cbourl

Hello
I write to complain about a problem I experienced today on Friday, 31 August, 2007. i was booked to fly with Scandinavian Airlines onSAS778 from Athens to Copenhagen, then to connect with a flight from Copenhagen to Newark Airport, USA on SAS901. I checke din and after boarding the plane the stewardess was rude and threw my laptop into the overhead compartment - I was designated seat 1F from Athens to Copenhagen. I expressed my distaste at her rude behaviour which was destructive to my laptop and she called the captain of the flight from Athens to Copenhagen. He said I was to be removed from the flight, and calledthe ground staff to remove me from the flight. I asked for the tourist police and the captain responded by saying he would not negotiate and he had expelled me from the flight to Copenhagen from Athens. The capatian and his staff denied me access to the plane to retrieve my onboard goods and bags. A ground member escourted me to the Goldair Servie counter so i could retrieve myluggage. There was not contact or attempt made to reconcile with me and i proceeded to the SAS sales counter. The attendant there who came after 15 minutes was rude, and said becaue i was drunk and rude i would be flying economy class to New York via Copenhagen, despite having paid for a businness class seat al lthe way from Athens to Newark via Copenhagen. She would not help me and i stood at the counter for 1 hour, during which she called the police and a doctor to detain me. I explained that i am a medical practicioner and did not reuire the assistance of either Athenian police or an Athenian doctor. I asked her to rebook me on the next available flight to Newark via Copenhagen, and she persisted in denying me any service for another 20 minutes. During this time i calle dthe police and she persisted in denying me any rebooking, let alone compensation for denied boarding. The police and the Goldair Staff acting on SAS behalf refused to give their names and Id numbers, but I managed to note several names and police badge numbers. After I said I would call my lawyer in Zuerich, the police disappeared and the Goldair handling agent told me o return to my own country - she would not help me and she persisted in being rude, offensive and seemed to me to be quite in line with the rudeness of the SAS onboard staff on the flight from Athens to Copenhagen. Iexplaine dto her alll she needed to do was rebook me - she declined - Iunderstand that airlines have rules and regulations, but airline and ground staff alike shount NOT become personal in their attacks upon customers. Finally I was rebooked. After rebooking I was denied seat allocation, despite flying in Business Class from Athens to Newark via Copenhagen. I asked about denied boarding compensation and the Goldair ground staff told me I was not entitles to any compensation whatsoever.

I am disguste dby this incident. I am frequent traveller worldwide with many airlines, including Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, Qantas, Japan Airlines etc etc - I had a meetin in Manhattan which I could not attend because of the pilot's unilateral decision to deny me boarding. As a result of this experience I have had to pay a taxi fare of Euro40 to a hotel ,the cost of Euro200 for a hotel for overnight accomodation, and will have to pay tomoroow a further taxi fare to return to Athens airport. Immeasurable is the delay and the cancellation of my business meeting in Manhattan, New York.

I contacgted the SAS service line in Denmark with my cell phone and spoke extensivley with a staff member to arrange seating. The staff member said she was unable to offer me any assistance with denied boarding compensation. Scandinavian Airlies are quite specific about their conditions of carriage - see http://www.flysas.com/upload/CoC29JUN07.pdf page 12. I have not been given written notification of denial of carriage. All I experienced was the rude, curt, abrupt, unilateral verbal order of the pilot to deboard the aircraft. I was certainly not any danger to anyone, including myself, and in fact the damage casued to my laptop computer by the flight stewardess could be deemed as assault.
Can you please help me - I am at a loss. Never in my many days of flying have I experienced such a rude unilateral response from any airline. the airlines SAS (Scandinavian Airlines ) is distinctly unfreindlt and unresponsiv eto any contacts I make with them. I have explaine dthat I have a relative who is a travel writer for Conde Nast in New York and i will be meeting with him to allow him to prepare some media commentary on SAS. Murdoch publications are going to prepare in Australia and New York and San Francisco some negative commentary about Scandinavian Airlines, and the way the airline treats its' customers.

tommy777

Welcome to Flyertalk, cbourl.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with SAS. It sounded like a very frustrating experience to say the least.

