Swiss ski carriage

verbier_ski_bum wrote:I don't think rules have changed. Well, some rules have but they concern other sports, not winter sports. Could be misunderstanding, new staff member etc. Ski equipment is mention as "normal sports baggage" in ew rules for which 60CHF charge applies, but there is a footnote saying that **On flights operated by SWISS, the 1st pair of ski/winter sport equipment is always free of charge. (And that includes ski boots regardless if they are packed in the same bag or separately). I hope you kept the receipt. I know people who flew skiing this season with Swiss and they were not charged for their skis.

That's alwasy been my reading of it and I almost alwasy fly Swiss when going to Geneva and never had a problem before. I have 2 groups going out over the next 2 months all flying into Geneva with Swiss so I need to get it nailed down.

OldAndy wrote:Could it have been the handlers at the airport not being clear about Swiss T&C's?

Pester!

If it is the really need to re-train thier agents, as I complained there to the senior manager on duty and got nowhere.

Dave

If you have any complaints after travelling with SWISS please send us a letter in English to below address.

Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.
Feedback Management
P.O. Box
4002 Basel
Switzerland

I suppose you can also call headquarters
Headquarters
Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.
P.O. Box
CH-4002 Basel
Switzerland
Phone: +41 61 582 00 00
Fax: +41 61 582 33 33

Also, on their website on the contact page you can fill in the form for complaints.

It's explicitly mentioned on their website that 1 pair of skis can be taken free of charge. Nothing has changed in this respect. It must have been a mistake and will be easily resolved if you do something about it. You are the first person I heard of who was made to pay for his skis.

I had a similar issue with another airline, so this may be irrelevant, in the T/C's it read that 1 pair skis/boots/poles travel free providing they are booked in advance for each journey. Could this be the case here?

Lufthansa had a policy of transporting skis free on condition you pre warned them. Otherwise they charged.

In fairness to SWISS I have had a very swift response from them to confirm that their policy remains that one pair of skis flies free on on SWISS UK in/outbound flights in addition to the normal 23kg allowance and that in no way in the circumsatnces should I have been charged since my main bag was well withinin limits - only just 17kg and I only had one pair of skis and poles (not even boots in the ski bag).

They were very surprised that I had referred this up the chain to senior duty agent level and it had still been refused.

I have been advised that I will have no problem being refunded the fee charged but unfortunately have to go through the whole overcharged fees process, so it will be interesting to see how long that takes to put the money back in my account.

At least I can sleep easy now knowing that I don't have to tell several friends at the last minute that they now have to pay for their skis on our Festive & January trips when I'd told them they were free.

I will certainly be carrying print outs of the SWISS T&C's when i travel in future though just in case.

I'll also be writing to SWISS customer service as this morning was sub R**nair standard and in no way what I have come to expect of SWISS over the years, I really was made to feel like some complete chancer.

Tony_H wrote:Lufthansa had a policy of transporting skis free on condition you pre warned them. Otherwise they charged.

SWISS conifrmed during our conversation that there was no requirement for pre-warning, and so long as the standard baggage was within the 23kg weight and I was only taking one set of ski equipment in the additional bag then there was no charge.