volatum

The refund process, including the refund form on their website, is obviously nothing but an endless sequence of lies and deceit, designed to maximize customer attrition, and ultimately retain unpaid refunds for their own profit, which is illegal fraud. I recommend you reject their empty promises and dispute the charges on your credit card. Then file complaints with the relevant government authority.

rumble

I got an email today saying that they are working on the refund. So it’s happening, just taking extra time.

RooseveltL

Rec'd this email on 2Apr but submitted/requested via agent working from home about a week prior - We’ve received your request for a cancellation and refund.
Due to the current situation, we’re handling a large numbers of requests. This means that handling times are longer than normal. Please bear with us and kindly wait for us to get back to you — we’ll take care of your request as soon as we can!
Thanks for your understanding. Naturally, if you’ve already received your refund, you can ignore this message.
Best regards, SAS

Still awaiting my refund on two tickets a month later. As I know they are backlogged I am still waiting. My original flight was EWR-ARN which was cancelled.

warakorn

Money is not growing on the trees.
Where do you think will SK get the cash to pay back the refunds?
Ticket cash has been already spent by SK for operational costs at the time of ticketing.

volatum

Where have you been while the Danish and Swedish governments were handing out enormous guaranteed loans to SK? You're right it doesn't grow on trees anymore, instead it's created with a click of a button nowadays, even easier. Why is SK not using this money to refund customers?

https://www.sasgroup.net/newsroom/pr...ity-agreement/

https://www.thelocal.dk/20200505/sas...sweden-denmark

SK AAR

Because the money is used for paying salaries, leasing payments and other operational costs. I can assure you that refunding pax is not high on that priority list of creditors. These loans were not granted to enable SAS to refund its customers but to keep SAS afloat.

I hate to say it, but this time Warakorn has a point.

JR67

One thing I have been thinking about all this wrath at not getting refunded for flights:

For the airline, a refund means giving back money they had already earmarked to keep operations going, including keeping as many personnel as possible employed.

For the personal traveler, a refund means getting back money they had already calculated on not having. Additionally, the fact that the trip never occurred probably means that the individual has MORE money than would have been the case otherwise, because other trip-related costs never happened.

So an immediate refund will negatively impact the travel provider, but should be seen as a windfall to the individual, since this money was already budgeted as an expenditure.

Doesn't change the fact that the money should be refunded eventually, but this way of thinking about it makes me much less sympathetic to those that scream that SAS is perpetrating fraud on the general public.

SK2751

I also do not understand the dramatic panic re refunds, or at least not the scale of it. I understand there are people who lost jobs and every penny is important. Being in a difficult situation presses them to be harsh on airlines and alike. But this is not the vibe I am getting here. I waited two months, got almost all my vouchers already, just one missing. It does not matter whether it will come in a week, or in 2 months, I won't need it before the world opens anyway. Refunds? As JR67 writes, I already save tons of money and time on not flying. Also it is more important for me that the airlines survive, than me getting all the pennies in cash immediately.

Dan1113

Many people have lost their jobs or lost significant portions of their income. That money might now be needed to live off of, rather than as a donation to an airline.

fassy

I guess the biggest concern of many is, if the airline goes bust the money is gone.

SK2751

I understand that, though I am surprised so many of these are here. Most people here should not be of the kind when 1-2 forfeited reservations causes a danger to their finances. Then it was dangerous and not responsible at all to buy these reservations in the first place. Some such comments are clearly warranted, just we have started to see quite a bit more in the recent 2-3 weeks, and the language is getting increasingly aggressive, as if we were not talking about among the hardest hit segment of economy.

Sure. But if the industry is gone, we lost more. We can easily start paying 3-4 times more per trip than we pay now, if things go wrong.

Dan1113

I am a teacher who loves travel and travel as much as I can during the school holidays. That's why I am on this forum and have been for over 10 years now. This year, my partner and I were due to travel for about 89 days abroad, all of which is at risk of big losses here (16 those 89 have already been cancelled so far). I am not sure why there is some sort of assumption that the only people here are richer, well off business travellers who can afford to donate significant chunks of money to airlines.

The current situation is unprecedented and jobs people maybe felt were safe a month ago and thus people were booking away trips, are maybe now not so safe anymore.

Often1

This is not about social judgments. Rather, it is about allocation of resources. SK does not expect to pay 0% interest in the market and people who invest their money expect a greater return than 0%. There is no reason for consumers who were simply unlucky to bear the risk here when it ought to be spread across all taxpayers pro rate.

In this case, I would simply file a chargeback dispute and a DOT complaint. Coupled with copies of the e-ticket receipt, cancellation notice, request for refund, and promise of refund, the dispute ought to be resolved fairly quickly. If not, the DOT complaint will cause DOT to require SK to explain itself. It can't and will almost certainly process your refund immediately.

SK2751

I am not denying people's right to apply for refunds. I did myself. What I am disappointed about is a certain aggression against airlines. Airlines, and especially SK, have been accused of malpractice here, evil intentions, the next thing I will read is that the airlines have invented the virus to keep our money. Airlines are as much a victim as the customers, or even more in many ways.

Often1

The problem, e.g., that it takes too long to issue refunds, is not fixable right now. It goes without saying that the refund of an unused ticket where the flight is cancelled ought to be fully automated and not require individualized attention in some -- now understaffed -- back office. But, it is too late for that and now is not the time for air carriers to invest.

Passengers ought to leave the rhetoric behind and simply request the refund and then pursue the chargeback. It is not a fault issue, simply a factual circumstance.