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I bought a ticket for the Vienna Erdberg to Bratislava Airport section of a bus route. The bus was on time but failed to stop in Vienna—incredibly, it just whizzed past me and some 15 other passengers standing patiently at the posted departure platform.

According to what we could find about EU bus passenger rights, the bus operator was obliged to re-route us to our final destination "under comparable conditions at no extra cost and at the earliest opportunity". None of us was able to get in touch with the bus operator at the time to ask about this (they don't list a phone number on their website, and the bus station itself was unstaffed due to it being a public holiday). We hurriedly searched for alternative connections and found two: the first option was to take the metro to a train station, followed by a regional train to Bratislava, followed by a bus to Bratislava Airport; the second option was to take a taxi directly from Vienna to Bratislava Airport. Since many of us had flights to catch, and the first alternative connection seemed too tight, we ordered shared taxis and filed claims with the bus operator afterwards to recoup our expenses.

The bus operator has now replied that they will refund the original bus ticket prices, but not the taxi fares:

Unfortunately, due to our terms & conditions, modes of transportation such as Lyft/Uber, taxi, airline, limousine, etc. are not considered comparable carriage to that in which you had originally booked ("bus").

Are they correct in this interpretation? We assumed that "under comparable conditions… and at the earliest opportunity" would include the cheapest possible shared ground transportation that got us to our destination on time. Is "comparable conditions" a term with a specific legal meaning? (In case it matters, the original bus tickets were about €7 per person, while the taxi fare worked out to around €50 per person.)

I'm asking because we have the option of appealing the bus operator's final decision to the Austrian Agency for Passenger Rights, but will do so only if there's some non-negligible chance that the appeal will succeed.

EDIT: Per @GiacomoCatenazzi's comment and my cross-checking with the bus's full timetable, it seems that the bus was not, in fact, a "long-distance bus" according to EU law, and so the EU passenger rights I mentioned do not necessarily apply. However, the bus operator's terms and conditions still describe compensation for delayed or cancelled trips, and use the term "comparable conditions", and so my basic question is still valid, at least insofar as it relates to enforcing the original contract.

I bought a ticket for the Vienna Erdberg to Bratislava Airport section of a bus route. The bus was on time but failed to stop at Vienna Erdberg—incredibly, it just whizzed past me and some 15 other passengers standing patiently at the posted departure platform.

According to what we could find about EU bus passenger rights, the bus operator was obliged to re-route us to our final destination "under comparable conditions at no extra cost and at the earliest opportunity". None of us was able to get in touch with the bus operator at the time to ask about this (they don't list a phone number on their website, and the bus station itself was unstaffed due to it being a public holiday). We hurriedly searched for alternative connections and found two: the first option was to take the metro to a train station, followed by a regional train to Bratislava, followed by a bus to Bratislava Airport; the second option was to take a taxi directly from Vienna to Bratislava Airport. Since many of us had flights to catch, and the first alternative connection seemed too tight, we ordered shared taxis and filed claims with the bus operator afterwards to recoup our expenses.

The bus operator has now replied that they will refund the original bus ticket prices, but not the taxi fares:

Unfortunately, due to our terms & conditions, modes of transportation such as Lyft/Uber, taxi, airline, limousine, etc. are not considered comparable carriage to that in which you had originally booked ("bus").

Are they correct in this interpretation? We assumed that "under comparable conditions… and at the earliest opportunity" would include the cheapest possible shared ground transportation that got us to our destination on time. Is "comparable conditions" a term with a specific legal meaning? (In case it matters, the original bus tickets were about €7 per person, while the taxi fare worked out to around €50 per person.)

I'm asking because we have the option of appealing the bus operator's final decision to the Austrian Agency for Passenger Rights, but will do so only if there's some non-negligible chance that the appeal will succeed.

EDIT: Per @GiacomoCatenazzi's comment and my cross-checking with the bus's full timetable, it seems that the bus was not, in fact, a "long-distance bus" according to EU law, and so the EU passenger rights I mentioned do not necessarily apply. However, the bus operator's terms and conditions still describe compensation for delayed or cancelled trips, and use the term "comparable conditions", and so my basic question is still valid, at least insofar as it relates to enforcing the original contract.

