Lingli

I hope you could offer us some advice.

We booked a Swiss flight from Zurich to Copenhagen in July. When I checked the timetable on its website, the flight is not available any more. However, the flight is still shown as confirmed on my booking page.

So, I called the Customer Service, who confirmed that the flight was cancelled. But when she checked my booking, she said that the flight might still be going and she can't offer a refund until the flight was showed as cancelled on my booking page.

This is a very strange situation: the airline cancelled the flight, but it doesn't change the booking status of the individual bookings. Consequently, we are not able to request a refund!

What shall we do? Shall we try to call the Customer Service again or simple make a claim via AMEX?

Carpacchio

I guess you should do what the lady said: wait until the flight is cancelled in the system and then claim refund.
While Swiss might have cancelled it already on their webpage, they put those cancellations in batches into the reservation system in order to avoid overload (imagine all airlines are currently adjusting their schedules - that's a LOT of changes to handle).
So in a couple of weeks, it will probably show as cancelled on the booking page, too.

Lingli

Many thanks for your reply.

We hope that, as you mentioned, Swiss do "put those cancellations in batches into the reservation system", as it has been nearly two weeks since this flight disappeared on their timetable.

On the same tickets, we also have a flight from London to Zurich on 30th June, which has not been cancelled. Therefore, we'd like to have a definite confirmation by then.

By cancelling the flight while not informing the passengers, do SWISS intend to stop refund on purpose? I really hope not.

terre2014

I had tickets on Swiss for June 10th. Several weeks before the flight, the SWISS website showed the flight as cancelled. I did nothing until I got an email from SWISS saying the flight was cancelled. At that point, I called SWISS customer service (got through immediately with no wait), the agent asked for my booking number, confirmed the flight had been cancelled, and then agreed to refund my fare in full. All very polite and helpful. I asked when I could expect to see the refund, and the agent said he could not give a date, but he said I would get an email when they made the refund. And he said it was fine to call back at any time. A friend in Switzerland said she was told to expect her refund this summer. Be patient. The entire world has been turned upside down. I trust SWISS to eventually refund my money.

Lingli

Thank you for sharing your experience. Can I ask on what date you received the email from SWISS saying the flight was cancelled?

If SWISS can't confirm to us whether our Zurich - Copenhagen flight was cancelled or not before 30th June, while our London - Zurich flight still goes ahead on 30th June, we would be in a very difficult situation.

terre2014

SWISS sent me the email on May 28th, and I called the service center on the same day. The service center then sent me an email on May 28th confirming my cancellation and the refund possibility. So I got the email 13 days before my departure date. By the way, my return flight on July 1st had not yet been cancelled, but they refunded the entire ticket. My return flight now shows up as cancelled as well.

Lingli

Many thanks for your reply. You are lucky that your first leg was cancelled before travelling.

Image that someone have 2-week return flights. The departure flight goes ahead. When the passengers just arrive the destination, they are informed of the cancellation of the returning flight (like you, 13 days in advance), even thought SWISS have cancelled the returning flight over a month earlier, but they refuse to confirm and process the refund before the departure date. The passengers will be totally messed up by SWISS.

In comparison, we also had Easyjet and BA flights cancelled. Both of these airlines emailed us immediately when they cancelled the flights. Easyjet was about 1 month in advance and BA was nearly 2 months in advance. SWISS is the only one, as we are aware, to delay informing the passengers of cancelled flights. I really hope SWISS don't do this on purpose in order NOT to make refund.

SK AAR

You are likely to receive your cancellation notice/email close to 14 days before the cancelled flight.

You are right in assuming that LX is deliberately processing the cancellations as late as possible in order not to receive too many calls for rebooking, refund etc and to delay the requests for refund as much as possible.

Lingli

Thank you so much for your clarification. We hope SWISS is not making this bad situation even worse.

I will follow up my story here.

alexduport

Inhad the same situation on all my bookings... it seems thta LX is delaying the refund process to the maximum. Lets be clear at the moment Swiss is NOT refunding... they claim they will do it at a later stage most probably next year. I also have a Miles and More booking that i needed to CXL they charged me the 50 eur fee to refund the mileage..... but even miles are not refunded. Swiss is just fooling their customers. Thanks got most of my bookings were on their competitors and were refund process were processed perfectly.

mmff

Doesn't their bail-out agreement imply that they refund tickets for cancelled flights no later than September?

Lingli

We just found out that, under the EU Passenger Rights Regulation (EU 261 rule), the passengers are entitles to not only a full reimbursement for cancelled flights, but also a compensatory claim of between €250 and €600 per person if being informed of the flight cancellation less than 14 days prior to departure.

Does this rule apply to the current situation?

athome

No. The EU Transport Commissariat made it clear, that it does not apply for Corona related cancelations.

Tafflyer

How long will this continue to apply now that airlines are selling tickets and flying again? If I book a ticket today for in 3 weeks time and the airline cancels with no change in the COVID situation, then I believe EU261 should apply. Obviously, if a destination country were to close its borders again, that would be different, but I do not think that a blanket exception from EU261 for COVID can be given for flights booked now unles circumstances change for the worse.

bostontraveler

I'm really fed up with this behavior from Swiss. They have flights listed to LAX and BOS for July 6th... two weeks away.... which they have not cancelled.

I have a flight in August (all flights are zeroed out) but I can't do anything until they cancel it. It's really unprofessional and bad customer service.