East_and_West

Almost. It took several back and forths before eventually getting in LH's refund queue, as in the beginning they would only offer me a voucher. With AF/KL I have no experience, but a voucher that can only be refunded after 12 months is not a proper monetary refund, but rather an interest-free loan to the airline. As far as A3 is concerned, they still staunchly refuse to refund the flights they unilaterally chose to cancel even though no restrictions were in place at that time.

I am in no way a SAS fan, rather the opposite. I have been, and still am, critic of the path they have taken, their treatment of their elites, their Business class catering, etc... Yet I cannot but give them kudos for never denying me my right to a full monetary refund of my cancelled flights, even in this mayhem. Personally, the way an airline (or any company for that matter) treats me means a lot to me, and this is something that I am going to keep in mind in the future..

SASegments

I cancelled an award booking on SK this week. Flight has not been cancelled yet. Point refund immediate and taxes were in my account two days later. So that is business as usual.

Often1

Redemption cancellations are not the same set of incentives as cash. The points do not impact the carrier's cash and the taxes are refunded to the consumer rather than paid to government authorities, thus they net to zero. Cash, on the other hand, goes straight to the carrier's ability to operate.

All of this shows that SK is perfectly capable of issuing cash refunds in short order.

SK2751

In principle, you are right. But likely this is done by a different office, which is likely underutilized now, as I do not expect that there is more EB cases to handle now that in normal operation. People are not buying awards, etc. Of course, SK could reallocate EB folks to the regular customer service, but ... well experience from other organizations shows that this is often not easy. Also probably there is much less folks in the EB agency than in the general travel agent, so the impact could be minor.

gingerlucy

An update on my case: flights were cancelled by SAS and I called to request refunds (still an option at that point) on 19 March.

I called to chase today as it has been two months. The gentleman who answered said he could send a "reminder" to the refunds team as he agreed it had been a long time. He also said that the latest internal report said they were "working on March cases" but he did not know what exact date they were up to. That does not bode well since of course this situation only started in March.

He estimated it could be 1-2 weeks for my refund to arrive. I am willing to give SAS that much extra time as I do not need the money right now, but if it has not arrived by then I will start the charge back process with Amex.

runarbg

My first flight (of 4, so far) was canceled March 16. I have not received a refund yet!

rwSEA

I had several flights cancelled in late March, and requested a refund at the time and was told it would be processed within 10 days. I then called again on May 5 and was told there was still a long backlog and it was in process. If nothing comes through by June 1, I will initiate a credit card chargeback.

duvin

Had a refundable ticket refunded Mar 9 and not seen the money yet...

vanillabean

Would you know if non-refundable fares for cancelled flights within Scandinavia are limited to vouchers?

JR67

If it was cancelled you should get refunded. Non-refundable refers to when YOU cancel.

LXboy

I requested a voucher for a flight in 2nd part of May. I immediately received a confirmation that the voucher will be issued soon.
Today I realized I could actually use that voucher for a booking in November. However, the voucher has still not arrived, and trying to call SAS only yields in a infinite waiting loop. Did anybody else request a voucher and actually got the voucher? I am wondering if it is even worth trying to call them (to request: stop voucher process and rebook instead) or if I will just get the answer to wait for the voucher, they can't stop the process....

Looking back I was obviously stupid to request the voucher and should have just rebooked - however, at that time my thinking was different...

LXboy

To answer my own question:

• Voucher takes 1-2 months (yes, months) to be issued.
• The process of issuing a voucher can't be stopped.
• If my new date is in 3 weeks, I am out of luck.
• I hate myself for having clicked on that voucher button for no obvious reason other than stopping a family argument on whether to take the trip or not = beginner mistake.
• I guess I thought that in 2020, issuing a voucher is an automated process and I can use the voucher straight away. As an experienced traveler, I can probably blame nobody else beside myself.

LXboy

At the end it took 10 days for the voucher to be issued, I was able to book my new flight. All good. Thanks for listening, over and out

gingerlucy

An end to my story: still no refund from SAS for flights cancelled by them on 19 March. So yesterday I started a chargeback on my Amex for services not received, and the dispute has been immediately closed in my favour (they had closed the first one before I finished doing the second one, not even "investigating", so I guess it is automatic) and the funds have been credited back to my card today.

I wanted to let SAS issue the refunds themselves, and not make them incur the cost of the dispute with Amex, but in the end 11 weeks is too long. Every other airline (including Wizz, a low cost airline) and every hotel has refunded me for my travel in March-June, only SAS could not do that in a reasonable time. I know that airlines are struggling and that of course I had already spent the money so did not "need" it back, but there is only so long that can go on for. I was prepared wait a bit longer when the first "please be patient" email came on 1 April, but they did not even bother to do that again in May or June as the months passed... Sorry SAS but I had to do it myself.

Good luck to everyone else.

Scandinavian traveler

I also successfully charged back the money for two flights as well. Waited almost two months on the refunds and decided to just charge back the amount.