AutismoSupremo

Ughhhh! That is horrible! Last time I was quoted anything, it was 6-8 weeks as well. Definitely not keen on flying SAS any time soon. Wish someone with influence could blast them in the media...whatever it takes to make them care about their customers.

I believe we filed for compensation late July. Our original flight CPH-LAX was supposed to be on July 17th, but the only availability their "emergency hotline" could find us was July 20th with Austrian (CPH-VIE-LAX). Did not get rebooked on Premium Economy either (originally booked Plus cabin with SAS). Had to stay three extra nights in Copenhagen, and miss one day of work.

Added a second taxi receipt some time later, so don't know if that potentially pushed us to the back of the queue. Looks like their outsourced complaints department is only caring for relatively simple reimbursement requests (no additional incurred costs). Perhaps more complicated cases, such as yours and mine, have to go through an extra round of review?

AutismoSupremo

Welp, this kind of 'Merican political jargon probably deserves to be moved to a Fox News sub-forum (if there is such on Flyertalk)...

What I have found out in my three plus years living in the US, that it's a great place to be if you've got money and/or right background. Basically only sky is the limit. Northern Europe is generally a better place to be if you are poor, you've got a disability, or you have other unfortunate circumstances in life.

BigEdInVancouver

I tried to use a third party agency to help me with a eu 261. BE CAREFUL because some contracts ( e.g., AirHelp) will say that you cannot claim anything else from the airline. I thought this was referring to only the EU261 claim, but the rep said it was indeed for everything. In my case, I had a claim ALSO for hotels and meals.

livious

duplicate

livious

I used this form: https://www.flysas.com/en/customer-s...claim-flights/
I assume that by selecting a cancellation/delay option triggers the EU261 case during the review.

As for using a 3rd party, I have never tried one as SAS as always handled things appropriately...although normally much faster. Still, no complaints as I knew this would take longer due to the strike.

livious

I don't think the extra receipts will make a difference as we also had additional costs. We had to submit a separate claim for our children (different booking) without any additional receipts and they are still waiting to hear back. I can only believe it was luck of the draw and perhaps a faster CS agent in India. As with all CS handled in India, YMMV when it comes to time and service.

nacho

You nailed it very well. That's why you don't see Republicans having BBQ in Sweden to get some votes.

I would add that the US is great if you don't have kids or you would like them to receive university education.

nacho

So it sounds like an absolutely random order when they will be replying our claims.

nacho

Me neither. I have a booking with them in February, and I really don't want to fly with them until they made thing right.

They made me stranded in YYZ alone for 25h! It was a nightmare and everyone was shocked by how they treated me. I found my way home on my own dime from YYZ back to CPH during the most peak season.

tr3k

Indeed. US is a great country if you are rich, healthy and extraverted (but at least you no longer need to be white or male). If you are not doing so well, though - it's pretty rough here. Europe (those parts that have the ability, at least) is a lot more kind to "non-winners".

GUWonder

Swedish entities -- whether governmental institutional ones or corporate ones -- are less generous for those individuals wronged than US ones are. A rare exception to this is EC 261/2004.

Sweden is in some ways a lot more kind to inherited wealth and/or personal capital gains and dividends in Sweden than the US is to such wealth and returns on investments in the US. Also, Sweden is more generous about property taxation matters on residential real estate than is the case for most of the US population.

There used to be some Republican-supporting BBQs in Sweden; actually for a while there seemed to be more of those than ones that supported the Democrats. But after enough years of collecting on EC 261/2004, not foregoing participation in Forsakingrkassan and some other things, it should not be a surprise that such Americans abroad also tend to see more gray than black and white and realize that Swedes aren't so different in tending to vote their pocketbooks.

FlyingMoose

Please hold your horses, I'm neither American or live there, marginalizing opinion is not cool.

At the expense of those who are now missing out on the sky is the limit, because the limit is about 0,5m from the floor, nowhere near the sky. Northern Europe isn't good for anyone, people just keep telling themselves this. Governments confiscating 50% of your income is the equivalent of modern slavery just to fund infrastructure, healthcare and education which is are all subpar at best and to mismanage immigration which further drives up cost.

nacho

Denmark doesn't mismanage immigration, in fact they are making it almost impossible for foreigners who do not work to get Danish citizenship (even if they have money without having to work).

