Warning regarding: Rebooking/Cancelling flights upgraded through OptionTown
 

Hi all,

just had a quite bizarre experience with OptionTown, SAS and my TA.

I had a trip booked CPH-FRA-GRZ-VIE-CPH with the first leg on SK, the rest on LH and OS. The ticket was 117 SK ticket stock.

I upgraded the first leg to Plus using OptionTown which resulted in getting a new e-Ticket from SAS.

So, far so good.

Now my customer called me the day before travel and cancelled the meeting. We agreed on a new date and I went along to talk to my TA on either rebooking the ticket or cancelling it and buy a new one - whatever comes cheaper in the end.

As already thought my TA could not modify the booking anymore since SK exchanged the e-Ticket and blocked the TA's access. They told me that I will need to speak to SK.

So, I called SK and tried to either cancel or rebook the ticket. First reaction: "You booked trough a TA, you will need to talk to them". I explained that I already did that and that they can't do anything since SK/OptionTown exchanged the ticket and put a lock on it. The agent put me on hold to speak to a supervisor and came back a couple of minutes later with "Sorry, i can't do anything on this ticket. I cannot cancel or modify it either". another 15 minutes of arguing around didn't help a bit. The ticket stayed locked, unchangeable and will just expire when I do not show up.

I was pretty pissed but in the end I accepted to just be a no-show and went on with my evening. Funny enough the next day I saw in my SAS app that the return leg on OS was still showing up as "my next trip".

I thought since I missed the outbound SK will of course cancel the full ticket but it seems they did not - probably since they also could not access the ticket either :D

I called OS to confirm the reservation and ticket is still valid and in fact they told me "Yes, sure... you can come to the airport in GRZ tonight and fly home". Ok, I would need to go to GRZ first, but that is not the point.

Point of the story:
Be careful upgrading your flights thourgh OptionTown if there is a slight chance you need to modify it after the upgrade was confirmed and the new e-Ticket has been issued.

fassy

These are examples why I avoid using Optiontown or OTAs as much as possible even if I sometimes may use them.

Interestingly, I have seen the same regarding cancelled flights, they still show up on my SAS App as if I could fly them (never dared to try sneak in :D)

No OTA on my side, a pretty capable Corporate TA and the phone agent really knew what she was doing.

I wonder if SK could have modified the ticket if I had bought it with them and did the same. I have the feeling that OptionTown might be the blocking party here and holding the lock on the ticket.

The optiontown details say that you need to contact uTo for changes to the ticket. They have the control over the coupon... including restoring it to the previous state!

Hmm, interessting - did not see that note. So, OptionTown hijacks the full ticket even though they should just care about 1 segment?

OptionTown booking classes after Jan 1st
 

Hi SK peeps,

I have a sneaking suspicion OT upgrades won't credit the points of the upgraded class after Jan 1st. Can anyone confirm or debunk?

My last answer from SAS Chat was a reference to the website ... he even quoted the old text "but as you can see, you get 200% points with OptionTown". I had to tell him that certainly isn't always true after Jan 1st :rolleyes:

I flew in Nordics this weekend, upgraded with Optiontown from O to A and got credited 750 points instead of 250.
As I booked and purchased the upgrade request before nov 27, I will of course send a request for the full 1000 points that I expected when I applied for OT though, will be interesting to see how that turns out as OT cleared after jan 1.

I'd be interested in reading the outcome of your request, as I'll be in a similar situation later this year.

Those of you who have had sucessfull Optiontown upgrades after Jan 1st, could you please confirm which ticket class (not cabin) you were upgraded to.

If I am not mistaken, Plus cabin was always B and Business cabin was always Z; At least for the Intercontinental flights.

I updated the wiki with the rules wef 14DEC last week:

Booking class Europe: A (SAS Plus)
Booking classes Intercontinental: Z (Business) and P (SAS Plus)

Flew CPH EWR on Dec 25. Got upgraded to Z with optiontown and got 7800 Points
Fler EWR- CPH on Jan 1. Got Upgraded to Z with optiontown and got 6000 points.

Just signed up with OT for some short haul work. Paid 30 euro per leg plus 1 euro for administration. Will be exciting to see if it goes through.

So I just completed this itinerary. I got an economy boarding pass from united for the SK leg, and nobody questioned in Frankfurt. No email from OT either. So my first ever attempt to use them, and not cleared.

SFO-CPH January 25- just got an email the upgrade from Go to Plus did not go through. Guess I will have to use points (if available)

An email from option town cam today (on the original travel date, before the change), with the original itinerary via ZRH not via FRA. So it seems that in case of changes, OT is not informed of them. At least if the change is made by UA....