A Swiss International Airlines flight Los Angeles-Zurich was canceled due to the eruption of the Icelandic volcano. As passengers have the right of care, Swiss is legally required to reimburse them for the extra costs of stay. However, Swiss tells a passenger requesting reimbursement for his expenses of €700 ($866) that it can only offer limited compensation as the cancelation was clearly due to ‘force majeure’. As a gesture of

The passenger is not satisfied with reimbursement of 50% of his costs and repeats his request for reimbursement of the full amount. Béatrice Widemann of Swiss invokes again ‘force majeure’: “Although we are not able to offer a full reimbursement of these costs (the flight was cancelled due to 'force majeure'), we are willing to make a contribution and kindly ask you to provide us with a copy of the hotel receipt along with your full bank details.”

The passenger sends the receipts and bank details, but Swiss does not pay any additional reimbursement and Ms. Widemann does not respond to reminders. According to EU regulation 261/2004 airlines cannot invoke ‘force majeure’. Rather, they have to reimburse the full extra costs of stay due to the cancelation.

Thus, Swiss reserves the right to break the law. This is for passengers important to know. In this case the violation pertains to passenger rights. Next time, however, it may pertain to safety rules.

n a previous article (“A late refund”) we wrote: “Swiss gives passengers what they are entitled to, but only if they are very persistent.” On the basis of the above experience this was too optimistic. In fact, Swiss does not give passengers what they are entitled to, even if they are very persistent.

Related articles: “How do I get reimbursed?”; “How do airlines cope with disruption?”; “What rights do stranded passengers have?”

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