Swiss Customer Service Not Doing Its Job
 

Unbelievable...

I am booked on a LX ticket that includes code-share travel from YVR->YYZ with AC aircraft, but with a Swiss flight number, LX 4677.
While checking independently on the AC website, I see that the departure time for this flight has changed. I called Air Canada customer service to confirm this change of departure time.
AC told me that LX must inform me of the time change. To date, I have not received any email from LX to inform me of the change.

I called LX customer service and was connected to customer service agent in Fiji. She put me on hold for 12 minutes and then confirmed to me on the phone that there is a change of departure time.
I asked her why I was not informed by email. She told me that she did not know, but agreed to send me an email with the new filght times.

I received an email with the old flight departure time. I called back, got to speak with the same agent, and she told me that Fiji is not responsible to ensure that the itinerary in the email is accurate.

This is completely unacceptable.
SNAFU describes Swiss customer service.

Relax. Things like time-change notifications happen automatically via queues processed by robots. How far into the future is this flight? There is a good chance that you would have been notified of the time change in due course...

Not so... I just spoke with Swiss customer service (German language). The agent spoke English with me.
The schedule change took place on 19. September 2018, some 5 weeks ago.
I was told that the robot does not always work as expected.

"Even Circle Members have not received e-mails due to a schedule change."

This is a pathetic situation that needs to be remedied.

Air Canada has ALWAYS sent me an email whenever there has been an itinerary change.
If they can do it,, I expect Swiss to do it as well.

You're upset that LX didn't inform you of a schedule change of which you are nonetheless aware well in advance of the flight? Sounds like no harm, no foul to me.

Suggest you never purchase a ticket on UA.

I would never fly UA. No chance of that. In fact, after the infamous UA event (dragging passenger off plane), I wrote a letter to LH/LX suggesting that they drop their Star Alliance agreement with UA.

You never answered the question how much in advance of the date of departure you noticed (by your own means) the schedule change.

As I mentioned, there are typically queues worked by robots to send out notifications. In this case, the AC robot picks up the schedule change, sends the notification to LX, then the LX robot works off its queue.

Close-in bookings are prioritized.

Your question is not relevant to this discussion.
Swiss customer service told me that the robot should send out an update email even if the change in departure time is only 5 minutes.
The change was received by Swiss and the automated system failed. This has been confirmed to my by the agent.
I should have received the update more than a month ago, as the change was received by Swiss on September 19, 2018.

In my case, the flight departure time change was significantly greater than the minimum trigger for the update.

Ok, I understand.

You are not actually interested to find out how things work and how large corporations prioritize such issues. You feel that you are entitled to immediate notification irrespective of when you will actually travel.

You are of course perfectly within your rights to expect this. But you will be disappointed a lot, and not just with LX.

What you have written is blatently false.
I have received notifications every time AC has had a schedule change, even when those flights are still months away.
With Air Canada, I am not only entitled to immediate notification irrespective of when I will actually travel, but I also do receive such notifications within an hour of the change.
I do have expectations that are not being fulfilled by Swiss.

So I guess I will choose AC for all of my future travel to Canada. Then I can be certain that my expectations will be fully met.

I fly American, United and Delta all regularly. I receive schedule notification emails from them for maybe 40% of my travels. I received none from Air Canada last year after a major change in an award booking (they changed me from Air Canada to Lufthansa for a trip across the Atlantic). This is normal within the industry. That's why savvy travelers take time each week to check their reservations for schedule changes. Is it annoying the traveler has to be proactive? Yes. But it's a manageable annoyance.

I cannot speak for US carriers as I never fly/travel anymore to the US. I have used AC some 20+ times in the past decade and I have ALWAYS been informed of changes, right when they happen.
I am really surprised that this community has such low expectations for what services should be provided by the airlines.