GUWonder

All non-SAS flights from OSL/CPH/ARN are booked out? Not if SAS is cooperative; and not if the customers are willing to run a circle around SAS.

Whether SAS wants to rebook customers on the available ones or not is unfortunately too akin to playing roulette. I have been pulling off same-day bookings for CPH-LHR today on SAS and BA.

I often enough find lawyers to lift a finger for me without it costing me a dime, but what’s the purpose of spending time chasing SAS at this point only to see the claim wiped away as a liability by SAS’s US bankruptcy scam?

wp_kid

Datapoint, got rebooked on AF from
CPH-SFO tomorrow. Email came in ~5 hours after cancellation email in the morning. Paid J.

Dennis88

I am fighting the same thing right now after SAS finally cancelled my SFO - CPH flight for tomorrow. Expedia agent is saying that SAS has instructed them not to allow a change of airlines and that the only option is a refund.

How long after you got the cancellation email were you rebooked? It's been about 6 hours so far and nothing yet, so not sure if that is wishful thinking or not.

pseudoswede

I called* a few days before our flight was cancelled with the same concern (except just two PNRs). The agent said linking does nothing, and PNRs will be rebooked as they are processed. If you get different flights for each PNR, you have to call to manually change bookings after being rebooked--which it appears that you did.

* I started while on the 15th hole of the golf course, and I didn't get through until I was back at the in-law's house, put all my golf stuff away for the year, and put $150 worth of purchases from Systembolaget into the fridge.

jamesbrownontheroad

About six hours. The rebooking came through as a very raw looking plain text email, so clearly before SAS were getting into their stride rebooking people.

Jolene Johnson Armstrong

Here is my story in case it helps. I booked direct on SAS with L class tickets. We got our 4 tickets from MSP to CPH via ORD for Wed arriving Thur 7/14 cancelled. Cancelled 1:30 am Tue, email said wait 5 hours before doing anything while we try to rebook. 6 hours post cancellation no other communication. Called and waited on hold for 1 hour (US number called right at 8 am CDT). They were only willing to rebook on Star Alliance airlines. With pushing they would have rebooked to any airport within 500 miles. None of the options got us there sooner than 36 hours after our scheduled arrival all with 3+ segments. We have a 2 year old and 5 year old so that seemed like pure torture. After much insisting they cancelled just the outbound part of our trip. There is a MSP to Frankfurt Condor flight that was still selling for $400 each. Booked that. Tried to book train to Copenhagen which German train website said was available for $150 each (10 hour train time). Only after trying to pay did they say they couldn't book it. Only option left was an overnight train with a transfer at midnight. So now we have 9 hour direct flight on Condor to Frankfurt. Then 10 hours in Frankfurt and an overnight train arriving at 7 am Friday (28 hours after we leave Minneapolis), but only 18 hours later than originally planned. Cost us $2100 which should be about what we get back in refund. Hopefully we also get to EU 261 $600 back each to compensate for all the fun all this transportation will be with 2 young kids. I wish everyone else luck getting to their destinations.

jamesbrownontheroad

DSB/DB train Hamburg-Copenhagen was already fully booked for most of July before SAS strike announced. It’s mandatory reservation, so it will appear available at the first stage of booking until the system tries to find seats to reserve.

bluedog423

What are the odds this continues to mid-August and/or flight schedules then will still be disrupted? I am debating changing from ORD-AMS (8.5 hour layover)-CPH not on SAS (AMS-CPH is operated by Cityjet w/ an SK flight number though but seems unaffected by strike) to ORD-CPH direct on SAS, but also don't want to risk it....I think it only opened up after word of the strike and i assume people bailed on SAS. This is booked via miles on UA. I have two young children so direct flight would be really nice rather than a long layover. There's not much availability on the day I'm traveling - my prior ORD-LHR flight got changed by 5 hours to make me miss the connection and going through AMS was literally the only choice with 4 award seats available at the time.

GUWonder

I would try to stick to ORD-AMS-CPH over ORD-CPH for some more weeks still. But that’s just me.

Glad you got something that you find to work for you.

From ORD to HAM, last minute economy fares for this week have been sub-$450 one way. ORD-WAW + WAW-CPH on LOT Polish or Wizzair has been part of my backups for this week, just because I prefer flying as much as possible to get into CPH. There has also been Turkish via Istanbul.

From MSP, going via KEF or doing Condor was also what I’ve been following. Condor check-in at MSP seems to go faster than FI check-in at MSP. No real PreCheck for the Condor and Icelandair flights out of MSP.

poshul

With respect, my insurance will cover that, and my spite at losing way more in billable hours than the ticket price is a good motivator to make sure I don't have to deal with this situation again.

Dennis88

They just rebooked me, SFO-CDG-CPH-BER. Took about 12 hours.

ksu

"All" Scandinavians want to go on train vacation this year, and they sold half price Interrail passes some weeks ago. The restricted capacity on the trains Hamburg-Copenhagen and the lack of alternative routings makes impromptu Scandinavia-Germany train travel difficult this summer.

The current strike? SAS would be bankrupt if the strike lasts to mid-August. With new negotiations tomorrow, I expect the strike to be over by the coming weekend - that is if SAS actually are negotiating in good faith.

The chair of one of the two Norwegian unions involved, has said that if there is no movement on SAS' parts, the unions will walk out within 10 minutes tomorrow.

GUWonder

When compared to say 2019, this year I’ve been encountering more sold out trains on my Scandinavian trunk routes even on travel dates well before the Scandinavian schools went on vacation for the summer break. Counting on trains during the strike may require instead counting on buses and cars.

The high gas prices make driving on vacations more costly, and the rising interest rates and food prices affect the public’s ability to afford future travel. But the travel continues for now. Unless business travel somehow skyrockets next year, train companies, airlines and a post-US Chapter 11 bankruptcy SAS/successor may come out of the gate facing a downmarket in demand and pricing soon enough as the general public faces a different financial reality and sees their biggest single annual expense item — usually a home — drop in value and/or price. Next summer, a strike would have probably been less disruptive for travelers.

bluedog423

I thought SAS is already bankrupt so they have nothing to fear about things getting worse! I'm kidding, of course, and an elongated strike would inflict even more harm on SAS, but they are already filing for bankruptcy protection in U.S. courts. Thank you for your reply/perspective. I think I agree with you, but may want some more time before making the change and seeing how SAS operations land. Maybe part of their agreements will impact flight schedules/routes so sticking with a valid route not on SAS is a more sure bet (but not as ideal from a travel time perspective).

ksu

Protection in the US doesn't necessarily protect them here...

80 % of all new cars sold in Norway this quarter was all-electric (I'm part of the statistic myself!). In 2019 there still were two Danish trunk rail routes to Germany, but the most important (Rødby-Puttgarten) was closed at the end of 2019. I don't really think that economics has much to do with the rise in train travel. Current holidays were booked several months ago, and train travel from Scandinavia to the continent is more expensive than air travel for now.