Cheap flights from Sydney to Cologne from $870

Flight was delayed 2 hours due to technical issues they were having at Zurich airport according to the swiss agent when I called. This caused my connection flight to be unviable. The swiss agent was helpful in finding me a partner airline to fulfill my need to get to final destination in eastern Europe. However, the only flight the agent was originally able to find me was a connecting flight through Frankfurt with a 7 hour layover and not only that but they didnt have space on the flight without upgrading me to a higher cabin class at my expense of 384 euro. I asked if this could be waived since the technical issues were not my fault from the beginning and the agent stated they arent. I ended up paying the extra 384 euro for the agent to call me back an hour later stating he found another flight through Munich with only an hour and a half layover which was great, but when I asked for the 384 euros to be refunded he stated that was included in the price difference for this flight and there was nothing he could do about that. I feel like I got scammed out of that 384 euros as that was a cabin upgrade for a flight I never ended up taking that was supposed to be my replacement for an error they were having on their end. I am grateful for the agent finding me replacement flights that worked in my favor time wise but not in being swindled out of extra charges. I also paid 85 USD to "pick my seats" (which honestly feels like a cash grab on behalf of airlines these days anyways) on my original swiss flight that I did not receive back either since I could not pick my seats on the replacement flights as well. Way to use flight delays for swindling your customers Swiss. Kayak was great as usual but I did not have any communications with Kayak directly for this ordeal it was all through Swiss airlines.

Flight was delayed 2 hours due to technical issues they were having at Zurich airport according to the swiss agent when I called. This caused my connection flight to be unviable. The swiss agent was helpful in finding me a partner airline to fulfill my need to get to final destination in eastern Europe. However, the only flight the agent was originally able to find me was a connecting flight through Frankfurt with a 7 hour layover and not only that but they didnt have space on the flight without upgrading me to a higher cabin class at my expense of 384 euro. I asked if this could be waived since the technical issues were not my fault from the beginning and the agent stated they arent. I ended up paying the extra 384 euro for the agent to call me back an hour later stating he found another flight through Munich with only an hour and a half layover which was great, but when I asked for the 384 euros to be refunded he stated that was included in the price difference for this flight and there was nothing he could do about that. I feel like I got scammed out of that 384 euros as that was a cabin upgrade for a flight I never ended up taking that was supposed to be my replacement for an error they were having on their end. I am grateful for the agent finding me replacement flights that worked in my favor time wise but not in being swindled out of extra charges. I also paid 85 USD to "pick my seats" (which honestly feels like a cash grab on behalf of airlines these days anyways) on my original swiss flight that I did not receive back either since I could not pick my seats on the replacement flights as well. Way to use flight delays for swindling your customers Swiss. Kayak was great as usual but I did not have any communications with Kayak directly for this ordeal it was all through Swiss airlines.