wmathlener

During the current strikes at SAS i found myself frantically trying to make sure my parents make their flights after I got informed that their flights are being cancelled (tomorrow). I spent the entire day and energy speaking to an AI bot on the Tavellink website which was a waste of time. After insisting I want to speak to a human they eventually called me up. They kept pushing me to take a refund or that they could rebook the flights two weeks in advance. This was no option since they would fly back out of Europe before the return date. SAS then offered to rebook flights a week later which would also leave them two days in Norway - after flying and travelling for over 8 hours to reach the North this was unreasonable for 70year olds. I found other options with Norwegian but they were not willing to rebook flights with them as it would cost too much money. And at the end of all this confusion the agent of Travellink tried to force me to make a decision as to what I want to do.

So, flights got cancelled, I spent the entire day writing, calling, trying to figure out what to do, and when they finally open to negotiate it is totally in their control and they try to manipulate you just to be done with it.

No thanks SAS or Travellink

highupinthesky

You are aware that SAS will cover up to EUR 300 of the price difference between your canceled flight and the new flight if you book new tickets your self. I know norwegian is taking advantage of the situation at the moment, but I doubt their tickets for a flight in Norway will be EUR 300 more expensive than the canceled SAS flights.

I don't think price has anything to do with SAS not booking your parents on norwegian. They simply do not have any agreements with norwegian so they can't do it even if they wanted too.

wmathlener

I am aware of the EUR300 thing. And as you say, Norwegian is taking advantage of the situation. The price to buy tickets with Norwegian was over NOK8000p/p one way (they will fly from the UK). Original tickets were bought many months in advance at a good price. That means an additional cost on our end of almost NOK7000p/p one way would be needed to get here around the same time. Also, what would happen then is Travellink will make a refund and one then needs to buy new tickets oneself and then also apply for the EUR300p/p from SAS. So we are basically required to fork out around NOK16000 to fund a similar journey and hope that a part of that will be reimbursed by both Travellink and SAS. Well then, you are still stuck with getting flights back, right?

RedChili

Norwegian has their own reservation system, which no other airline has access to. An airline can only book you onto another airline when it has access to the reservation system.

Which basically means that when there's IRROPS at SAS, SAS can book you onto all IATA members like LH, UA, KL, BA, CX, AY, TG, and hundreds of other airlines. But not airlines like DY and FR, which have their own systems.

In the same way, if you have a ticket with Norwegian and they have IRROPS, they can't book you onto any other airline at all, only their own flights.

So, if you don't want to book another ticket with SAS because they can't rebook you onto DY, you basically cannot book a ticket with any airline at all, because there is no airline in the world that can rebook you onto all other airlines.

Travellink, on the other hand, is a low-cost booking site, meaning that they don't even list a telephone number that people can call when they have problems. If you book with such a low-cost site, you're taking a risk in order to save some money. If you don't want to take that risk, always book directly with the airline.

SusanDK

Interesting to see this old thread from 2005 resurrected. For the record, in case anyone reads it without noticing the dates, I have not used TravelLink since 2006. I don't recall having had any problems with them, but as RedChili suggests, my preference is to book directly with an airline if at all possible.

TravelLink was useful for me when I was unable to piece together the connecting route I preferred at any of the airlines' websites and, fortunately, I never dealt with IRROPS on the couple of itineraries I booked with them. Having not used them in 13 years, I cannot vouch for their customer service today.

Alvar Seeberg

My Travellink experience....

You cancelled my trip TCX8OY for NO REASON!! And I found out about it just when I was at the airport with my CHILDREN waiting for the check in....!!!

So now I had to buy a new tickets to not let my CHILDREN down because of you, it cost my 2250€!!

So I have no choice but to contact my lawyer and make you pay everything you have done!!

I specially contacted you earlier before the trip to confirm my booking and trip was ok, also told your customer agent to make a note that nobody can touch this booking..

But you still cancelled everything for NO REASON!!!

And even worse, you didn´t notice me about that cancellation...!!

So now I will make a law suit against you and require atleast 2800€ compensation for what you have done!

Im a new user

If the flight was operating, then you should claim €250, €400 or €600 (depending on distance) per person from SK for involuntarily denied boarding as you didn't cancel your trip. SK also has to rebook you as soon as possible and at no extra cost for you.

If the flight was cancelled, then you can still claim €250, €400 or €600 per person if the cancellation wasn't for extraordinary circumstances. You were not informed about what happened until you were at the airport, so you were informed of the problem less than two weeks in advance. SK also has to rebook you as soon as possible and at no extra cost for you.

According to case C‑302/16 in the European Court of Justice, it's the airline's problem if a rogue travel agency between the airline and the passenger which doesn't forward correspondence from the airline to the passenger. Presumably it's also the airline's problem if the travel agency cancels tickets without asking for permission from the passenger or even informing the passenger.

SK AAR

As far as can be understood from the post, the flight was not cancelled. For some reason the OTA had cancelled the ticket. This has nothing to do with SK nor is denied boarding. Without tickets the OP and family were not able to travel. The OP needs to clear this with Travellink (as to why the tickets were cancelled; could it be that tickets were never issued?)

Clearly there is more to this story. Why would the OP contact the OTA ahead of traveling to make sure that "nobody can touch this booking"?

Im a new user

As I understand it, the OP and family had tickets at one point. I can't find a provision in the EU regulation under which an airline or a travel agency can take the ticket away from the passenger without the passenger's permission and without even informing the passenger of this. As I see it, you would still have a valid ticket for the flight for the purpose of the EU regulation even if the airline chooses to annotate the ticket as "invalid", "cancelled" or "nonexisting" as long as the passenger hasn't requested to annotate the ticket as such.

Yes. Probably some details are missing and the OP's rights could depend on those details.

CPH-Flyer

Of course the airline is not responsible for the OTA's cancellation of a ticket. It is pretty standard operating procedure that a travel agent cancels a ticket, are you saying that airlines should keep all these alive and available just in case there was a mistake? There is zero EU261 comp due here.

Of course the OTA should not cancel a ticket for no reason. But that is between the OTA and the customer, the airline has no accountability or obligations here. Which the OP does also seem to acknowledge by blaming Travellink. Though I suspect there are a few more details that might be relevant to understand what actually transpired.
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Richard Hoffmann

If it were possible to give it less than 1 star I would. Customer service is horrific. I have been waiting since April 2021 for my refund to be processed and the only contact I can get out of Travellink is the auto email response once a month insisting that they are working on it.

I would warn anyone looking to use their service that you will not hear from them once they have your money....

Booking reference is 707 365 8625 if anyone from their agency is interested in taking up my case .

anonimous

Travelink, Opodo eDreams, GO Voyages and Liligo is the same travel group company and keep stilling the money from the people.

Stay away, very bad service and DO NOT TRUST THEM!

Book direct with the airline for stress free travel, otherwise you will loose your money.

Is booking via Opodo safe?