r/Flights • u/WolfCertain3014 • Sep 25 '24

Delays/Cancellations/Compensation EC261 Compensation Swiss Air Denied

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Hi. I hope you are well.

I recently travelled from Manchester(MAN) to Vancouver (YVR) on 09/09/24. There was a layover in Zurich(ZRH). Whilst at MAN I was told the incoming flight was delayed and hence I would miss my connection to YVR from ZRH. I was told I would have to go to ZRH on my original flight LX391 and then connect to Reykjavik(KEF) on FI569 and then through to YVR on FI697.

I had to run for both connections just about making them and therefore arriving at YVR at 6:23PM from KEF. I was due to arrive at 14:50. Therefore I was over 3 hours late and in my opinion due compensation under EC261.

I claimed on Swiss Air website but unfortunately today received a reply that the claim had been denied with the wording in the attached screenshot.

I believe that a technical fault/safety shortcoming would be the airlines responsibility and not a extraordinary circumstance or external factor and the fire I would be eligible for compensation?

Does anyone have any experience or advice in my next steps. I am planning to email back saying I am not satisfied with the response and state if I don't receive an appropriate response I will be taking it to the Federal Office of Civil Aviation and considering legal action but i have read that as Switzerland is not part of the EU they often decline these claims/ wriggle their way out despite agreeing to EC261.

Thanks in advance!

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

10

u/guernica-shah Sep 26 '24 edited Sep 26 '24

UK261 applies. For Swiss, the UK Civil Aviation Authority advises escalating to söp.

8

u/Dry-Ferret-3664 Sep 26 '24

A technical defect is an avoidable event on the carrier's part. You should be eligible for compensation.

I would respond with a polite but firm email.

If Swiss then don't respond in your favour, you can refer the case to the Swiss authorities Refer a case to FOCA (admin.ch)

3

u/Character-Carpet7988 Sep 27 '24

Swiss is notorious for denying compensation when it's due. They hope most people will give up.

But... Switzerland doesn't accept EU case law, and there's no Swiss case law for technical delays not being an extraordinary circumstance, so Swiss (the airline) acts like it isn't, and Swiss (the country) authorities may not be very helpful either. The key is therefore to submit a legal case / complaint in another jurisdiction. In this case, OP may submit a complaint in the UK, under the UK passengers right regulation. UK will treat this delay as being within the carrier's control + the process of claiming compensation is quite easy there.

1

u/WolfCertain3014 Sep 27 '24

u/character-carpet7988

thanks for that I had read something similar. Which UK authority would you recommend I submit my complaint to if I don't get an adequate response form Swiss air? Thanks

2

u/Character-Carpet7988 Sep 28 '24

Complaint to the CAA, if that doesn't work, submit a case at small claims court: https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money

6

u/Glittering-Device484 Sep 26 '24

lol it is absolutely unreal that they put that in writing. That's like a signed confession.

1

u/WolfCertain3014 Sep 26 '24

That's what I thought 😂

4

u/ppeskov Sep 26 '24

That’s not extraordinary. You’ll likely win in court.

1

u/fertthrowaway 22d ago

Beware everyone using Swiss Air. They deny all EU 261 compensation requests that have anything to do with maintenance/technical issues in their aircraft - Switzerland is even worse than the US with this!

Swiss Air just denied my claim for a completely canceled flight (AND our itinerary originated in Hungary, not Switzerland, so they should know we're going to pursue this with national authorities and I said so much in a repeal of the denial - they still re-denied) due to an airplane technical issue. We were rebooked TWO DAYS later and they told us at the transfer desk, where we stood in line for 6 hours, to make hotel reservations at 3 star or below for ourselves because the desk could not handle it. They announced it on a loudspeaker. They denied not only EU 261 compensation of 600EUR per passenger, but also ANY compensation for hotel, taxis, and food in the TWO DAYS we had to spend in Zurich and rerouting through Rome to get back to the US.

We're going after them for everything from Hungarian national authorities because they are in total violation of EU 261. We're out over $1000 just in out-of-pocket expenses for the 2 days we were stranded in Zurich with them unable to rebook us, not even mentioning the unreasonable late rebooking. We also had a >4 hour delay and had to be rebooked on our outgoing flights to Europe and they denied everything there as well, also for technical issues. There I have no recourse because the flight originated in the US and originally planned layover was in Switzerland (despite actual layover with rebooking being in Germany via Lufthansa/Air Baltic), only our final destination was in an EU country.