Hi all,

Just got my first cancelation on a SAS flight ever and I'm major disappointed how SAS worked it out. I was on route from CPH to WAW and then from WAW over CPH to OSL. I was supposed to arrive in OSL late to attend an early morning meeting.

Anyway during a bad weather situation (Thunderstorms) on Monday evening the inbound flight to WAW was delayed by half an hour. Arriving at the gate the departure time was then adjusted to 18.00. The thunderstorm was still going on, so I assumed the delay will be longer and I won't get my scheduled connection to OSL but didn't worry as there are plenty of flights CPH -> OSL anyway.

Nevertheless the sky cleared pretty quick and the first planes started again leaving WAW at 17:45.

At 18:00 the gate agent announced SK2752 is canceled "due to technical problems".

As I knew another flight to CPH will be leaving at 18:10 and had a significant delay due to the bad weather I called SAS hotline punching in my EBG#, 2 mimutes later I was connected to agent.

After explaning my situation she told me she couldn't do anything since the flights were booked over the our corporate TA and I would need to get in touch with them.

I called out TA and Interessting enough SAS and WAW didn't mind to mark the flight as canceled, even on the boards in the airport there wasn't any note. My TA said she cannot rebook me for free as the flight isn't cancelled according to the system and I have to go to SAS. By the way even as the LOT 18:10 was till waiting at the gate there was no way not even for paying an extra ticket to get on that one.

So I went to the SAS counter where 200 passangers where standing in line and waiting. 2 agents were handling the rebooking - no priority line or handling for EBG, *Gold or business class.

I called the SAS Hotline again and explained that I was not happy with waiting for 5 hours now just to get rebooked. This time I was more lucky I hoped. The operator wasn't able to put me on the LOT flight either but at least offered to put me on a flight next morning at 6:20 to CPH which would have at least brought me to the meeting later than expected but only a couple of hours late. She told me to hold on as she needs to get clearance from her supervisor to acutally book the flights.

After 10 minutes she came back and told me that she cannot rebook it as the fights were booked on a LOT Ticket and I need to get to the airport staff to do the rebooking.

I called my TA again and told her the story so far. She then booked me on the 6:20 flight and said she has to contact SAS to get clearance and will call me back. An hour later she was still holding the line waiting for an SAS agent. I told her to call the EBG Hotline and after another half an hour she called me back that I have to take the 8:30 flight as on the 6:20 M is fully booked and SAS does not allow me to upgrade to C where seats where available. Even paying for the upgrade wasn't an option. So in the end I took the 8:30 and was 7 hours late for the meeting. This time SAS authorized the rebooking - so what changed to before? the ticket was still no 117- ticket.

By the way - in the 2:30hrs standing in the line at the ticket counter I moved round about 5 meters closer to the desk.

I really don't get why they didn't at least put me on the 6:20 in C for free. On an hour WAW->CPH flight - what would have been the difference? I would have gladly even lived without any C service (breakfast, drinks) at all just to get out of WAW early.

That's really frustrating. Normally I wouldn't care to claim compensation for a cancelation on shorthaul but given this experience and bad handling by SAS I want definitly to get something out of it.

Sorry for the long rant, needed to get it of my chest - in fact my only question:

Can you tell me where and how to claim compensation? I'm pretty sure they will claim "bad weather", but I was standing on the airport long enough and all other flights were taken off - heavily delayed but still... Or will SAS at least be honest enough to value the "technical issues" statement from the GA?

Thanks,
fassy