Swiss passengers stranded in Belgrade: What are your rights and how many reports are piling up in Bazl?

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Instead of the warm Swiss bed at home, the hard floor of the lounge at Belgrade airport: This is how around 120 Swiss passengers had to spend the night on Monday.

Anyone affected by a canceled flight basically has two options: rebook or get your money back. Either you accept the travel alternatives suggested by the airlines. Or you can apply for a refund of the ticket price.

European passenger rights also apply to Swiss airlines, as do Swiss and Swiss passengers. Specifically: In the event of cancellation, the affected passenger is entitled to a flat-rate compensation payment of between 250 and 600 euros, depending on the flight distance, in accordance with the EU Air Passenger Rights Regulation.

Airline passenger rights aids include, for example, Cancelled.ch, Airhelp Switzerland, Flightright, Fairplane, EUclaim or EUflight. These help passengers enforce their rights against airlines, but charge a fee if they are successful.

Most airline passenger benefits assistants charge a fee

In the current Swiss case – the storm – it is a force majeure situation. Therefore, compensation payment cannot be requested. Regardless of this, the airline must pay for support services; namely: overnight stay in a hotel if necessary, meals and the opportunity to communicate (telephone, internet).

And more: Passengers stranded elsewhere have the right to be transported to their final destination.

Bazl also helps stranded passengers

What almost no one knows: Affected passengers can also contact the Federal Civil Aviation Administration (Bazl). In response to Blick’s question, spokesman Christian Schubert gave the following advice: “In any case, contact the airline first. If they do not respond within 6 to 8 weeks, or if the flight passengers do not accept the answer or if compensation is not paid, you can contact us.

A complaint can be made via the contact form and Bazl lawyers will then review the file. As a rule, a response is obtained within six weeks. Bazl received 3,950 reports last year, mostly about flight cancellations, according to spokesman Schubert. As of the end of August 2023, there were already 3,500 ads; Most of these were related to ticket refunds. Only in 1982 were they at the same time last year.

According to Bazl, the “important factors” that led to cancellations and thus passenger reports this year were: long queues at check-in and security checks in Zurich in late spring, and computer malfunctions.

Source :Blick