Scandinavia is good for those who are not academic, just get by and get a low paid job living in a rural area (as you know they don't tax you 50% from the first krone/krona - so they might be paying 30% tax max), and have no political opinion or knowledge to challenge the government or to find out that the services provided suck. I can tell you there are many of those out there and if they are in elsewhere they will have a miserable life. However, they are doing ok thanks to the things you mentioned. Mr's family are like that, they are very happy with what they have. They barely finished folkeskole/grundskola and take some manual works and living in the countryside. They have never lived anywhere and they have no idea about education, healthcare and these people don't normally complain.

The town we lived in Sweden is also full of people like that, including the people we sold our house to. Mr. took my kid to a birthday party, and he came back and said the parents are like his family...

CPH-Flyer

It is a bit more complicated than just being good for non-academics. I would say the Scandinavia (maybe in reality I mean Denmark more specifically as I might not know enough about Norway and Sweden here) is great for people of all levels who have kids, and want to secure a good life and a stable education for their kids. But there are many other demographics including academics, that does really well from the Scandinavian system. Look at the discussions of student debt in the US vs. Scandinavia, clearly those who become academics are often way better off with the educational system.

Is the Scandinavian system perfect? No! But show me one that is.... On the sum of things, having lived inside and outside of Scandinavian and having friends and family on practically every continent, Scandinavia does come out pretty high on the list of societies that work well. But for each individual case, I am sure there are plenty of examples where people can feel worse off in Scandinavia, it really depends on their priorities and desires in life.

nacho

Yes university education is free that's a plus and of course possible SU too. Barsel is a good thing but I feel bad that people sending their babies to vuggestue. It's also true that Mr had a lot time with the kids which he feels great about. But it's difficult to say if our lives would be a lot worse if we were living in Canada (as there are a lot of similarities between Scandinavia and Canada), where my kids would be able to go to any school as they are pretty international anyway, and they don't have language barrier.

Regarding work life, some of Mr's more ambitious colleagues don't have time for the family/kids, and he saw several of his colleagues got divorced/separation. He got calls from his boss on and off during non-office hours. Mr. is extremely good at time management so he is able to handle his workload - he have many colleagues that had to stop due to stress. I can easily imagine having to argue with him to arrange who to pick up the kids if I work.

However, my registeringsafgift of my cars can easily pay for 2 kids' tuition in Canada, one of my imported car died in a year so I had to pay again as I need another car so that's the third kid's tuition + room and board in Canada for one-two year. All kinds of fees and taxes and whatever crap that added up we don't have much $ left. The US is crazy about tuitions, and my kids know from day one so it's not an option for them.

Education: not as horrible as Sweden, but people in CPH area tend to send their kids to private schools. My friend joined the queue as soon as her child was born. So that's more $ out of the pocket.

Healthcare: Again it's better than Sweden, but then the public system had shrunk so much that it's pretty trash to see a doctor unless you have a solid diagnosis of something. My most recent GP basically asked me what's wrong and he googled and tell me to buy this med and that med. I did the first time and he dared to prescribe me a medication that 10% of the people are suffering from severe side effects and I was one of them. That 5ml drop cost me 100kr. Waiting time for a good eye doctor is about 4-5 months. Unless you have private insurance which again $ out of your pocket.

Dental care: For kids, Sweden is lightyear ahead vs. DK. Again, if you want your kids to have better dental services? You are of course welcome to pay for it. Now my kids are waiting for almost 2 years for their braces and they said we are always welcome to use private dentists and pay a big part of it yourself. Kids get free prescription glasses in Sweden, none in DK. I don't even go to dentist here anymore, as it's all private which means that they will try to charge you for things that you don't need - like charging 100kr for teaching you how to brush your teeth and you won't know they charge you until you are about to pay.

Police: The only thing Politi is extremely efficient at is to write speeding tickets. We had an accident caused by the other car, hit and run, and someone helped us ID the car model and the last digit of the licence plate and the police said case closed after 6 months. The most hilarious thing is that even if the driver was caught his fine would be 1000 - 3000kr which is less than a speeding ticket if you drive 3km more than the allowed speed.

If you are white and preferably have a Danish/Scandinavian name, it's a good place to be, otherwise no. I'm not saying that one system is better than others. For retirement, some place in Asia would be great with cheap healthcare and super affordable medication. I know a med school professor in Japan and I knew the family because our kids were in the same school. I asked him about my kid leg issue (he is an orthopedic specialist), and he said one x-ray shows it all and the doctor in Sweden refused to do it. Once I went to a dermatologist in Osaka as my kid got hot water on his hand and the cost was so low that it didn't exceed 3000 SEK for 3 visits. They don't even try to nickel and dime people.

We are trying to get out once our youngest turns 18.