Re-scheduled Flight Not Connecting

[gzu88bv]

I was booked on an AirBerlin flight, leaving Zurich (ZRH) at 08:55 am, arriving in Vienna at 10:10 am with no stopover, connecting me to an EVA Air flight to Bangkok, leaving Vienna at 13.30 the same day.

I am in possession of AirBerlin’s confirmed e-ticket and the flight itself has been paid for and charged to my MasterCard quite a while ago.

Yesterday I received from AirBerlin an e-mail telling me that for some unforeseen reasons as of now the flight has been re-scheduled, leaving Zurich at 13.15 am, flying then first to Berlin and arriving in Vienna at 20:35 pm the same day. By this time EVA Air will have left for Bangkok already.

This has never happened to me before with confirmed flights in my 30 years of air travel. I have not yet approached AirBerlin. What are my rights in such a case? What can be claimed for from AirBerlin, i.e.

a re-scheduled flight one day earlier and what about hotel costs?

Thank you for your help.

[wanderer9020]

I was booked on an AirBerlin flight, leaving Zurich (ZRH) at 08:55 am, arriving in Vienna at 10:10 am with no stopover, connecting me to an EVA Air flight to Bangkok, leaving Vienna at 13.30 the same day.

I am in possession of AirBerlin's confirmed e-ticket and the flight itself has been paid for and charged to my MasterCard quite a while ago.

Yesterday I received from AirBerlin an e-mail telling me that for some unforeseen reasons as of now the flight has been re-scheduled, leaving Zurich at 13.15 am, flying then first to Berlin and arriving in Vienna at 20:35 pm the same day. By this time EVA Air will have left for Bangkok already.

This has never happened to me before with confirmed flights in my 30 years of air travel. I have not yet approached AirBerlin. What are my rights in such a case? What can be claimed for from AirBerlin, i.e.

a re-scheduled flight one day earlier and what about hotel costs?

Thank you for your help.

first, did u purchased ur eva air ticket separately? or its in the same travel agent, I mean, in just one booking number, otherwise, its their problem, not yours.But if u purchased ur tickets separately, you Air Berlin flight has nothing to do with ur Eva Air.U can manage this by using diplomacy. Go to Air Berlin office, present your case (be friendly), then ask if they can change ur flight for free (if it needs to incur penalty (because its their mistake actually), or check if they have availbaly flight earlier than that to catch ur Eva Air.SHit happens you know,so thats it. Either u have to move the date in Eva Air or you have to reschedule ur Air Berlin flight earlier and take it positively, have fun in Vienna instead. I guess the only thing that Air Berlin can do is too reschedule ur flight earlier or later for FREE.Nahh, dont think about hotel accomodation.

[onzestan]

I was booked on an AirBerlin flight, leaving Zurich (ZRH) at 08:55 am, arriving in Vienna at 10:10 am with no stopover, connecting me to an EVA Air flight to Bangkok, leaving Vienna at 13.30 the same day.

I am in possession of AirBerlin’s confirmed e-ticket and the flight itself has been paid for and charged to my MasterCard quite a while ago.

Yesterday I received from AirBerlin an e-mail telling me that for some unforeseen reasons as of now the flight has been re-scheduled, leaving Zurich at 13.15 am, flying then first to Berlin and arriving in Vienna at 20:35 pm the same day. By this time EVA Air will have left for Bangkok already.

This has never happened to me before with confirmed flights in my 30 years of air travel. I have not yet approached AirBerlin. What are my rights in such a case? What can be claimed for from AirBerlin, i.e.

a re-scheduled flight one day earlier and what about hotel costs?

Thank you for your help.

I believe the only right you have is cancellation with full refund. They have sold you a service that doesn't exist anymore.

cheers and good luck

onzestan

[wanderer9020]

I was booked on an AirBerlin flight, leaving Zurich (ZRH) at 08:55 am, arriving in Vienna at 10:10 am with no stopover, connecting me to an EVA Air flight to Bangkok, leaving Vienna at 13.30 the same day.

I am in possession of AirBerlin's confirmed e-ticket and the flight itself has been paid for and charged to my MasterCard quite a while ago.

Yesterday I received from AirBerlin an e-mail telling me that for some unforeseen reasons as of now the flight has been re-scheduled, leaving Zurich at 13.15 am, flying then first to Berlin and arriving in Vienna at 20:35 pm the same day. By this time EVA Air will have left for Bangkok already.

This has never happened to me before with confirmed flights in my 30 years of air travel. I have not yet approached AirBerlin. What are my rights in such a case? What can be claimed for from AirBerlin, i.e.

a re-scheduled flight one day earlier and what about hotel costs?

Thank you for your help.

I believe the only right you have is cancellation with full refund. They have sold you a service that doesn't exist anymore.

cheers and good luck

onzestan

i agree, otherwise, make the reservation agent to work with thier computers, to get you a flight arriving in vienna on the same time as your original booking, NO MATTER where they REROUTE you. I check with Air Berlin schedule, they have flight arriving in vienna at 10 am from bangkok,LOL.In serious note, yeah, u can do waht other poster suggested.

[technocracy]

I am currently having on-going talks with Thai Air over a screw up caused by there winter/summer schedule change.

I booked flights from LHR to VTE via BKK the flights were the best around in terms of transit times etc. So I paid a bit more that say Emirates et al since there was no long stopovers - and direct from LHR to BKK. However 15 days after my purchase they changed there schedules now there is a 6 hour (yes 6!) transit time in BKK for the VTE flight on the way out and the flights back no longer connected!

Also I had booked a separate flight from Manchester to LHR via BMI - which would be 13 hours after the arrival flight!

