Swiss International Air Lines Reviews 2,883

Very disappointing experience. The customer service was poor, and the flight attendant’s behavior felt unhelpful and unnecessarily aggressive. Based on this experience, I will be avoiding this airline in the future.

I bought tickets to Portugal 3 months before the trip (May 2026) — it was a birthday gift for my mother. I also purchased train tickets to the airport for two people in advance and booked a hotel for a week.

Later, I received a notification from Swiss that the flight was moved 3 hours earlier. There were two options: accept the change or receive a refund. I selected “accept the change.” However, one minute later I received a confirmation of cancellation and a refund.

On the phone, I was told that it was “my mistake” — allegedly I selected the wrong option. As a result, I am losing money for the train and the hotel. The tickets originally cost 250 euros, and now I have to pay 1000 euros for the same flights.

I am extremely disappointed with this attitude. It feels like the company relies on the fact that busy people will not spend their time and energy on legal action.

Disgusting practice when it comes to compensation and refund for significant delays and delayed baggage related expenses.

They will make it as hard and as inconveniently as possible for you to claim your rights as a passenger.

Booked a flight from LIS - ZRH - VCE and so many things were bad that I’ll make a list.

1. The first leg of the flight was delayed as the inbound flight was late coming in and there was air traffic issues in Lisbon. No big deal. It happens.

2. We arrived at a bus accessed gate at 4:46 while my flight to VCE was at 5:10. I spoke with the pax in business class and they agreed to let me go with them in the first van to make my flight. The flight attendant refused and made me wait for the main bus which took 10 minutes to load.

3. We arrived at the terminal at 4:58 and still I ran to my gate hoping for some sort of delay that would let me get on. Unfortunately, I arrived at 5:03 and the door was already closed which is standard of course. The Business class passengers made it.

4. When the gate agent confirmed the door was closed, he also felt the need to add: “It’s because your Lisbon flight was delayed”….Thanks, I wasn’t aware.

5. The international customer service number on the website didn’t work. I tried hitting call from the screen as well as typing manually with no luck. My phone worked with other international numbers just fine.

6. After standing in the transfer desk line for 3 hours, I gave up and bought a bus ticket from ZRH to Venice.

7. Going to baggage, I was told by 2 agents that my bag was there, was requested, and would come out on carousel 21. I sat there for another 3.5 hours with no bag. After checking again, someone finally told me the bag was never put on the plane from Lisbon and they weren’t sure where it was. I made a report and they promised to deliver it.

8. Because of this delay, I missed the last train into the city to catch the bus and had to pay for a 60 for an uber to the station.

9. Once in Venice, I was notified they found my bag and would be sending it to Venice to arrive at 9:45. I’d decided to go home early and booked a flight through Delta leaving at 1:20 that same day from VCE. Once at the airport, I checked with the baggage service office at 11:15 am to see if I could just grab it but they didn’t have it.

10. They located it shortly before my flight but I was already past passport control and was promised it would be delivered to my home.

11. The bag arrived today at my home airport and I was subsequently told that they wouldn’t deliver it since I booked a completely separate reservation back home with a different airline.

12. Smaller things: No WiFi on plane. No screens. Drinks cost nearly $5 on the plane and no complementary snacks.

Overall, it was the worst flying experience of my life and they failed every step of the way. I will never again fly this airline again and I have zero desire to actually ever visit Zurich as a result.

The one light was the last baggage agent I spoke with who determined that my bag wasn’t there and helped me file a report. I wish I’d gotten his name in my frustration but he was so helpful even if the outcome wasn’t what I needed it to be. This was around 11:40 pm on February 5th when I spoke with him and a gentleman with glasses if he’s able to be located.

Not only did SWISS cancel my flight, but the options they offered were terrible. After I managed to rebook, with great difficulty, because the employees are extremely poorly trained to respond to customers and have great difficulty understanding the passenger's situation caused by SWISS itself, the seats I purchased to fly with SWISS were no longer valid for the new airline I was booked on, and I had to purchase seats again with the current airline at a much higher price. And even so, SWISS is not reimbursing me.

They lost my luggage with all my ski gear. They assured me, that it will take up to 24 hours. I arrived in the swiss part of Geneva airport. No one took my call or answered my mails (I used the number given to me in the office). In the end the international line answered, but no specific information was given. I ended up with spending 4 out of 7 of my skiing days with no gear or clothes.
Thanks Swiss Air for a ruined vacation.

