FlyingMoose

Amen. Uncontrolled competition which is a great thing in certain markets isn't helping the airline industry at all along with EU governments not clamping down enough on (ultra) low cost carriers are lumping air travel experiences below that of the most developing countries.

The abuse people are willing to accept to fly to a sunny destination for next to no money is baffling.

vanillabean

The reason that people buy an item at $19.99 and not at $20 is that they can’t afford to cross the barrier potentially leading them to $29.99. Or so they willingly fool themselves (or their spouses) into believing. They are going there anyway due to all the extras.

As for what companies can do, they often prefer things the way they are. As you may have picked up from your LA escapades, income from US tipping is often not taxed (under the table, or as the Danes say, sort arbejde), effectively increasing the worker’s income and decreasing what the employer has to fork out.

But of course the listed price of a meal at a US restaurant is net, not gross, and by way of the pandemic you are likely to see a fee such as operational cost or due to inflation. Plus taxes and tips naturally. Not unlike the practice of a low-cost airline one could say.

Time for a hot chocolate.

nacho

I guess this is a way to make sure low income earners can also enjoy the sun during the cold winter. The problem is that there are too many people who are not willing to pay to fly. I don't blame the competition but all the people who love to pay for extras. It's like holidays homes here, you need to clean before departure and in France we were told that we had to clean the kitchen before checking out.

The funny thing is that people in the US are complaining about hotels fees like destination fees that may turn into fees for using towels in the room etc. I think this model might work in Europe 🤣 People in Europe might be willing to rent bed linens and towels and clean their rooms if they can get a room for 30€ a night.

The hot chocolate was like 4,5€. Literally like those I got in hotel rooms with lukewarm water. The crew told them that it is going to cost them that and they were so happy to pay. They were busy selling to Danes who were more than happy to pay for everything. We used to hear Danes when we were abroad saying things like "Gud hvor var det billigt". That wasn't a one time thing but multiple times. My kids also told me how much $ their parents give them and they all wear expensive shoes like Nike Air Force one. No idea if these people are saving up $ for their kids but we do.

Someone in the US told me that tips is taxable to some extent. IRS does estimate on your tips earning so it's not sort as such. I think the tipping culture has gone so bad that hopefully there will be a change to it. My friend who lives in the Bay area said that she needs to add 30% to include tax and tips when she eats out.

I rarely eat out in the US because our usual places are national parks so there's no restaurants nearby. We recently started eating fast-food after the great invention of app - previously I have 4 other family members who doesn't want this and that in their burgers. I was so fed up with order 5 meals with 5 different changes, so our go to place is little Caesars - it's so plain that no one can complain and I only need to walk in and but 2 pizzas and no one will call me an a hole if I don't put anything into the tip jar.

FlyingMoose

Its a mentality problem whereby it has become more important for many Europeans to be able to post Instagram pictures of being on a beach that they take being physically abused in an LLC seat to get there for granted and all standards around travel are waived. The sheeple behavior with no appreciation for comfort is something that I can not understand. If someone would put a gun to my head and tell me to stay at an all inclusive, I'd tell them to shoot me.

nacho

Mr. said we are not the majority of people. I don't know how many times I have to refrain myself from asking questions like "How can you stand Ryanair?". A lot of people don't feel that they are being abused, they merely buy transport from A to B (Mr likes the lounge access etc. but if he is on his own he would book the cheapest and sit and sleep until the plane landed). And when they are at those destination they are too drunk to distinguish between 1* and 5*. I tried all inclusive once with Mr. in Butlins in the UK and once was more than enough

My mother-in-law was fascinated by how luxurious Copenhagen Marriott is... She represents more of the norm than us.

vanillabean

🎵 We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street
We like livin' right, and bein' free 🎵

catbox9

So I'm very late to the party here, but curious if there's any recourse....

I was supposed to fly OSL-LYR / LYR-OSL-BGO last year but the strike messed up those plans.

I had a $1000 hotel booked and spent another $500 or so on tours. The hotel and tour group refused any sort of refund. My credit card also refused to do anything because they said this didn't count as trip delay or any other sort of reimbursable expense since it was an airline strike.

