Nickel and Dimed by SAS Airlines
 

You don't have any extra or free baggage allowance, even as a Star Alliance Gold member. Totally screwed me over with a 600 US$ inner EU Flight PLUS 70 Euro luggage fees (one way).

SAS, an Airline to avoid!

Have you read what you were buying? This is now a common bread in Europe.

(while I entirely agree with the subject of the email - this does seem to be the trend)

Sadly, reading the small print has become second nature when dealing with airlines these days.

Re
 

No. I am Sky team Gold Elite too (in fact, I am gold elite with all major alliances). Just this summer I was flying Czech Airlines with no luggage included and of cause I was able to check in one piece of luggage for free as a Sky Team Gold Elite card holder. Same with LOT Airlines.

Being a gold elite member entitles me to some contractual benefits and I was shocked and still am shocked that an individual airline can override this with their own TOS basically "at will".

I mean, if you don't want to stick to Star Alliance rules or can't afford to stick to it, just leave. Star Alliance should not tolerate such behavior from it's members. I will wait what they say (likely nothing) and then try to make a backcharge on my CC for the whole ticket.

NZ and LH paved the way. Same for BA in OW. I don't have business with Skyteam, but basically if the other 2 alliances allow it, they could allow it too. No pressure from the market anymore regarding this benefit.

Nevertheless I am also very unhappy with SK's decision.

And about the chargeback... that is just ridiculous. You booked a flight without checked luggage and that's exactly what you got.

I hope complaining here helps already to cool down.

Skyteam is good. Especially Aeroflot. One of the most underrated airlines.

No, it isn't. Star Alliance rules are part of my contractual agreement if I buy a ticket. For now I have not managed even to get in touch with SAS Airlines. They don't have an email (the one they have sends back automated replies), they don't have a facebook chat...

Trust me, I may not be able to get in touch with SAS customers service. But my US Credit Card issuer (I am a 15 years customer) is EXTRAORDINARY good in getting in contact with people who charged me. :-) Did wonders once with Wizz Air. :-)

I have another flight lined up with Eurowings. They make it very clear that, while being part of Lufthansa, they are not a part of Star Alliance or something. Thats fine, as long as such things are agreed upon before purchase of a ticket.

Since you point to *A check the details page to see what *G includes:

https://www.staralliance.com/en/gold-status

Lets say it this way. SAS Airlines are the European equivalent of United Airlines in the States. Or as a lawyer friend of mine phrased it: You don't fly United if there is any way to avoid it.
(The incident with United was, by the way, totally expected. Had to happen sooner or later.)

I guess the same is true for SAS. You don't fly it if you can avoid it. My girl is on another SAS flight. Don't ask!

Instead of whinging about your so-called *A "contract" you should read the *A "contract".

It expressly provides that on certain fare bases, essentially rock-bottom discount fares, the extra allowance does not not apply to intra-European flights on: LH, LX, SK, OS, and SN.

If those terms were unacceptable to you, why did you purchase the specific fare bucket which did not include the allowance?

You got exactly what you were entitled to and what you would have received on any of those other carriers on an intra-European flight.

And as other has already pointed out. It's clearly stated in th *A rules that low fare tickets are without luggage, no matter you *A level

Have you tried the complaint form on their website or the chat the same place. There is also a phone number you can call.

Don't know what you dispute with Wizz was, but I doubt you will get any help from you credit card company regarding a claim against SK in this case.

My advise. Stop whining. You don't get the same perks with low fair ticket as you do with the more expensive tickets.

Chat does not work. May work under Windows, don't know. I don't do phone calls.


Fraud. Fraudulent and misleading billing. I was a tiny amount I asked back. Wizz resisted. I bough new tickets from another airline (6 flight legs!). Disputed, after some back and forward, a letter from a lawyer did wonders. All credited back into my account. It is easy to play hard ball against someone who is weak. But against a big company, I happily take the challenge. Not sure how much they lost in the end. But all I asked was 50 dollars back, that they overcharged me.

Want to bet against it?

So because SK don't have customer service through facebook, they are a crappy airline? I'm pretty happy they have stayed clear of the facebook trap so far.
When you get through to them, they will probably ask you to go to their customer service website and fill out the claim form there. I also asks for your bank info, so they can transfer any reimbursement to you. They normally respond within a day to a week for *A gold and up.


No because SK are normally pretty large with compensations, also in gray zones where you are legally not entitled to compensation.

So don't fly them anymore, stop giving them your money and they'll go away. The reason why terrible airlines keep existing is because people keep flying them.

It is not entirely correct. I flew LH earlier today and I have bought "light" fare with no baggage as I had carry-on only, but when LH is offering you a choice between "normal" and "light" fare, the difference money wise would be around 15-20 eur one way intra-europe but it books into the same booking class. I have no clue how they sorting it out internally but today I have paid 600 eur one way for LH "light" and it was B booking class, just one step of from full Y.