To say I am slight pissed off is an understatement, especially as the tickets are for my parents and the prime reason I purchased them was the lack of stop overs due to my mother having back problems and wanted her to have least amount of waiting time.

Why the hel_l the tickets were sold as they were in the first place I do not know - it was only 15 day prior to schedule change surely the Amadeus system would have this information in the database already!

Now because of Easter and as booked the tickets in the UK - I've got to wait until Tuesday to before I can hope to get anything resolved! Oh and just to put the icing on the cake neither Thai Air or the agency I booked the tickets through informed me of changes I actually discovered it for myself - as I went to the local Thai office here to check the tickets.

[flyer]

Hi Gzu,

The airline has the obligation to warn you of any significant change about a confirmed flight at least 15 days in advance. If they have done that, you have no rights to any compensation. However, if you cannot reschedule your flight with this airline (air berlin) in a suitable way for you (on going connections etc..) then they have to refund you the ticket in full, even if your ticket contained some refund limitations. If the carrier makes problems to refund, then oppose the payment at your credit card issuer who will refund you.

further, it is up to you to book any new ticket that will meet your requirements. If there is no other option then use the later Air Berlin flight and overnight in Vienna, then you could ask Air Berlin for an overnight compensation. If they are in good mood they might do somehting to please you, but have no obligation.

If air berlin has warned you of the change less then 15 days before the flight you have right of compensation according to the European directive about cancelled/delayed boarding. However, even so i would rather try to argue with air berlin to get money back and take up things again in own hands.

Next time, avoid (whenever possible) flying with an airline that is in trouble. AB has been struggling for a while now since it took over LTU which was probably a too big bite of the wrong food for them. And they don't seem to be in control of the problems (changing management doesn't solve problems as far as my experience is).

Have a nice trip anyway with EVA. They even improved their food recently.

[britmaveric]

Have them change the Air Berlin flight to the day before - I fear this is your only recourse.

[Maestro]

…If air berlin has warned you of the change less then 15 days before the flight you have right of compensation according to the European directive about cancelled/delayed boarding. However, even so i would rather try to argue with air berlin to get money back and take up things again in own hands.

The mentioned European directive can be found here in English language:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUri...001:0007:EN:PDF

Your situation seems to fall under the definition of Art. 2, lit (l) “‘cancellation’ means the non-operation of a flight which was previously planned and on which at least one place was reserved”. That's how far I read in that document. You have to look further down to find out what compensation this entitles you to.

--

Maestro

[technocracy]

…If air berlin has warned you of the change less then 15 days before the flight you have right of compensation according to the European directive about cancelled/delayed boarding. However, even so i would rather try to argue with air berlin to get money back and take up things again in own hands.

The mentioned European directive can be found here in English language:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUri...001:0007:EN:PDF

Your situation seems to fall under the definition of Art. 2, lit (l) “‘cancellation’ means the non-operation of a flight which was previously planned and on which at least one place was reserved”. That's how far I read in that document. You have to look further down to find out what compensation this entitles you to.

--

Maestro

Thanks for that link - the sections about delays are most illuminating . . . I might be mentioning these in my conversations with Thai Air also!

[Maestro]

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUri...001:0007:EN:PDF[/url]

Thanks for that link - the sections about delays are most illuminating . . . I might be mentioning these in my conversations with Thai Air also!

Be aware, however, that an airline can, if it wants to, often talk its way out of paying compensation or giving assistance by referring to preamble (14):

As under the Montreal Convention, obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier.

--

Maestro

[technocracy]

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUri...001:0007:EN:PDF[/url]

Thanks for that link - the sections about delays are most illuminating . . . I might be mentioning these in my conversations with Thai Air also!

Be aware, however, that an airline can, if it wants to, often talk its way out of paying compensation or giving assistance by referring to preamble (14):

As under the Montreal Convention, obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier.

--

Maestro

To be honest this what I want for my parents - my mother has a damaged nerves in her spine and a few fused vertabrae so just over 6 hours of hanging around in Bangkok airport just ain't acceptable. The fact was when I booked the tickets I could of got another route that was only just a bit longer - but had an extra stop - so I booked the Thai flight however 15 days later they change everything.

What makes it even more annoying is the fact that I only discovered it since I went to the Thai office to check on the tickets - at this point they told me the flight now don't not connect and the 6 hour wait thrown in for good measure!

Let just say whoever I speak to at Thai tomorrow will be wishing that the Bank Holiday hadn't ended!

[gzu88bv]

first, did u purchased ur eva air ticket separately? or its in the same travel agent, I mean, in just one booking number, otherwise, its their problem, not yours.But if u purchased ur tickets separately, you Air Berlin flight has nothing to do with ur Eva Air.U can manage this by using diplomacy. Go to Air Berlin office, present your case (be friendly), then ask if they can change ur flight for free (if it needs to incur penalty (because its their mistake actually), or check if they have availbaly flight earlier than that to catch ur Eva Air.SHit happens you know,so thats it. Either u have to move the date in Eva Air or you have to reschedule ur Air Berlin flight earlier and take it positively, have fun in Vienna instead. I guess the only thing that Air Berlin can do is too reschedule ur flight earlier or later for FREE.Nahh, dont think about hotel accomodation.

I talked in the meantime to AirBerlin, but they deny responsibility for my flight schedule, as I booked the flights individually myself. With reference to the paper that Maestro mentioned above, they would have reimbursed me for hotel cost only, if all flights had been booked through a travel agent.

Got my flight re-booked to the evening before at no additional cost and will now enjoy an overnight stay in Vienna with a nice Austrian breakfast before coming back to LOS.