Compensation Question - rebooked 3 times, delayed vs. rebookings but not vs. original
 

My parents had some massive issues with a SWISS booking to Europe. I'd rather not mention their destination, but SWISS and Lufthansa both serve it.

The original outbound itinerary was via ZRH, with both flights operated by SWISS [itinerary 1]. Landing at destination around 7 PM.

About a month before departure, SWISS canceled the outbound and put them on LH (both flights) via FRA [itinerary 2]. Landing at destination around 1:30 PM.

They called to switch to another flight, and SWISS moved them to a UA flight (LH codeshare) to FRA, keeping the same LH flight from there to their destination [itinerary 3]. So, still landing at 1:30 PM. Fine.

They went to manage their booking on UA and found they couldn't check in online and choose seats. At the check-in counter, they were told they were not on the flight, as SWISS hadn't reissued the ticket. They called SWISS, who put them on an all-LH itinerary via MUC [itinerary 4]. Landing around 6:30 PM.

I don't know their arrival on itinerary 4, but it was scheduled to land:

• 5h later than itineraries 2 and 3
• 0.5h earlier than itinerary 1 (with the since-canceled outbound)

Are they due any compensation? The flight they tried to check in for was operated by UA (non-EU carrier), but the cause seemed to be LX. They landed earlier than their original itinerary, but they were delayed vs. the flight they intended to take (and were ready to check in for).

Thanks in advance!

When changes are needed it’s always a good idea to check that you were sent the email confirmation of the changes containing a ticket number or check it online.

When they couldn’t check in online, why didn’t they call to see what the issue was ?

In the OP's parent's defense, it's happened multiple times for me and mrs. clifford79 that online check in on flights between the US and Europe (and v.v.) was not possible. At the counter everything was still fine (usually document checks; worst case it was SSSS), so maybe the OP's parents thought this was the case here as well.

Yes, I understand that but it ought to have prompted them to check they had an e-ticket from an email or by checking online. They were already aware changes had been made.

Sorry for replying so late. In trying to unsubscribe from other threads, I inadvertently unsubscribed from this one as well.

My parents are still overseas and largely unreachable, and my back-and-forth with them was all via phone and text, so I don't know what exactly the "can't check in online" message on the UA website said.

Looking at the website now, it says:

Reservations are currently not eligible for check-in on united.com if:

• Your reservation contains certain special service requests that require you to see a United representative at the airport.
• The reservation is paper-ticketed.
• You're booked in Basic Economy, unless you specify that you're checking a bag.

My mother has a handicapped tag, and they did request accommodation for it from SWISS at some point. My father said it appeared as "confirmed" on the three non-UA flights, but not on the UA one. Not sure what site (LX, LH, or UA) he was checking, though.

As far as paper tickets - for all I know, it could have said "you have a paper ticket." I take it if that's the case, it's on them?

Their baggage allowance did transfer, so whether it was BE or not, that shouldn't affect it. EDIT: allowance did not transfer. See below.

I'll send them an email to see if they can forward me any emails they got or screenshots they took (my father takes screenshots of everything lol).

EDIT: I just logged in to my father's MileagePlus account (I'm the one that set it up for him). Looking up the reservation, I see 4 things:

1. My mother's special accommodation requests are there.
2. The receipt for "itinerary 3" (the one they couldn't check in for) is there, with tickets starting with "724" in the "eTicket" column. It also says "Remaining value of your previous ticket numbers 724[...], 724[...] was applied to this purchase" (those being different numbers than the ones in the eTicket column; not sure if they're the "itinerary 1" or "itinerary 2" ones, but I'm guessing that doesn't matter).
3. Also on the receipt, it has $60 for outbound bags, $0 for inbound. Booking class is W on the outbound UA and LH segments.
4. It's irrelevant I guess, but they got miles based on their final routing ("itinerary 4").