new one for your child.

Good luck!

UpgradeMe

Is there some reason you can't BUY an additional seat using the proceeds from your wife's refund?

Airlines have this annoying habit of wanting to see a passport that matches the name on the boarding pass.

Often1

Not to mention that when this involves an infant, this sort of fraud has the annoying habit of involving the police who are quite keen on human trafficking issues, as are SA authorities as well.

What OP seeks to do, simply will not work because one cannot substitute one passenger for another. It has nothing to do with his wife's unfortunate situation. As others note, OP needs to price out the options here and those run from checking on the price of a new ticket on PL to an infant ticket. With the refund in hand, he has many options and perhaps ought to do the research on what the costs will be before looking to falsify international travel documents.

erik123

Better check if priceline will really give you a refund. Their front line staff tend to be clueless and discounted business tickets usually are non-refundable or carry a heavy penality. Re: using the seat - that would likely be possible on the first leg of the outbound only if the flight is not oversold in economy - if your wife no-shows or the seat next to you will remain empty. The ticket will be voided though so the rest of the tickets will be lost. Though quite likely in that scenario that the second leg )assuming you are connecitng in ZRH will also have the empty seat.

nexes

Thanks all for the suggestions.

AAMillionaire: She's about to turn two, so that would be a little hard .

AAMillionaire, UpgradeMe, and Often1: We purchased our business class tickets 2 months ago. We paid $2,400 for each ticket (A really great price...). Swiss doesn't offer a lower fare for infants... but good thought. The current cost of a roundtrip business class is now $10,000!

erik123: Very good point. Before I do anything else, I was going to ensure that I get my refund from Priceline. However, from what I have learned through all this, Priceline has a special number for situations like this. I was provided a special quote-unquote number where I called and they informed me of the refund. I do have to pay a penalty of $200 a ticket. But, it's far less than having to loose the $2,400.

The biggest annoyance of all this is I'm not trying to change the routing, I just want to preserve the seat (another reason I wanted to preserve the seat is I was going try try and get my sister to come. Economy seats are about $1000 right now. So, I was going to get her an economy ticket, and then let her come and take the business seat, if she was able to come. Oh well. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Allan38103

Strangers whom you have never met and before five minutes ago never knew anything about you will offer their sympathies on FT, but Swissair won't?

I'll remember that next time I consider booking on SA.

Adam1222

Swissair is the name of an airline that went out of business years ago. The two letter code for Swiss International Air Lines is LX. The ticket is being refunded- so he's getting sympathy. The OP wants to ensure a refunded seat is kept empty. That's not an issue of sympathy but a misunderstanding how ticket sales work. One can have sympathy for the OP and not agree that he can use his wife's ticket for his child when his wife isn't traveling.

nexes

Adam1222: My comment about about the rep, was more about how robotic Swiss Air is. It also wasn't just the supervisor that never expressed anything about the situation. I didn't need them to express sorrow, but, it was incredible how transactional Swiss Air is. I've never dealt with a company that was so stone-faced with their communications.

My irritation with this whole issue is that I'm unable to preserve a seat that I have paid for. The ticket has yet to be refunded, as I was trying to keep both seats that I paid for and ensure that I could keep the other empty. I am not asking for a refunded seat to be kept empty. I am asking for a paid seat to be kept empty.

Thanks again everyone for the suggestions

LondonElite

If you can get a refund, great. Otherwise the other ticket will be considered a no show and will go back in the pool of available seats. You have no right to it, unfortunately

nexes

I agree. I just thought I'd post the question just in the chance someone had a grand suggestion .

Thanks again.

Adam1222

I understand that, but as others have explained, this isn't a sympathy thing. If the passenger doesn't show up, the seat gets given away and the return ticket is canceled. You cannot "keep the other empty," no matter how sympathetic the airline. You don't pay for a seat, but you pay for transport for a specific passenger.

JDiver

First, my sympathies to the OP and his spouse.

But... What is LX’ policy for infants? I see

and

It appears the OP has no ticket for the infant. Oops. Perhaps refunding the wife’s ticket (I’m hoping Priceline will actually do that) will provide the wherewithal to purchase the infant’s ticket?

I’m not a lawyer, but due to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, I’m strongly recommending the OP check to determine what documentation (often, a notarized letter signed by the absent parent authorizing the child to travel with the passenger - but it could be more, depending on citizenship, destination country and transit nations) the infant might require, lest they not be allowed to fly, or have difficulties in RSA.

LondonElite

...for one thing, a birth certificate.

:D!

What nexes needs to understand is that on 99% of airlines you do not actually pay for a specific seat or even a specific flight, you just buy a ticket to travel between two airports.

99+% of the time, you will fly on the flight that was specified on your ticket, and if you were able to reserve a seat (for free or paid), you will get to sit in that seat, but it is not guaranteed. Airlines set their fares on the basis that a certain number of people who have reservations for a flight will cancel or not turn up for the flight.

So the wife has a ticket to travel to Johannesburg, but what she does not have is an absolute guarantee that she will be carried on that particular flight and certainly not a right to occupy a particular seat that will not be resold if the ticket is cancelled. As mentioned, simply accept the refund and book a child fare for the child for less than the adult price.