sueco6

Refunds: It took me three weeks to get full refund for three return trips with AY. SK did not accept refunds (also for three return flights) but gave me vouchers after four weeks. AY-SK 1-0.

Frequent flier - issues: Finnair extended my AY Platinum period with 6 months early in the crisis. SAS has not done a damn thing. Contacting them about cancelled flights, they just respond (from India
?) that you cannot get any points because you haven’t taken the flights !!!! AY-SK 2-0

Finnair has cancelled most of the flights clearly until June 30th. SAS cancel the flights with very short notice, less than one week (within Scandinavia) which makes the rebooking very difficult, espescially for me who book my trips through travel agency. AY-SK 3-0.

Was also in contact with Finnair Plus CS a couple of times and got very friendly and humble replies. SAS CS responses were like from illiterate idiots. AY-SK 4-0

CPH-Flyer

SK has extended status for members with qualifying periods ending between 31.03.2020 and 28.02.2021 with 12 months. So I think they have one upped AY there. Their initial offer to credit points for cancelled flights in a certain have been superceded by this.

Since you book through a TA your gripe about refunds is with the TA not with the airline. Maybe your TA has an easier flow with AY. It just says things about your TA.
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kauppias

SK did extend but not across the board... they did leave some out to dry

those who were softlanded from EBD to EBG evidently among them...

but still that will work well for MOST members I am sure 👍

CPH-Flyer

Which is probably not an unreasonable restriction. They have already received a courtesy year, on their status. Giving them a second would be going very far IMHO.

kauppias

Could very well be, however in many cases they missed out on the EBD transition cycle. No big loss to me as I had decided to move away from SAS before covid19, I had ZERO flights in my EBD year

However I had planned on maintaining Gold and doing the flights during my EBD transition which unfortunately was 100% under the no flight rule 😁😂

So now I Will just keep A3 and Finnair and liquidate my EB balance on LH F as soon as SAS allows partner activity.

as far as status goes I dont think its smart to differentiate a gold from a gold etc why should someone who who gifted Gold not get extended as they are now NOT getting the use of a full years of Gold BUT I am certainly not going to bother contecting SAS about this as their replies are well known!

GUWonder

When the operating carrier wrecks the schedule and cancels the flights, the operating carrier can and should step up without engaging in the cop-out of “go deal with the travel agency”. The travel agents have an agency relationship for the ticketing carrier, and when the ticketing carrier is SAS and the operated flight schedule being wrecked is being wrecked by SAS, SAS can and should fix the situation rather than trying to make the situation the customer’s problem or even the contracted agency’s problem.

Good companies which value their customers don’t try to make their customers’’ problems worse and dump the problems on others without consideration for the customer and the fact that it was the company that created the problem and is best positioned to authorize a refund or otherwise make the situation right by the customer.

oliver2002

The question is what does the agent earn their commission for? Just the regular transaction or for handling irregs too? I think for both?

CPH-Flyer

The one trying to opt out of the obligations here iand dump the problems on their customers is the TA, they are being paid by the customer to handle the ticketing, and any follow up issues. The TA now seemingly wants to pawn the troublesome part of on everybody else.
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CPH-Flyer

You anyway seem happy with your transition away from SK, so things are probably not as bad as all that.

For the people who were given EBG status, but don't get extended, the giver will be extended and can give a card once again. Problem solved. Rather then extending the receiver and the giver being able to send a card to another person. (sorry I hate using gift as a verb, though I think it is officially recognised at least in some English speaking countries )

GUWonder

SAS is so generous with TAs that SAS pays commissions to TAs even for refunded flight tickets with SAS-cancelled flights?

JR67

This whole "corporate" TA thing is annoying. Many of us are EBD, but SK still tries to say their hands are tied since we bought via a TA. Well... many of us HAVE to buy through a TA. When I go via the TA I lose a lot of my perks - SK would answer my calls within a minute - my TA treats me the same as all the other customers. DYKWIA? ;-) I am forced to use Egencia, which is total crap, but since they won the bid we HAVE to use them. In the good old days we could either use our TA or buy direct from the airline providing the service and get reimbursed. Not anymore. One of the big downsides of working for the government, I guess.

oliver2002

Both. TAs get a commission per transaction from the GDS and a cut on sales from the airlines. Plus TAs charge a fee to the traveller for their services. Ofcourse that model doesn't work to cover the TAs costs when 99% or trips are cancelled. I get that. But that still doesn't mean you should tell your customer to sort it out with the airline. That said, often SAS takes control of the ticket when irregs occur and the agency can no longer change the ticket. But even then they have to call SAS, not the customer.

GUWonder

I am talking about when the named customer on the ticket calls or otherwise first contacts the airline under the current circumstances when the airline has cancelled the flights.

Even otherwise, what happens to the customers when a travel agency goes insolvent while the ticketing-and-operating carrier is still in business? It’s not like the airline is going to refund customers just because the travel agency is under duress ... to put it generously.

GUWonder

Welcome to Expedia.

I get a lot of my personal tickets booked with US bank card programs, and dealing with them for changes seems to get worse and worse over time. Expedia is in on there somewhere too.

I am not a 69 year old on my way to joining the blue-hair brigade for lunch, but even I at times miss the travel agents of yesteryear. But travel agents have been made increasingly impotent by the airlines, and that means the idea of a travel agent for an SAS ticket being able to get SAS to go beyond its usual self for customers is like dreaming of the past.

JR67

So... I can't resist... Why did the travel agent wear a tuxedo to his vasecotmy? "Because if I am gonna be im-po-tent then I an gonna look i-po-tent! Damn, quarantine is getting to my head...