Change of flight times without notification- missed flights

mr_simian

Hi
Myself and three others had flights booked to travel to Thailand with Swiss however they changed their flight times (moving them forward by around 6 hrs) and failed to notify us. After missing the flight Swiss arranged for two of us to fly 2 days later and for the other 2 to fly 4 days later. My travel insurance say it has nothing to do with them and Swiss have said they only have to get us "from A to B"
How should I proceed? is this technically a delay?
many thanks

Caz3121

Did you book direct with the airline or through an agent?
If through an agent then Swiss would have notified the agent of the time change and the agent should have notified you. When are they saying the flight was rescheduled? (how far in advance of the flight)
Unfortunately some of these notifications will arrive in your email in the junk folder.
You need to ascertain when they (agent/airline) believe they advised you of the schedule change

Did you not log in in advance to online check in and see the change?

mr_simian

It was booked through a Agency called 'Crystal Travel' who say that they are just a third party and that the contract is between me and the supplier (Swiss)
They are saying the flight was changed back in April and I did not think to check the details until a few hours before leaving for the Airport , as I assumed any significant changes to times would be passed on via a call or even email.
Thanks for any help

Caz3121

I believe they are incorrect. The airline does not generally have control of your flight booking until 24 hours before the flight. Until them all communication would be through the agent. eg if you had called Swiss to say you wanted to change your flight they would refer you back to the agent. Swiss would likely not have been able to see your contact details in the booking to notify you directly of any changes as it would be Crystal travel details they would see.

If Swiss informed Crystal travel of the schedule change and they failed to pass this information on to you, I would say the argument is with the agent. I would check the correspondence you have from them as often it will say that you should reconfirm your flights x hours before travel (which they could use as their get out of jail free card)

edit. This is not a case for EU compensation. In the eyes of the airline you failed to turn up for your flight on time

Alan_Bowen

This is not a claim under EU261, if the airline and your agent say the times were changed back in April. You need to check all your emails in April, assuming you do not hit the delete button too often or ask Crystal to send you a copy of the original email. If they can and it is dated months ago, there is no claim at all, if they cannot, there might be a claim against your agent for failing to advise but as flight changes are a daily occurrence I would have thought there was some sort of system in place. This should act as a warning to all passengers to log in and check their flight details at least 7 days in advance, in this case Swiss had almost certainly no obligation to offer alternative flights at all

JPears

Unfortunately this is a common problem, especially when booked thru 'agents". I had flights with BA booked thru Avios there were changed several times. On each occasion neither company informed me of the changes, blaming the other for repsonsibility (even though they are actually the same company in effect!)
I had actually written a strongly worded letter of complaint the first time it happened, but clearly this made not one jot of difference when they changed the flights again 4 weeks later.....