mball

Alright FT, I've got a weird one and looking for advice.

In mid July I flew SFO-ZRH on Swiss, and in the days before the flight attempted to upgrade a PE ticket to business - a bit of a splurge...This process failed (twice!), but my CC was charged, and now Swiss is refusing my refund request.

Who should I go to next? Amex with a charge back? The US DOT?

Here's the timeline:
* April: I book I trip to Europe, primarily for work. (SFO-ZRH-CPH / LUX-FRA-JFK-SFO) It's all in economy since I'm on a fairly strict budget. A bit of circuitous routing allows me to explore Europe, so that's a win! (Education, sigh...) The base ticket price was around $1300, booked through Concur...because...rules.
* June: I pay $580 to upgrade to premium economy. Seemed OK at the time, was maybe a little costly. But it's my own money, so it's fine. Booked an upgrade via the app, got a new ticket, all good.
* July 16: T-Minus 2 Days: Business Class is only $740. Ah, what the hell, why not? I paid for an upgrade, got a receipt but then there was an error. Charge hit my Amex.
* I tried again...maybe sometime was up... Second $740 charge hits my Amex....get some weird error from the mobile app. OK, stopping for now.
* At this point, I've now paid Swiss an additional $2060 and they owe me $1480.
* July 18: I can't check in online. The ticket counter agent has to call and get them to reissue a premium economy ticket for me.
* She says that Swiss only has a 1 upgrade policy. I guess this makes sense, but the mobile (iOS) app was not enforcing it.
* Flight itself was nice, and I ended up with an empty seat next to me, so it worked out!
* Days later I file a refund request with Swiss.
* After chatting with Twitter support in August... I need to file a complaint not a refund request.
* So, now I've got a complaint number, and in early October I hear back.
* The first reply agrees: "Ah yes, I see duplicate charges, this doesn't make sense' Phew!
* but! I only get $740 back
* After waiting weeks for a reply then escalating to Twitter, I now have a new person: "You paid for Premium Economy, you flew premium economy. No refund."
* I went through a couple of rounds, and then they eventually said 'Case closed.'

So, it's now been more than 4 months, and I am out $740. Swiss doesn't seem interested in listening...where should I go next?

Admittedly, I probably shouldn't have tried the second business class upgrade. :/
Appreciate the advice!



Compete Charges for the SFO-ZRH-CPH leg

daumueller

Recharge through Amex is what I would do here - they had a more than fair chance to fix this

chris63

+ 1 not worth more trouble with LX, AMEX will sort it out

cfischer

go with the US DOT please. They need to know about these issues. You'll get your money back either way and Amex charge back will be faster ... but LX will continue to get away with such fraud if it is not reported ...

NYC1

LX is terrible with this stuff.

Amex is not as helpful as in the past so I would not count on them stepping up.

The only thing that will move LX is the DOT. It’s super easy to file and the more complaints about LX the better it is for all pax.

mball

Thanks every! I just submitted both to Amex and DOT, agree that it is best for everyone to file the complaints -- I hope that's OK. (Not trying to double dip.)

Amex's systems are down, but chat was helpful, and just because I was annoyed with Swiss, I submitted 30 pages (of very poorly formatted) emails and receipts to the DOT.

cfischer

I know. I had to submit DOT complaints before. The only way LX will learn there is more harm than good is a sizable fine from the US DOT ... that requires us to continue to file complaints whenever LX commits fraud.

mball

To close the loop: Amex just completed the chargeback with a note that Swiss never responded... So all is well there.

I submitted the DOT complaint, got the email confirm, but never heard back. Hope someone sees or logs it at the least.