I booked our Christmas trip (CPH-MCO) back in June via travellink.dk. At the time, they offered the best itinerary and price, which was CPH-MCO via EWR with the domestic connection on CO, returning MCO-CPH via ORD with the domestic connection on UA/TED. (SK's site rarely offers a CO connecting flight nor a decent price.) Non-refundable ticket.

Today I received an itinerary update from TravelLink.dk which at first looked like only a 20-minute change on the connecting flight from EWR to MCO which was no problem as we have 3 hours in EWR anyway. I noticed our seat assignments on the ORD-CPH return didn't look like what I had pre-booked, so went to ExpertFlyer to see how the seatmap looked. Lo and behold, the flight doesn't come up at all.

Upon closer look, I got a shock to see that our return ORD-CPH on 6 January had been changed to 7 January. However, our connecting flight from MCO-ORD remained on 6 January. So they rescheduled us with a 26-hour layover in Chicago.

I phoned Travellink.dk and they claim that this change was made by SAS on September 12th, the day they cancelled the 6 January ORD-CPH flight. I was never informed of this change previously (and nearly overlooked it in today's email with the other slight schedule change).

I could not understand why our flight would be moved by 24 hours without being told (neither my husband nor I have an extra vacation day for a delayed return), nor why they would leave us departing MCO on the original flight and not shift the entire day's itinerary.

The agent from Travellink.dk explained that SAS did the cancellation and reschedule and most likely did not even see the other legs of our trip, so wouldn't have known that the reschedule was unreasonable. I've asked her to fix it with a connection via EWR or IAD on 6 January, and she tells me that only SAS can do that!

She has called SAS and it is now in their hands, and they will not revert to me today. I can see from Travellink's website that there are seats available returning CO from MCO-EWR, and the EWR-CPH on 6 January. But SK's site does not offer this option. I have experienced that SK does not offer all options, particularly on non-* airlines.

I'm getting a little hysterical and worried about what will happen. Travellink tells me that if SAS cannot come up with a reasonable alternative, that my non-refundable ticket could probably be refunded. But this is our Christmas trip and I cannot find any other reasonable alternatives for a reasonable fare!

The problem isn't finding seats on either of the other SK options from the U.S. (IAD or EWR), but getting a domestic connection from MCO at that time of year. It was tough enough to find a decent flight in June when I originally booked. Even if we could change our work schedules and accept the rescheduled return on 7 January, we cannot get a flight from MCO-ORD on 7 January, and we aren't sitting in Chicago for 26 hours in January.

I don't understand why Travellink cannot make the change based on flights they have available in their inventory, since my booking is with them (eg. the CO via EWR connection). If it is up to SK's discretion, can we be forced to take a less-than-desirable itinerary? I've asked Travellink to suggest the CO/EWR connection to SAS, but she doesn't know if they will accept it as an option.

I spend a lot of time booking our flights, always with a reasonable itinerary in mind, and never more than one connection, since even the best itinerary still gives us an 18-20 hour travel day.

What are my options if SK does not offer a reasonable alternative? What are their obligations to give me a reasonable alternative that at least resembles the same date and time as we were originally scheduled to travel? Can they insist we delay our return by a full 24 hours? If a reasonable connection is available on our original travel date, even if it isn't with one of their regular partners, can I insist they give it to us?

Am I learning the dangers of booking with travel agents and not going through the airlines directly? At the time of booking, SK's price was double what I paid for worse connections, and the connections I got weren't even an option. (The ticket still cost much more than we've paid for the last dozen trips, no doubt due to the season.)

Thanks for any advice before I brace myself to deal with this tomorrow.

Susan