SaltyPaprika

Hello everyone, an update from the front line�.

the outbound sectors weren�t ticketed correctly, so the ticket desk in FCO sorted that and we flew to JED, and then on to DAR as planned.

we are now a week into our African adventure, and I called up SV to check the inbound sectors.

They�re toeing the line that they are not obliged to put me on another airline - even though the amendment they�ve offered is not for another TEN days.

they have offered me a partial refund. A partial refund at this stage would only cover 30% of the cost of a new flight home.

Im getting nowhere with SV, and they don�t have a ticket office here in Dar Es Salaam (the website is incorrect with that info).

the agent on the phone kept referring to schedule change timelines and that between 14 and 60 days before departure, they only offer changes. If the flight was cancelled in the last 14 days, then other airlines are allowed. I have searched the terms and conditions on their website but cannot see any reference to these timescales.

I�m at a loss with SV. They are just repeating themselves on the phone, but won�t budge on the other airlines for the inbound.

Does anyone know if I have some legal right for duty of care to get me back to the EU/UK?

SK AAR

Do not accept a refund for the inbound segments if you intend to pursue this, i.e. to be reimbursed under the duty of care.

So SV is prepared to reimburse 10 days of accommodation and meals etc at DAR?

danteshors

We are rooting for you Salty! Try and take a breath from this travel nonsense and enjoy Africa in the meantime!

sal77

I'm being given different advice from SV. I have a return leg DAR-JED-MAN scheduled for July, so I contacted them to explore my options and discuss possible alternatives or arrangements. I was offered either a partial refund or the option to wait until 24 hours before my flight for an alternative solution.

SaltyPaprika

I'm so sorry everyone, but I have failed!!

OTA kept referring me to SV, with SV advising me to go back to the OTA. Playing me against each other.

In a last ditched attempt to melt the icy hearts of SV, they categorically blocked me from re-booking onto another carrier. They weren't even nice about it. Kept saying "sorry but this is our policy". Refused accommodation or F&B for the extended delay to my trip. Supervisor was pretty rough with me too - saying that they would never allow it.

I tried to go in a little heavy with threatening legal action for leaving us stranded. Wasn't buying it.

In the end, we booked flights home with Ethiopian Airways - which were a pleasant surprise. I highly recommend them!

I think my next actions are to write to SV and OTA outlining my frustrations. My travel insurance says they will entertain my claim provided I have evidence of the SV drama, so that shouldn't be an issue to get the cost of the ET flights back.

I'm not sure about others experiences with SV, but I don't think I'd book them again even if the price was right. It's not worth the hassle dealing with their call centres.

SaltyPaprika

Do not believe them when they say that they can help 24 hours before departure.

We changed out outbound flights and still they were wrong! They had to be re-ticketed at ROME.

Make sure you have travel insurance and have a plan in place to get home - SV would not budge with us when trying to get us home on another carrier, and the only other option was to wait 7 or 10 days for a SV flight to JED from DAR.

plunet

Oh drat, that's a poor outcome for you SaltyPaprika and not a good look for SV.

I did start to look at SV's conditions of carriage at the weekend but got distracted and forgot to follow up with a reply. But my reading of their CoC led me to the conclusion that what they were offering you was aligned with their small print. That's little comfort for your return journey and whilst it seems like you can lean on your travel insurance to sort out the additional expense you incurred that's not something you should have needed to do when dealing with a full service airline like SV who have the financial resources to reroute you. As is frequently the case in the middle east, if the remedy is not part of the script in front of the agent, there's frequently no flexibility for agents to do the right thing for customers and they fear loosing their jobs for going off script.

I hope all these shenanigans didn't detract from the purpose of your journey and the hike happened without any hitches.

SaltyPaprika

So it gets better guys......

SV are now refusing to refund my unused inbound sectors as I was a "no show" for the 4th and final leg; the JED-MAN flight!

I tried to explain how the only way I could have made the 4th flight would have been to walk 3,200km. They're not buying it!

