Chiller3333

It looks like SAS stopped selling tickets to EWR till at least May 23rd or sth.
A I mentioned in a parallel thread, I am booked on EWR-ARN-FRA in May.
My flight hasn't officially been cancelled yet, but they definitely aren't selling any tickets for that day anymore (as of now).
Fortunately, there are still 1.5 daily direct flights between EWR and FRA, so I'm hoping that they'll be able to rebook me on one of those.
However, I still haven't decided whether I should stay in New York over summer or go home (I'm studying in the US, so I do have a my own place here).

Often1

If, as it appears, OP chose to rebook himself, that he takes himself out of the protections of EC 261/2004 and is on his own. He is due a refund for the unflown segments of his ticket and perhaps a duty of care for some period of time. But, not more.

Nonetheless, OP ought to seek out SK on the grounds that he was misled. Any complaint needs to be pared down to not one word more than 3 short declarative sentences. Anything more will not be understood or read.

In the end, in the current circumstances, if he cannot turn to travel insurance, he will likely need to file an appropriate small claims case and let that play out.

For the broader audience, anyone who travels overseas 6-8 times a year ought to have comprehensive annual insurance policy which, at a minimum, covers repatriation. While Covid-19 may be a one-off, there are many other situations where travel patterns may be interrupted and getting back neither easy nor cheap.

Shoredreamer

Very interesting info...thank you so much, didn’t even think of that at all (!!) the ticket was purchased with the SAS amex (elite), it certainly costs enough to have so I will definitely look into that and see if there is any additional covered benefit. We do have our home ins through Länsförsakringar and are otherwise quite pleased with our experience. When I spoke to them about this, they told me they were only covering medical issues but given we are about to move anyway, it seems a most appropriate time to potentially upgrade the policy/coverage anyway. It is only when traveling to the US that I don’t purchase additional anything, and without getting too detailed again, it’s because I do also have dual residency/citizenship including a separate medical policy for use while there as well.

lol I’ve only been in Ljungby for just over 5 years now so certainly not where I was at when joining FT & nothing to do with I think perhaps you are referring to Bolmen Thanks for putting a smile on my face at a time when it’s been otherwise not so easy. I am so ready to get back, especially this time of year, though must first get through the return journey without any cancellation and also the busy week ahead. With exception to what I need to do earlier in the week, I was planning on at least trying to quarantine myself for 14 days before I can be somewhat certain that I haven’t gotten sick in enroute although I’m getting the impression this is not the normal culture there right now, as it has been where I’ve been staying for the past many weeks.

Thank you to the others who have replied. I do find the opinions/advice to invaluable so again I really do thank you all!!! Sounds like the majority recommends at least making the attempt with SAS. I will certainly try to be more succinct as well when writing in, but difficult when also trying to include what I thought would be necessary details but obviously went a bit overboard to put it mildly :/ please be kind if you choose to quote me on this one

GUWonder

Worse yet, maybe It was a reference to the shore of the river in town.

Self-isolating is not the usual culture here right now and it’s way less usual in Smalland and surroundings except for those who are elderly, have serious underlying health conditions or are confirmed cases. Even if a member of a Swedish household is a positive case for this virus, the other members of the household may be up to business as usual with school (for the younger kids at least), work and so on.

I will have to deal with SAS sometime this weekend to see what they will do for me for my SAS flight cancelations ... and do it before they try to make an excuse that I didn’t contact them in time for a cancelled flight booking for bookings that SAS took over from the travel agency.

Shoredreamer

I don’t think I can even comment on this one. After spending the last 6 wks in quarantine it’s been ingrained that we must take steps to both protect ourselves and others....very different cultures.



Good luck with this. After calling them so many times as instructed the end result was they will refund you on flights they have cancelled or book you on SAS metal once up and running again and in some cases have scheduled flights but even admit they have no idea if they will even fly. They did tell me it didn’t matter when you canceled, saying it could even be after flight. Of course who knows if the answer will be consistent the next time asked but I haven’t “canceled” my flights yet either as I plan to at least wait until I’m on the ones I booked first, just in case anything else gets cancelled. In your case I guess there is no reason to wait unless you plan to rebook instead of refund.

GUWonder

I prefer to get rebooked for the same destination .... as long as they don’t push to re-price. Last time they rebooked me due to this virus situation, they didn’t reprice my travel but I was told the policy was that it needed to be rebooked prior to ticketed travel date (or maybe it was ticketed departure time).

SK2751

I travel a lot without an insurance, or more precisely without a travel insurance that protects me from cancellations like that. (I would never travel without a suitable healthcare insurance in all involved travel points.) But for me this whole story, however annoying and irritating, does not sound as a disaster. As far as I understand, the OP has 'just' lost the equivalent of one rotation. This is exactly how I handle things. I loose tickets, but as long as this is a small handful a year, things are very manageable within my yearly travel budget. This roughly corresponds to the other several trips being 10-15% more expensive which is within the usual price fluctuations. My reserved yearly travel budget is basically my travel insurance.

(Of course, I do not know anything about financial basis for OP's travel, which could be dire).