Expert: Roberto Gomes - 12/15/2004

Question
I was flying from Moscow, Russia to New York JFK on Swiss Airlines connecting in Zurich, Switzerland. The weather was bad in Moscow so flight departure from Moscow to Zurich was delayed by 6 hours. This way , I missed connecting flight from Zurich to New York so I spent night at the airport hotel at my own expence.
Shoud the airline reimburse such expences. Did they have to arrange night accomodation for me at no charge?


Answer
Dear Feliks,

The text below was extracted from Swiss website regarding misconnections:

"SWISS takes all necessary measures to bring our passengers to their destination. All aircraft and crews function on a rotation system. This means that scheduled routes must all be flown, without exception, in order to serve all passengers at all destinations. However, it is not possible to guarantee that connecting flights will be met, as delays inevitably occur. Sometimes they cannot be avoided; nor can lost time be made up. The possibility of transporting connecting passengers over the tarmac to their next flight is not always possible. Sometimes this procedure is not feasible for logistical, time or security (e.g. In the UK) reasons. In situations where it is not possible to meet connecting flights, we re-book passengers onto another SWISS flight or another airline, organise hotel rooms, rental cars and mobile telephones. Passengers also have the option of re-booking their tickets for a later date / flight or to another nearby destination free of charge. We are unable to accept any liability for any further indirect costs incurred, such as loss of income".

They do not mention that, for reasons that they can not control - and weather is one of them - they do not assume responsability for disserviced customers who did not make their connections. Otherwise they should transfered your departure from Moscow to another flight or reroute you to another carrier.I believe that the reimbursement is due.

Best Regards,
R. Gomes