SAS refunded the LYR-OSL-BGO flight for me and rebooked the OSL-LYR flight to 6/13 of this year. Now that it's been almost a year, it turns out 6/13 doesn't work for me so I picked a new date (and of course they charged me to do this) so I ended up saving about $50 off the cash price for the flight. All in all I am out $1000 for the hotel, $500 for a tour, and I also lost about $200 in flight value but I guess I'm willing to ignore that since you could argue that's my fault for not being able to plan my vacation 11 months in advanced.

Should I give up on all of this or is there anything I could pursue?

nacho

Did SAS cancel your flights less than 14 days before departure? IF it is the case you are entitled to EU 261 compensation which is like 300 EUR. I don't think they owe you more than that.

But you can always take them to small claims court to try to get some of that $ back. Have you asked the hotel and the tour whether they can re-schedule?

catbox9

They did cancel well before 14 days before departure so I suppose EU 261 is a possibility although I have no clue how to go about that.

EDIT: Looking into this, I don't think I'm eligible. I took a refund on the cancelled flight and let them rebook the other leg (which wasn't technically cancelled, but I didn't want to fly to Svalbard and risk being stuck there...it was later cancelled, but not until I agreed to the date change).

Small claims court seems quite complicated, particularly as I live in the United States.

The hotel was a hard no on any sort of compensation as was the tour group. Attempted chargeback on AMEX platinum was also an epic fail (then again, I've never won a dispute with AMEX and wonder why I continue to use them).

nacho

If they cancel the flight more than 14 days before scheduled departure, then SK owes you nothing as they gave you a refund and rebook you on another flight.

BBB if not small claims court?

About the hotel and tours: you are not entitled to a refund, that is. However, a lot of them are willing to let you change the date to a later time (like someone booked a non-refundable rate for a hotel and couldn't use it), or turn it into a hotel credit or something.

CC dispute is not like if you think you have a case, you'd get your money back. The whole thing was caused by a strike - no insurance will pay anything. Trust me, I have tried. How can your CC pay you if every insurance company said no?

What you should have done was to arrange your own transport to Svalbard (I don't know if there is any airline that goes there) and get SAS to pay for that.

catbox9

Sorry, I don't think I was very clear with my post. It was with far fewer than 14 days remaining when they cancelled the flight.
As for other transportation, Svalbard is a tiny island well north of Norway. While Norwegian airlines does fly there occasionally, there were no other flights on the days I had booked so alternative transportation was impossible.

I tried to rearrange the tour and hotel, but they were adamant that I could not do so (I mean in their defense, there's no benefit in letting me - they get paid for doing nothing and could get paid again). None of the major chains have hotels in Svalbard so my only option was to book with some random hotel. The hotel was free cancellation up to 5 days prior (which was a higher rate than no cancellation) but the strike was announced 4 days prior to my trip and cancelled the day before.

It sounds like there's essentially nothing I can do here which sucks because none of this was my fault, and I had every intention of taking this trip - I even got to Oslo (not on SAS) before getting stuck there.

threeoh

In this case I believe you are due EUR 300 plus either a full refund or an alternate flight and hotel/meals while you wait. Since you took the refund, probably only due EUR 300.

Fill out this form and wait a few weeks/months: https://www.flysas.com/en/customer-s...s/claim-eu261/

catbox9

I'll do that now. Worth a shot as there's nothing to lose at this point.

pseudoswede

That's super odd that travel insurance wouldn't cover lost costs due to an airline strike unless it's stated as such in the policy. I mean, airline strikes is absolutely one of the reasons why I buy travel insurance (separate from what my credit card provides)--and it paid $5k in last-minute airfare ($7k minus the $2k SAS refunded me) and hotel. I would appeal that decision since those costs are technically non-refundable and considered a loss.

I'm flying UA to Sweden this summer, and those pilots are pretty unhappy at the moment. I'm bringing four other teens on this trip, and I said buying travel insurance is a must (and they did).

catbox9

I didn't buy a separate travel insurance policy. I assumed (wrongly) that the insurance included on the American Express Platinum card would cover me because 100% of the time I've submitted any sort of claim through my United Club Card that was even remotely reasonable, they sided in my favor.