I bought a ticket for the Vienna Erdberg to Bratislava Airport section of a bus route. The bus was on time but failed to stop in Vienna—incredibly, it just whizzed past me and some 15 other passengers standing patiently at the posted departure platform.

According to what we could find about EU bus passenger rights, the bus operator was obliged to re-route us to our final destination "under comparable conditions at no extra cost and at the earliest opportunity". None of us was able to get in touch with the bus operator at the time to ask about this (they don't list a phone number on their website, and the bus station itself was unstaffed due to it being a public holiday). We hurriedly searched for alternative connections and found two: the first option was to take the metro to a train station, followed by a regional train to Bratislava, followed by a bus to Bratislava Airport; the second option was to take a taxi directly from Vienna to Bratislava Airport. Since many of us had flights to catch, and the first alternative connection seemed too tight, we ordered shared taxis and filed claims with the bus operator afterwards to recoup our expenses.

The bus operator has now replied that they will refund the original bus ticket prices, but not the taxi fares:

Unfortunately, due to our terms & conditions, modes of transportation such as Lyft/Uber, taxi, airline, limousine, etc. are not considered comparable carriage to that in which you had originally booked ("bus").

Are they correct in this interpretation? We assumed that "under comparable conditions… and at the earliest opportunity" would include the cheapest possible shared ground transportation that got us to our destination on time. Is "comparable conditions" a term with a specific legal meaning? (In case it matters, the original bus tickets were about €7 per person, while the taxi fare worked out to around €50 per person.)

I'm asking because we have the option of appealing the bus operator's final decision to the Austrian Agency for Passenger Rights, but will do so only if there's some non-negligible chance that the appeal will succeed.

EDIT: Per @GiacomoCatenazzi's comment and my cross-checking with the bus's full timetable, it seems that the bus was not, in fact, a "long-distance bus" according to EU law. However, the bus operator's terms and conditions still describe compensation for delayed or cancelled trips, and use the term "comparable conditions", and so my basic question is still valid, at least insofar as it relates to enforcing the original contract.

I bought a ticket for the Vienna Erdberg to Bratislava Airport section of a bus route. The bus was on time but failed to stop in Vienna—incredibly, it just whizzed past me and some 15 other passengers standing patiently at the posted departure platform.

According to what we could find about EU bus passenger rights, the bus operator was obliged to re-route us to our final destination "under comparable conditions at no extra cost and at the earliest opportunity". None of us was able to get in touch with the bus operator at the time to ask about this (they don't list a phone number on their website, and the bus station itself was unstaffed due to it being a public holiday). We hurriedly searched for alternative connections and found two: the first option was to take the metro to a train station, followed by a regional train to Bratislava, followed by a bus to Bratislava Airport; the second option was to take a taxi directly from Vienna to Bratislava Airport. Since many of us had flights to catch, and the first alternative connection seemed too tight, we ordered shared taxis and filed claims with the bus operator afterwards to recoup our expenses.

The bus operator has now replied that they will refund the original bus ticket prices, but not the taxi fares:

Unfortunately, due to our terms & conditions, modes of transportation such as Lyft/Uber, taxi, airline, limousine, etc. are not considered comparable carriage to that in which you had originally booked ("bus").

Are they correct in this interpretation? We assumed that "under comparable conditions… and at the earliest opportunity" would include the cheapest possible shared ground transportation that got us to our destination on time. Is "comparable conditions" a term with a specific legal meaning? (In case it matters, the original bus tickets were about €7 per person, while the taxi fare worked out to around €50 per person.)

I'm asking because we have the option of appealing the bus operator's final decision to the Austrian Agency for Passenger Rights, but will do so only if there's some non-negligible chance that the appeal will succeed.

