AlicorporateUK

What a joke but not surprising is it (fully agreed with view's post above). I'm guessing there were no seats available on any of the BHX services? I would have asked to be put on the first available BHX flight, taxi to Manchester and billed those cheap wasters straight after.

G

NewbieRunner

I may be tempting fate by posting this but I’m currently sitting in the SAS Gold Lounge in CPH waiting to board a flight to ARN.

After spending two hours last night trying to call the numbers in Denmark, Norway and the US given to me by oliver2002 I gave up and decided to wait until the morning. I called a Danish number around 7:30 this morning which was answered straightaway to my surprise. I explained flying to LHR instead of MAN was unacceptable but the agent told me no seat was available on today’s flights. Being a good FTer I had of course checked availability on flysas.com and pointed out some Plus seats were available via ARN. The agent agreed and was able to book me on CPH-ARN and ARN-MAN this afternoon.

I saw the three women who had been rebooked on the 16:30 flight to LHR at breakfast and asked what had happened. They decided to go back to the airport last night to get things sorted out face to face and one was able to persuade SK to put her on the same late afternoon flight to MAN one day later. One has agreed to fly to LHR but on an earlier (12:30) flight than she had been originally rebooked on. The third lives near London so flying there is not a big problem.

I have little experience of dealing with SK but agree that their IRROPS handling leaves much to be desired.

Nick Art

Glad to hear your on your way. Let us know once you finally arrive in MAN

FlyingMoose

Really not unusual at all, SAS doesn't have phone staff for any passengers other than the Diamond line during the weekend either. At outstations the local handlers can rarely help or simply don't show, even at major airports such as CDG and AMS this has happened to me. The Diamond line best case has 1 person working and then another 50% chance that person decides to answer the phone. I've been in queues in excess of 2 hours trying to get through.

Best solution is not to fly SAS and find an airline with 24/7 support or at least for business / elites.

AlicorporateUK

+1, clear and concise (sad but very true).

G

NewbieRunner

Now safely home after arriving in MAN 25 hours later than the original schedule, here are some observations based on my experience.

• The IRROP happened at SK’s hub airport and not at some outstation.
• After waiting for an hour for my turn at the Service Desk I was only given taxi and hotel vouchers. Wasn’t there a more efficient way to do the same if the agent was unable to rebook pax on alternative flights?
• Many people waiting at the Service Desk were passengers on a “delayed” flight to DUS (another CR9 flight which was later cancelled). An agent was walking among the crowd, handing out restaurant vouchers and telling them to return in one hour. Had they not been sent away the rest of us would have waited much longer for our turn.
• Not sure how effective the queuing system based on three types of numbered tickets is: Go, Business/Plus, EuroBonus status/*G.
• While waiting in the queue at the Service Desk I searched for alternative flights back to MAN that evening. There was some availability on LH via FRA and MUC. I mentioned this to the Service Desk agent but was told there were no available flights.

I could go on but what seems clear is Service Desk agents were not empowered to do anything. I and others were eventually rebooked to fly to an airport 243km away as the crow flies or 4 hours away by tube and train. There was no way I could carry two cases across London to catch a train. BA has regular flights between LHR and MAN but I doubt if SK staff who rebooked us to LHR even considered or were able to put us on LHR-MAN flights.

Cancellations do happen and airlines are expected to pay for the consequences through duty of care and/or EU compensation unless under exceptional circumstrances. But there’s no penalty for incompetent IRROPS handling other than through possible loss of customers as suggested in this thread.

Staff especially incompetent ones are expensive. SK should consider investing in something like this used by their competitors: Amadeus Ticket Changer (ATC) Disruption automates tickets handling and online rebooking

I have only flown on SK in Economy in the past (two longhaul returns and some shorthauls) and enjoyed flying to NRT and back in business very much. I regularly fly to TYO and my usual carriers are LH, NH and LX. I chose SK this time because the fare was nearly 20% less than the next lowest I could find and booked into a higher booking class. I may book SK to TYO again if the schedule suits but will build in enough buffer for any possible IRROPS.

AlicorporateUK

Disgraceful IRROPS handling (25 hours later, Denmark-UK, seriously?! ) but at least they are incredibly swift when it comes to compensation payment (and I'm saying this by direct experience).

G

view

Sorry to hear about your poor experience NewbieRunner, not well handled at all. Was your cancelled flight on a CRJ900 aircraft by the way? If so may well be a casualty of the Cityjet pilot issues this summer.
Make sure you get your claim in, it is usually handled well (i.e. not the LH way of denied first/second time before paying out as a "gesture of goodwill").

NewbieRunner

Yes, my flight to MAN would have been on a CityJet CRJ900. If you click the “Show” button next to Spoiler in my previous post you will see that I did submit a claim for compensation which was confirmed by return!

view

Ha, well I learned a new feature of FT now!

oliver2002

Found out a few things recently and wanted to share. It seems SAS does use the ATC module by Amadeus and agents are instructed to religiously follow it and not change anything. Worst of all, the tickets issued by travel agents get reissued and as a result they cannot make changes for their clients once the ATC had done its work as the ticket goes to SAS' control. LH group does it a bit differently, there the agents are allowed to make changes and change the ticket themselves within the limits set by ATC.

drvannostren

Pardon my ignorance, and forgive me for reviving a dead topic, what do those details show? I was reading through it and other than the statistics, I didn't see anything that would've been proof for an EU261 claim. But maybe I just didn't understand everything I was reading. I'm in a situation currently where I think I MIGHT need to make a claim, I have expertflyer, and I'm trying to trace the delay back as the aircraft has been late all day today and a bit going back into yesterday. FWIW flight is SK723, not part of this sub of the forum I know, but I googled and ended up here

NewbieRunner

According to flightradar24 SK723 today will be operated by EI-SIA which operated the following since this morning.

SK1683 ARN-AGP dep 56m late, arr 39m late
SK1584 AGP-ARN dep 80m late, arr 62m late
SK718 ARN-HEL dep 69m late, arr 57m late

SK723 is scheduled to depart at 20:05 but SK718 landed in ARN at 20:27.

Do you have a connecting flight to catch at ARN? EU compensation if applicable will be based on the actual arrival time at your final destination. If you miss your connection in ARN and the next flight is not until tomorrow SK should give you accommodation and meals in ARN regardless of the reason for the delay.

SK's IRROP handling is not up to scratch. Make sure you get everything sorted out at the airport if possible. There is no telephone support in the evening and when I was stranded in CPH in the summer I was sent to a hotel and told to check checkmytrip to find my alternative flight. Unfortunately they eventually booked me to a wrong city (London instead of Manchester) but I could not call anybody to have it sorted out until the morning.

However, their EU compensation handling is excellent! They have a very well designed claim form which you can complete online and you don't need to know the reason for the delay, times of arrival, etc. since the airline has all this information. All you need to supply is your booking details, which flight caused the delay, which flight you were rebooked on and your bank details.

If the delay is not due to unforeseen circumstances such as weather, they are very quick to respond and pay compensation. I had mine paid into my bank account within 3 days!

Hope you don't have to make a claim but if you do you will be dealing with a good airline.

Edited to add: SK723 departed at 21:08 and is expected to arrive in ARN at 20:56 local time, 46 mins later than schedule.

drvannostren

NewbieRunner

ARN to VNO via FRA! I hope at least you’ll receive miles for the additional distance flown. And good luck with your claim!