I’m disappointed by the delay in response from Swiss Air to my email on 27/1/26 to Customer Travel Services about ski carriage issues. When booking the flights, I chose the Light fare for all four passengers as I wasn’t sure about baggage needs and couldn’t confirm with all family members at the time. Later, I added four checked bags, bringing the total cost close to standard Economy fares. Had I known Economy pricing included ski carriage, I would have booked that from the start. I’m now trying to add one set of skis, which I understand costs £67.90 each way. Given the situation, particularly the lack of advance information regarding ski carriage being free if economy was booked, I would hope that you would respond positively to my request to waive this fee. A phone number for customer services would be useful to enable discussion with a human. Booking ref is Z5KIZW.

Would give it 0 stars if I could. Both of my Swiss flights were delayed, and the second flight was an hour late. They had an entire extra hour to transfer my checked baggage to the new plane and still failed to do so. My bag didn’t arrive for 2 days. I had to buy replacement clothing, socks, underwear, and toiletries, as well as photography equipment I needed for my trip. Swiss refused to reimburse any of these expenses. For the price they charge, it was easily the worst airline experience I’ve had.

I enjoy *flying* with SWISS but they're let down by poor digital systems and customer care. I repeatedly tried booking with part-pay using Miles and More rewards and credit card. The charge would reflect on my credit card but the booking would fail. I tried multiple platforms and was on calls for 30 min with Lufthansa and SWISS, but got nowhere. I tried a fourth time without redeeming Miles and More and the booking was successful without issue. There appears to be critical digital integration that Lufthansa/SWISS just aren't getting right, leading to customer frustration and credit card limit issues. Why even offer Miles and More if you can't ensure backend systems are able to handle it?

Horrible airline.
Unhelpful even in emergency situations.
Don’t fly with them.

Pay for a premium airline, receive late budget experience.

On-plane phone network can cause your financial ruin without you knowing - inadequate warnings given.
The on-plane phone network connects to your phone without your consent and charges EUR 14 per MB. If you forget to switch to flight mode, and do not notice the message (e.g., if sleeping on an intercontinental flight), the background data usage on the phone can lead to extremely charges. I slept on a flight from SFO-ZUR; the AeroPhone network connected to my phone for several hours while I slept and charged me for a yet-unknown amount of data, at the price of 14 EUR / MB.

SWISS International Air Lines refuses to take responsibility for long delays by routinely blaming the weather.

My flight LX64 on January 10, 2026 was delayed for more than six hours. When I applied for compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004, SWISS denied the claim, vaguely citing snow and de-icing in Zurich. Winter weather in Zurich is predictable, and operational or technical shortcomings should not be passed on to passengers.

What is most disappointing is the lack of transparency and the refusal to engage in any dialogue. The response was declared “final,” leaving no room for review or explanation.

This experience shows a clear pattern of avoiding accountability rather than respecting passenger rights. I would not recommend SWISS to travelers who expect fairness and responsibility

Very bad customer experience and way worse of the last time I flew with them 6-7 years ago.

550€ for a flight to/from Athens - Zurich (2hrs) and they offered us a 250ml bottle of water and a tiny piece of chocolate. Embarrassing for their reputation.

Also I wanted to change my flight and bring it one day forward and the only way was via an agent! Are we in 1980s?

When all airlines allow you to do it online or via the app?! And on top of that they charge you more for the agent service , when that is the only option!

And of course 1hr delay in a 2hr journey.

Well done guys - u couldn’t have made it worse!

Never flying with them again.

Very rude customer service. It is always a displeasure to deal with Swissair.

Shocking from start to finish. Some of the staff were so rude and made my partner feel bad for not wanting to reuse his cup because it had orange juice in it originally and then he wanted cola. For our connecting flight back to Manchester we paid for two aisle seats because neither of us like sitting in the middle. When we got our boarding passes we were given a isle and a middle seat and was told we weren’t able to sit in the seats paid for because the flight wasn’t full and it was a different plane and that was business class. Nearly £3000 to upgrade to business is a joke. Money grabbers. Will not be flying with you again! Disgusting

Swiss used to be a premium airline. The prices are still premium but the service is cheap!

The worst airlines ever. Absolutely appalling service after the flight was delayed by 24h. Refused the compensation. Customer service nonexistent.

Lack of customer service and complicated system to give feedback or receive help. Stupid chatbot. Never fly with Swiss again!