Whilst I understand that, and UA have been pretty good to me during IRROPs in the past as well, they're not going to do things like issue hotel vouchers or similar if we end up stuck at LAX for the night - that's very much SAS' responsibility as the carrier that put us in that position. Additionally if we end up in a situation where UA cannot accommodate us due to full flights it then becomes interesting between the two carriers! Mainly I am trying to avoid being in that position in the first place, been there, done that, got the T-shirt, would rather not have another so I work to avoid it.
Circling back to my original question - is this fairly normal behaviour for SAS customer service ? if so it's clearly going to heavily influence any future decision to fly with them.