Swissair increasing flight of the price after I have paid, and now asking for more money

shundeez

Hello,

Strange one here.

I had to rebook my flights due to covid issues. 

I called swissair to confirm the new dates of my flight. They quoted me an additional £600, although their advertised rate on their site was actually £1000 less. After much conversation I succumbed and confirmed to take the new dates, plus the extra £600 cost for moving the date. 

The customer service agent took down my credit card details, entered them into their system and confirmed the new dates were booked and I had paid. I then received the confirmation email with the booking number and the exact details of my flight. The email is the standard confirmation email, saying we were all confirmed and enjoy the trip.

Today, 5 weeks later, I got a missed call and an email to call them urgently. I called back and was shocked to hear that the fee for changing the dates was now £1600, not £600 - this is after I have already paid and received a confirmation email with booking number.

Upon challenging them that I had the confirmation in writing from them, and that they had already taken payment, they said their agent made a mistake on the price and they will not release the tickets until I paid the new rates. Can imagine how the conversation went thereafter, not pretty. 

I was told I need to make a complaint via their website as there is no other way to contest this. Before I go down that rabbit hole, had anyone heard of airlines doing such a thing, and anyone aware of my rights in such a situation. 

Apart from being immoral and unethical, is this illegal? Surely an agreement has been entered into here, they can't back track and ask for more money further down the line. When does this stop.

Anyone know of a recourse or a way to speak to someone who can help me out, as the agents in the call centre are not helpful.

Thanks

Sandtree

Cant say for Swiss but for BA and amendments they will sometimes definitively state what the price is and other times state what it should be but advise it has to go to Ticketing for confirmation. No idea what drives the behaviour and to date the only difference has been less than £1 and they have agreed to waive it. 

As to can they do it? You need to read the terms and conditions around when the contract is formed etc, often it is when the ticket is issued and as such the confirmation email alone isnt binding.

shundeez

Thank you @Sandtree.

If what you state is in fact the reason for them changing the price before they issue the tickets, regardless if a confirmation email has been sent, is very scary.

What is stopping them from calling me up 48 hours before I am due to fly, and saying "sorry we made a mistake again, our agent should not have charged you that amount, the ticketing department has stated it is another £1000 extra".

I have ticket numbers for each traveller on the booking, in the "Manage my booking" section on the site, there are no red flags and all appears to be in order and confirmed still, with ticket numbers .

Airlines don't actually issue the tickets anymore (do they?). You take the confirmation email to check in at the airport, and the check in assistant issues a boarding pass. I am not aware of physical tickets actually being issued by post or even by email?

If airlines are legally allowed to change prices at will, after customers have paid and confirmations sent out, there would be mass lawsuits.

But thanks for the insight, I am reviewing their terms as we speak

Westin

shundeez said:

Thank you @Sandtree.

If what you state is in fact the reason for them changing the price before they issue the tickets, regardless if a confirmation email has been sent, is very scary.

What is stopping them from calling me up 48 hours before I am due to fly, and saying "sorry we made a mistake again, our agent should not have charged you that amount, the ticketing department has stated it is another £1000 extra".

I have ticket numbers for each traveller on the booking, in the "Manage my booking" section on the site, there are no red flags and all appears to be in order and confirmed still, with ticket numbers .

Airlines don't actually issue the tickets anymore (do they?). You take the confirmation email to check in at the airport, and the check in assistant issues a boarding pass. I am not aware of physical tickets actually being issued by post or even by email?

If airlines are legally allowed to change prices at will, after customers have paid and confirmations sent out, there would be mass lawsuits.

But thanks for the insight, I am reviewing their terms as we speak

Not physical hard copy tickets, but the airlines do still ‘ticket’ the booking. 

If you look at your Swiss e-ticket you may see a ticket number. For Swiss it starts 724…

Sandtree

shundeez said:

Thank you Sandtree.

If what you state is in fact the reason for them changing the price before they issue the tickets, regardless if a confirmation email has been sent, is very scary.

What is stopping them from calling me up 48 hours before I am due to fly, and saying "sorry we made a mistake again, our agent should not have charged you that amount, the ticketing department has stated it is another £1000 extra".

I have ticket numbers for each traveller on the booking, in the "Manage my booking" section on the site, there are no red flags and all appears to be in order and confirmed still, with ticket numbers .

Airlines don't actually issue the tickets anymore (do they?). You take the confirmation email to check in at the airport, and the check in assistant issues a boarding pass. I am not aware of physical tickets actually being issued by post or even by email?

If airlines are legally allowed to change prices at will, after customers have paid and confirmations sent out, there would be mass lawsuits.

But thanks for the insight, I am reviewing their terms as we speak

Yes they do still issue tickets, but they are electronic. When changing the wife's ticket the other day I got the confirmation email straight away, I could see the changes online immediately but the ticket didnt actually arrive until 3 days later. Actually realise the above was a lie because I also got a £20 refund from BA which the customer service agent hadnt said anything about... or more accurately I have received a £20 refund from them and I am assuming it must be due to the change because I've not done anything else recently.

Ticketing normally happens within a couple of hours just covid has extended timelines... I have managed to previously cancel uncancellable tickets because the ticket hadn't yet been issued. The idea of them waiting until 48 hours before the flight and increasing the price is unlikely to happen as there would be many more issues with the lack of tickets being issued until then.

Ultimately you should read the T&Cs to see what it says about contract formation and then get back in touch with them to discuss.