We had a pressurisation failure and the pilot had to dive suddenly from cruising altitude. We continued the flight at low altitude finding ways around the mountains (but dangerously close to them) as to not climb too high.
Sorry, but after this incident, as long as I am safe, it's fine.
Me and my wife also had a nightmarish experience with them in June '07, and the consumer magazine K-Tipp confirmed that this sort of thing can happen.
We had a flight booked from Zurich to Montreal CA, where a rental car was waiting for us. Our plan was, roughly, to drive around from awhile and end up back in Montreal to fly home, after returning the car.
Well, my wife is from a country that technically didn't require visas anymore for Canada, but as it turned out, the agreement hadn't been ratified yet - so she still needed one. I messed up by not getting one for her. But boy did we suffer thanks to that one mistake...
First, we checked in our bags at the Zurich airport. The Swiss agent first told us "hey, she needs a visa!" and we got nervous - but then she checked the text on her screen and decided she didn't need a visa after all. In fact she mis-interpreted the text, which was missing a period and seemed to say one thing but meant another.
ANYWAY, so we went to the gate, having checked in our suitcases. We were a bit on the late side. Well, when we tried to check in, whaddya know - they told my wife she couldn't get on the plane w/out a visa. WHAT? We were just told she could? Well, they weren't budging since they have to pay for her flight back to CH if the authorities in Canada "have" to send her back home once she gets there.
So we had to decide within a minute whether to have them dig out our 2 suitcases and we both stay home, or I go alone and she finds her own way. We chose the latter.
NOW: get this. There were plenty of people who saw what happened and why she wasn't allowed onto the plane, right? Well, her ticket was CANCELLED, simply because Swiss has a policy that if you're not on the trip there, you can't come home either. It's to prevent people from buying 2-way tickets when they really just want 1-way (which is usu. more expensive). But even under these circumstances they didn't want to budge!
Not only that, but they didn't tell my wife that she at LEAST has the right to get back her airport fees - she knew it herself, and had to argue a bit with one guy at the Swiss counter until he paid her that part back.
So, meanwhile I arrive in Montreal alone with both of our suitcases.
Because we had a specific route planned, it all became very complicated...my wife had to fly to Paris first because the embassy in CH doesn't issue travel visas(!) So she ended up on an Air France flight. In Paris she had a few hours changeover to get herself visa, which was a nightmare in of its own. But that's not part of the "Swiss" story.
It made life REALLY HARD for us that Swiss simply didn't let her use the return portion of her ticket because of their stubborn policy. In resulted in
- a Swiss agent in Montreal working for *days* to try and find a workaround for us!
- me and my wife flying out of New York instead of Montreal - get this - MY flight with Swiss was still valid, so they actually diverted my return flight from NYC, to match my wife's flight - which was also out of NYC (the flights out of Montreal were too expensive).
In other words, one of Swiss' OWN AGENTS had to go to a lot of trouble because of THEIR OWN stubbornness.
Not only that, it also meant that I couldn't return the rental car to the Montreal airport, so I had to leave it Rochester NY (long story) - WITH a return fee of course! - and get local flights for us both from Rochester to NYC so we could finally get home.
To sum up, because of Swiss' rule -which is meant to prevent cheating- and their unwillingness to make an exception EVEN when it was clear that we weren't cheating, they caused THEIR OWN employee in Montreal a couple of days worth of trouble (not even SHE could convince them to allow my wife to use her return ticket!) re-organizing things for me, so I could go home with my wife.
And our trip became 2 or 3000 of thousand CHF more expensive in the end, with phone calls left and right, plenty of stress, and a nearly perfectly ruined vacation plan.
YES, it was our mistake to being with, but the complete lack of understanding from Swiss - even to the detriment of one of their own employees! - is something I'll never forget. It remains a black spot in my memory...
I continue to avoid Swiss to this day, and I will continue to avoid it if possible.
But again, all I expected from Swiss was that my wife be allowed to use the RETURN portion of her ticket. After all, by that time she'd have gotten her visa. But no - it's not their policy. Instead of actually THINKING about why the rule exists in the first place, they simply closed their eyes. THAT's what made me so mad.
especially the check-in staff in Zürich.
That's why I like the Asian airlines so much better.
On one of my trips over from California this year, I booked a flight with Swiss 30 days in advance with the request for transporting two cats. I was told at the end of the phone conversation all was fine. I re-confirmed my flight a day before departure and was told my cats were not confirmed yet for travel. I asked how long does it take to handle the request for transporting my cats when I booked this itinerary 30 days out! I was told they would check it and all should be fine. The next day, 5 hrs before my departure, my cats were still not confirmed on the flight. I was livid! I asked to speak to a supervisor immediately. I finally got this very nice lady that told me the reservation had been screwed up from the start. She, Karen, sorted out the mess 3 hrs before my departure. She instructed me to contact Swiss customer service, via e-mail, and explain to them what had happened.
So, when I returned from my trip, I did just that. In my email, I told Swiss' customer service about what had happened, and that I was told two cats couldn't travel in the same crate so I paid for two separate crates at the tune of $200.00 each.
To my surprise,a few days later, I received an email from Swiss customer service apologizing for their mistake. They asked for my mailing address so that they could send me a refund. And do you know, I received a check via FED-X the next day! I was shocked!! And, to top that, they refunded the entire cost I paid for transporting my cats.... =)
Now tell me another airline that would do that, and so quickly..
I fly Swiss whenever I can.....=)
Pretty heartless, but that is business. If you would have had a much more expensive fully flexible ticket it would not have been an issue.
I have never had a problem with them. My only complaint is the horrible seats in Business! They are almost the same as in Economy.
But now my company has cost-cut and we no longer fly business... so I guess I have nothing to complain about anymore.
No, this was the only thing right they did. To have a passenger without visa when a visa is required is absolute rubbish. But how the matter was handled apparently was not upto what could be expected. Already the person at the check-in should have placed an alarm. The couple ought to have been re-booked either by a day or via New York (depending on her passport) or via Paris or London. And the thing about ticket cancelled etc --- I can imagine the comments of those agents in North America about their working for that "Swiss" company.
And, if you think that US airlines act any differently then I suggest you spend some time on www.flyertalk.com and listen to the tales of woe over there. Believe me, they are just the same if not worse.
But why should seats in Economy be "horrible" ?
also a "full" long-haul flight usually has some "jump-seats" free. These are seats for "surplus" personnel being transferred and often are seats without windows. I once, on a Malev flight ZRH-Budapest accepted a kind of upgrade/downgrade up into business class and down into a seat with the wall right in front. And got, as they had to wait for the "clear for take-off" some two really good apéros, and during the flight quite a happy quantity of excellent Hungarian wine. With gym-shoes, worn jeans and a "mediocre" t-shirt but decent manners and behaviours I apparently quite positively differed from "business-class-users". When I joked to a stewardess that the beverages I consumed made up what I had paid, she joked that "those" people did not pay anything but had it paid by their companies. And that I to her view was about the only one around who appreciated how good the wine actually was.
No, when he complained to a stewardess about having been treated so badly by you, the stewardess simply shifted that person to a jump seat
No, crew's have reserved seats when positioning and are rarely (if ever) in jump seats unless the flight is full.
A Flight Attendant will never put a pax in a "jump seat", perhaps you are refering to a "crew rest seat" which is not the same thing.
I couldn't resist, it is so fitting the topic!