This is beyond a joke. I've never known anything like it.

plunet

So based upon their stance so far, they are failing to offer any remedies to reroute or reschedule as a result of their involuntary change. Reading between the lines my interpretation rightly or wrongly is that they assume you have "accepted" the rescheduled flights 10 days later. They are therefore being kinda consistent now to refuse a refund of the unflown sectors and they are treating you as a no show.

But what you can and should legally be entitled to is to request a refund of the government taxes and airport fees for the unflown sectors but not the base fare or fuel surcharge. Whether this worth your time and frustration is another question as it's likely to be a small percentage of the overall cost and at this point I would probably just send it all in the direction of your travel insurer to cover your losses, they might choose to pursue SV if they think it's worth their while.

SaltyPaprika

Yes it appears that I have almost accepted the flight change, but the flights are now out of sequence completely, so someone should be able to see the inconsistency in the flight pairings.

I'll call them again this morning to see if there's a supervisor to speak with.

Also, FYI...... On the outbound sectors, they did make changes to my departures times so we agreed to fly 2 days earlier than planned. When we got to the airport, we were not allowed to check in. It was because SV had accepted our flight change, but didn't not re-issue tickets properly. The reservation had new flights, but no ticket numbers attached.

I am very fortunate to have the correct travel insurance to fall back on, so for anyone reading this - if you fly with a non-EU carrier, you may have little or no rights at all to bring a claim. SV are not budging one bit.

sundogx

I had success emailing the USA customer relations team see SV | Various Egypt/TUN - Various SE Asia + CAI-ICN | J RT from 900EUR for my experience rebooking SV on QR two weeks ago. Two caveats that may matter is my origin is LAX (in USA) and I booked directly on Saudia website.

SaltyPaprika

Most likely you had better success as you booked direct. SV keep pushing me back to the OTA to resolve it.

I spoke with OTA again today and they've advised me that no refund is due because I no-showed.

Interestingly, I checked my Sv booking under the TAROM website - my 3rd sector (the cancelled one) had completely disappeared from the booking, which does mean that the JED-MAN sector was next in sequence that I no-showed for. Weird that they would completely remove the 3rd sector off the booking then claim I no-showed for the flight. I have all original documents/tickets.

I've raised a dispute with American Express now and submitted as much evidence as possible in my claim to them.

I'm not letting them stress me out any further, so will hope that AMEX sort it. I have the BA Premium Plus card and I think they offer some compensation for travel disruption, so maybe there's a potential claim if Section 75 proves unsuccessful.

SaltyPaprika

Sall77, did you book direct, or through an OTA?

sal77

I booked direct.

I was told if I wanted to take the refund option then I should request it via the manage booking link on their website. After reading your experience, I tried that... it didn't work!! Asked me to call CS. I shall try that again this week at some point. Lucky for me I am still nearly 2 months away from the planned travel.

atflyer

SV is becoming a joke and a very dangerous one at that. EU261 only gives very partial protection here, even if you fly to or from Europe. For the inbound section SV is a non EU carrier and that does not give a lot of rights. And in any case, if they do a schedule change 2 weeks in advance, as they did, EU261 gives you nothing. They apparently play hardball in such cases now. They won't rebook you on another carrier, even if they cannot offer a flight themselves close to the original flight dates. The only realistic option the OP had was to cancel the ticket and getting a refund when things changed in April. They probably want to teach us not to do what OP did - fly in the outbound and hope SV will solve the inbound issue. With SV now changing schedules and dropping destinations all over the place, I would say - if you have an SV ticket, ensure you are flexible with any other add on bookings you have (hotels, positioning flights) and that if you have to drop them since cancelling SV with a refund is the only thing you realistically can do, costs are minimal. And of course, this ' wait till 24 hours befor you fly' is a risk you never can take.

SV seems in many ways an airline in financial bad weather - dropping the free stopover hotel, dropping rebookings on other airline in case of major schedule changes, and doing schedule changes and dropping destinations all over the place, apparently in a bid to optimize revenue.