SAS pilots on strike in April 2019
May 1, 2019, 8:26 am
#303
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: CPH
Programs: UAMP S, TK M&S E (*G), Marriott LTP, IHG P, SK EBG
Posts: 11,082
Re: TK at HKG. When a flight gets cancelled at T-24 or less, IATA airlines can push the pax in distress to another IATA airline. If the airline is associated, either thru an alliance or a bilateral then SAS doesn't have to ask for an endorsement but pushes straightaway. The reason behind that is the availability show to partners should be free of oversell fluff. OAL is different, SAS would have call a contact at say BA or AY and politely ask if there is still space before booking the segment. Alternatively SAS could have made reprotection agreements days in advance if they knew the flights would cancel.then the operating carrier would get more revenue than what the irreg booking gives them (usually the residual pro rated fare amount of that segment in the ticket).
TK ist Out of Line for treating you like that, they know that one day this could happen to them...
TK ist Out of Line for treating you like that, they know that one day this could happen to them...
May 1, 2019, 9:20 am
#305
Suspended
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
For example, AA has repeatedly refused to rebook me onto AY and pushed me onto “it’s AA or BA” in the event of various sorts of irregular operations. For example, BA had repeatedly refused to rebook me onto AY and pushed me onto “it’s AA or BA” in the event of various sorts of irregular operations.For example, UA has repeatedly refused to rebook me onto SK and pushed me onto UA and/or LH in the event of various sorts of irregular operations.
May 1, 2019, 9:38 am
#306
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: CPH, Swedish side of the bridge
Programs: SK*G (EBD)
Posts: 574
I suppose I should give a report on how my situation worked out:
Called SAS as soon as I saw that the flight was cancelled. Less than two minute wait until I got a human. He offered me a rebook on LH CPH-FRA-ORD which sounded great, so I took it and it the whole thing was wrapped in less than five minutes. Got the itinerary and saw that my transfer at FRA was 55 minutes. This is doable, but I injured my foot last week and can only walk with difficulty and did not want to be in a situation where I had to run. Called back and asked for a rebook. No problem, after a two minute wait a CS rep answered and we are now booked LH CPH-MUC, and UA MUC-ORD with a 1:15 transfer (also took less than five minutes). This is plenty of time at MUC T2, and now I get to test the new Polaris business on a 772.
The strange thing is that the options I found through ExpertFlyer were not available to them.
All in all it was painless once the cancellations were made and I could actually try to rebook. This was a 2-4-1 award ticket, but that was a non-issue to them, although they commented that it was an award.
So - if you are worried about getting rebooked, don't. Hopefully the strike will end before I return, but if not I am confident that the CS reps will get me home. THEY should get some of the pilots' salary for fixing the problems. :-)
Called SAS as soon as I saw that the flight was cancelled. Less than two minute wait until I got a human. He offered me a rebook on LH CPH-FRA-ORD which sounded great, so I took it and it the whole thing was wrapped in less than five minutes. Got the itinerary and saw that my transfer at FRA was 55 minutes. This is doable, but I injured my foot last week and can only walk with difficulty and did not want to be in a situation where I had to run. Called back and asked for a rebook. No problem, after a two minute wait a CS rep answered and we are now booked LH CPH-MUC, and UA MUC-ORD with a 1:15 transfer (also took less than five minutes). This is plenty of time at MUC T2, and now I get to test the new Polaris business on a 772.
The strange thing is that the options I found through ExpertFlyer were not available to them.
All in all it was painless once the cancellations were made and I could actually try to rebook. This was a 2-4-1 award ticket, but that was a non-issue to them, although they commented that it was an award.
So - if you are worried about getting rebooked, don't. Hopefully the strike will end before I return, but if not I am confident that the CS reps will get me home. THEY should get some of the pilots' salary for fixing the problems. :-)
May 1, 2019, 10:39 am
#308
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Denmark
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 11,824
Thanks for reporting back. It is very good to hear that SK is actually great and not fuzzy when dealing with rebookings, reimbursement of costs etc. This is how a legacy carrier should do it. I believe many carriers within *A could learn a thing or two from how SK deals with IRROPS.
Moreover, it strikes me all the difficulties people are facing when dealing with TA/OTA or other parties than SAS whereas dealing with SK directly seems very easy and productive. I hope this will remind everyone of the clear advantages of booking directly with the carrier rather than a OTA/TA if IRROPS occurs.
Now we just need this strike to end as quickly as possible.
Moreover, it strikes me all the difficulties people are facing when dealing with TA/OTA or other parties than SAS whereas dealing with SK directly seems very easy and productive. I hope this will remind everyone of the clear advantages of booking directly with the carrier rather than a OTA/TA if IRROPS occurs.
Now we just need this strike to end as quickly as possible.
May 1, 2019, 11:36 am
#309
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: KSU (Kristiansund N, Norway)
Programs: SAS EBD/ *G
Posts: 2,163
Not close to a solution yet
The State mediator just gave a press conference, and said that there had been some movement from the parties, but that distance between them still was large. Much remains to be discussed, and a solution is not forthcoming yet.
May 1, 2019, 11:49 am
#310
Join Date: Apr 2019
Programs: SAS Gold, Aegean Gold, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 204
May 1, 2019, 11:51 am
#311
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: KSU (Kristiansund N, Norway)
Programs: SAS EBD/ *G
Posts: 2,163
May 2, 2019, 12:55 am
#314
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: ARN
Programs: A3*G, SK*G
Posts: 336
As much as I am disappointed with what SAS has become of a mainstream airline, the way they handled my two cancelled flights since this strike began (ex ARN to CPH and ATH) has been commendable. I was offered a large selection of alternative routes (mainly on LH-group airlines), and they even agreed to rebook me on a route I suggested. In both cases my new tickets were issued and forwarded to me within a couple of minutes after hanging up. Apart from the connection inconvenience, this hardly affected my schedule since the delays were no longer than 2 hours.
The only issue was the overly long waiting times to reach them on the the phone, at least on their Swedish number. It is reasonable to expect much longer waiting times than usual, but 3+2+2 hours on Friday, and 4+2.5 hours on Monday was way over what would be acceptable, even considering the situation. To add to that there was no info on the expected waiting time/position in the queue. Hopefully this will improve since as I read somewhere in the press they were training additional personnel to deal with this. Or even better, this absurd situation will be over soon enough...
The only issue was the overly long waiting times to reach them on the the phone, at least on their Swedish number. It is reasonable to expect much longer waiting times than usual, but 3+2+2 hours on Friday, and 4+2.5 hours on Monday was way over what would be acceptable, even considering the situation. To add to that there was no info on the expected waiting time/position in the queue. Hopefully this will improve since as I read somewhere in the press they were training additional personnel to deal with this. Or even better, this absurd situation will be over soon enough...
May 2, 2019, 1:28 am
#315
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: ARN
Posts: 1,034
three biz award seats actually opened up next week and I snagged them. They popped up on United dot com before any of my alerts triggered, I wasn’t looking for them. Called the Swedish number. Very helpful, under 15min wait
now if we can start flying this weekend so LAX-ARN can get crewed up by next week....