I know this is a complaints forum but I thought this experience of mine would show an example of how it should be done.

In late January I booked with Swiss to fly Manchester - Basel return in September, basically because their flight times were more convenient than easyjets from Liverpool. As it happened they were also slightly cheaper than easyjet.

At the end of March they realised what I had suspected for a while - the outward flight time was completely wrong! So they emailed me straight away to tell me rather than wait until they could hold me hostage . The new outward time 5 hours later was now very inconvenient so I phoned them (on an 0800 free number) and was expecting an argument but was immediately offered a full refund or a change of routing at no extra cost. They found me an option of going to Zurich 3 hours earlier with a complimentary train ticket back to Basel. Although in theory this was a longer journey the train actually stopped at where I was heading for so it balanced out and I just arived early.

After deducting the tax and charges, the actual fare paid was ony £19 return and they included light refreshments and drinks service in this. So having paid for my train ticket they have probably made a loss on me. But I bet they don't spend as much on legal bills as certain other companies mentioned on this forum! And they will get a chance to make something from me in future.