EDIT: Per @GiacomoCatenazzi's comment and my cross-checking with the bus's full timetable, it seems that the bus was not, in fact, a "long-distance bus" according to EU law, and so the EU passenger rights I mentioned do not necessarily apply. However, the bus operator's terms and conditions still describe compensation for delayed or cancelled trips, and use the term "comparable conditions", and so my basic question is still valid, at least insofar as it relates to enforcing the original contract.

I bought a ticket for the Vienna Erdberg to Bratislava Airport section of a long-distance bus route. The bus was on time but failed to stop in Vienna—incredibly, it just whizzed past me and some 15 other passengers standing patiently at the posted departure platform.

According to what we could find about EU bus passenger rights, the bus operator was obliged to re-route us to our final destination "under comparable conditions at no extra cost and at the earliest opportunity". None of us was able to get in touch with the bus operator at the time to ask about this (they don't list a phone number on their website, and the bus station itself was unstaffed due to it being a public holiday). We hurriedly searched for alternative connections and found two: the first option was to take the metro to a train station, followed by a regional train to Bratislava, followed by a bus to Bratislava Airport; the second option was to take a taxi directly from Vienna to Bratislava Airport. Since many of us had flights to catch, and the first alternative connection seemed too tight, we ordered shared taxis and filed claims with the bus operator afterwards to recoup our expenses.

The bus operator has now replied that they will refund the original bus ticket prices, but not the taxi fares:

Unfortunately, due to our terms & conditions, modes of transportation such as Lyft/Uber, taxi, airline, limousine, etc. are not considered comparable carriage to that in which you had originally booked ("bus").

Are they correct in this interpretation? We assumed that "under comparable conditions… and at the earliest opportunity" would include the cheapest possible shared ground transportation that got us to our destination on time. Is "comparable conditions" a term with a specific legal meaning? (In case it matters, the original bus tickets were about €7 per person, while the taxi fare worked out to around €50 per person.)

I'm asking because we have the option of appealing the bus operator's final decision to the Austrian Agency for Passenger Rights, but will do so only if there's some non-negligible chance that the appeal will succeed.

I bought a ticket for the Vienna Erdberg to Bratislava Airport section of a bus route. The bus was on time but failed to stop in Vienna—incredibly, it just whizzed past me and some 15 other passengers standing patiently at the posted departure platform.

According to what we could find about EU bus passenger rights, the bus operator was obliged to re-route us to our final destination "under comparable conditions at no extra cost and at the earliest opportunity". None of us was able to get in touch with the bus operator at the time to ask about this (they don't list a phone number on their website, and the bus station itself was unstaffed due to it being a public holiday). We hurriedly searched for alternative connections and found two: the first option was to take the metro to a train station, followed by a regional train to Bratislava, followed by a bus to Bratislava Airport; the second option was to take a taxi directly from Vienna to Bratislava Airport. Since many of us had flights to catch, and the first alternative connection seemed too tight, we ordered shared taxis and filed claims with the bus operator afterwards to recoup our expenses.

The bus operator has now replied that they will refund the original bus ticket prices, but not the taxi fares:

Unfortunately, due to our terms & conditions, modes of transportation such as Lyft/Uber, taxi, airline, limousine, etc. are not considered comparable carriage to that in which you had originally booked ("bus").

Are they correct in this interpretation? We assumed that "under comparable conditions… and at the earliest opportunity" would include the cheapest possible shared ground transportation that got us to our destination on time. Is "comparable conditions" a term with a specific legal meaning? (In case it matters, the original bus tickets were about €7 per person, while the taxi fare worked out to around €50 per person.)

I'm asking because we have the option of appealing the bus operator's final decision to the Austrian Agency for Passenger Rights, but will do so only if there's some non-negligible chance that the appeal will succeed.

EDIT: Per @GiacomoCatenazzi's comment and my cross-checking with the bus's full timetable, it seems that the bus was not, in fact, a "long-distance bus" according to EU law. However, the bus operator's terms and conditions still describe compensation for delayed or cancelled trips, and use the term "comparable conditions", and so my basic question is still valid, at least insofar as it relates to enforcing the original contract.