The DOT’s Initial Response To My Complaint

Yep, you are a schmuck like the rest of us! You are happy you got a personalized response, you didn't. You have the personal email address of someone in the Department of Transportation, you don't. Don't be curious how this turns out, it won't! Been there, done that! Even Capitol One won't issue a chargeback, because in all honesty, Air Canada won't even give their money back, so they come up with their own form letter they keep spitting back at Me! Your "friend" at the DOT won't answer any emails from you and likely will cave in to Air Canada and all the other foreign airlines. What is needed is a system where air travel is not paid in the present with sales on travel in the future. What other industry can get paid in full now on the promise that maybe they will provide the service in the future?

Very interesting - but I got a very generic reply from Swiss earlier today! Called Aeroplan earlier and they said nothing they can do as it's been decided by management above. ******************************************************************* Dear XXXXX We are contacting you regarding your message, which has been registered under the reference *********. SWISS is committed to offering a high quality of service and your concern is therefore important to us. However, due to a high volume of requests, you may experience a delay in receiving a response. Your patience is greatly appreciated while we process your file. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Yours sincerely, Customer Feedback Services Swiss International Air Lines Ltd Postfach 2013 8032 Zurich Switzerland SWISS.COM/CUSTOMERSERVICE

Firstly, I'm positively surprised by the rather quick and affirmative response from DOT. Authorities in other countries could take it as an example. As your contractual party is Aeroplan/AC I guess they'll have to deal with it. Which is good in your case, because LX does not honor any legislation (e.g. EU 261/2004) unless imposed by supreme court in the individual case. Even when you cancel a paid flex ticket, they will only issue a voucher, no cash ... There's a whole thread in flyertalk about that. And in absence of a small claims court in Switzerland, it's extremely costly to litigate ... (although one of the flyertalkers now appears to do it ... fingers crossed).

Here's the response i received: Dear Mr. Davilla: This is in response to your experience you have communicated regarding Air Canada and Swiss Air. The U.S. Department of Transportation seeks to ensure that all airline passengers are treated fairly. Complaints from consumers are helpful to us in determining whether the airlines are in compliance with our rules and to track trends or spot areas of concern that warrant further action. I will forward your complaint to the airline and ask the company to respond directly to you with a copy to us. Airlines are required to acknowledge receipt of a consumer complaint within 30 days and provide a substantive response to the complainant within 60 days. I will review the airline’s response. If you need to contact me please email me at ************@dot.gov. Please include your name and case number (see above). If my review of your complaint and the response from the company discloses a potential violation of our rules, our office may pursue enforcement action. Generally, our office pursues enforcement action on the basis of a number of complaints which may indicate a pattern or practice of violating our rules. Your complaint may be among those considered and may lead to appropriate enforcement action including the assessment of civil penalties. However, our office has no authority to order compensation for individual complainants. I have entered your complaint in our computerized industry monitoring system, and it will be counted among the number of complaints filed against this airline in our monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. This report allows consumers and air travel companies to compare the complaint records of individual airlines and tour operators. The data in this report also serve as a basis for rulemaking, legislation and research. Consumer information for air travelers, including the Air Travel Consumer Report and our pamphlet Fly-Rights, a Consumer’s Guide to Air Travel, can be found on our website: www.transportation.gov/airconsumer. Thank you for taking the time to contact us. Sincerely, Aviation Consumer Protection Division Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings

@ron, "Im not implying Swiss will immediately stop flying to LAX. I was merely responding to ‘they need us because we are the wealthiest nation on earth’." I honestly didn't read that anywhere in the comments. I truly don't think that anyone said that, nor even seriously implied that. Regardless, whatever fines the US DOT may - key word "may" - order them to pay will be a pittance in the great corporate scheme of things. What it would do is make those affected whole. US governmental agencies typically don't attempt to fine a company into submission, let alone out of a market unless their is a pattern of abuse. Companies often get minor yet public slaps on the wrist, the object being getting the offending company to comply with the law, not to drive them out of business or from a market. Keeping businesses operating and employing people is often seen as the greater good. If the DOT possesses jurisdiction and if it chooses to pursue the matter, then that's the likely outcome - making Swiss honor the tickets and/or refunding all monies and miles, plus a small slap on the proverbial wrist to remind them not to break the law in the future. Again, this is all a big, "if." The DOT may not take the case. We shall see, but even if they do take the claim and rule against Swiss, it will hardly be enough to make the cost of doing business here untenable. Besides, Swiss' own data indicates that the Americas, North and South, are their second largest market by number of passengers and revenue per seat mile. Having expanded across the pond, this hemisphere is now relatively important to them. Even if the DOT did fine them more severely, the Americas are important enough to their bottom line that Swiss wouldn't just up and leave the market. The self-inflicted damage to their own bottom line in the short term would be far too great. https://www.swiss.com/CMSContent/corporate/EN/media/newsroom/traffic-reports/Documents/20171109-press-release-traffic-report-oct-2017.pdf The other documents on that page are interesting, as one can go back any number of months and see the slow but steady growth in traffic to the Americas. Translate that into profits and there's no real way that a DOT fine over this would make them abandon the market.