I'm not defending SAS, but SAS has a very strict policy on storing hand luggage if you are in the bulk head row, a lot more stricter than what we are used to in the US.

I have just sent you our FlyerTalk Customer Relations contact at SAS, she will for sure help you out. Please report back how it works out

BizflyerNorway

Are you sure you tell the whole truth here? I was feeling sorry for you until the last lines you wrote:

Also I contacted the Danish princess from Australia who is a good freind of mine - she was disgusted and said she would speak with her husband about what I had experienced

If you realy was a friend of the danish princess you would have shown discression and never mentioned your friendship with her, never the less saying that she would talk to her husband about it!

I am also sure that the stewardess never would have taken your laptop away from you without several notices before that happened. I do not belive that a steardess would act like that without anything happened before that incident.

We only have your side of the story. Maybe the other passangers on that flight would tell a different story.

All in all: I dont buy your story! You are not legit!
Why didnt you rebook to another airline company if you where so unhappy with the SAS service? Ther must be more convinient routings to New York from Athens than via CPH?

BF

fcl

> The attendant there who came after 15 minutes was rude, and said becaue i was drunk and rude

How much (if anything) had you had to drink before this happened?

miikka

There is always two sides of the story just like BizflyerNorway wisely reminded us. I got also the same thoughts, I have never seen similar to happen but I have seen how the friendly advices to remove the hand luggage from the floor to the proper place will turn to be orders if the passenger doesn't follow the guidelines.

The similar thing would be easy to see if you would read only the Spanish newspaper about the recent Finnair incident in Beijing - if you also read the Finnish passenger story and if you even happen to know someone who was onboard on that flight then you would learn the whole story what happened. There is always two sides of the story.

I am not sure about the Denied Boarding rules but if someone is denied boarding because of the security reasons and not following crew orders (which is actually against the law) then maybe you are not entitled for compensation. I am glad the local police didn't arrest you for not complaining the orders (what happened to those Spanish passengers in Beijing last week, arrested by Chinese police).

But if you have already a Danish Princess, Danish Prince, Rupert Murdoch's organisation and also one reporter helping you, I doubt there are many people here who would be better helping you.

GetAA81Back2ARN

Isn't Murdoch behind Fox News in US - "Fair and Balanced News"? I can only imagine the article created by his crew.

SK_RSJ

This was due to the new rule by scandinavian authorities; all laptops must now be stored secured inside a bag in the overhead bins only. You are (since two months) not allowed to keep your laptop in the seat pocket during take off no matter which seat you have - bulkhead or not.

Apart from that I would really like to hear the other side of the story as well.

Smells rättshaverist as we say over here.

cruisr

Where I started to doubt the story is the meeting in NYC. If he was supposed to arrive today when would the meeting be late afternoon. YEAH, RIGHT....Its Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend and there is NO ONE having meetings today, much less tomorrow. Everybody has left town at Noon if they came in at all.

Ever notice since FT got a lot of press this summer there has been a rash of first time posters with the most severe problems.

Bjornstrom

I'll never fly Unites again!

You frankly sound like someone i'd prefer not to have in the C cabin

voop

I vote TROLL here...note the post-count of OP, as well as the last paragraph......

I've always had nothing but good and accommodating experiences from SK and their staff, and while they are not perfect, I doubt that the story as told is the whole and true story.

At least, I've never managed to make enough of an a** of myself to get that treatment from SK or even UA.

iwillflytheworld

At best, there's a huge amount of spin and exaggeration in this story. At worst, it is pure fantasy.

For example, he says he was flying on August 31 and because of his delay in the first flight he got to New York later. However, there's just one flight a day CPH-EWR.

He also says that he's a frequent traveler with many airlines, but according to his own profile he's silver with UA and base member everywhere else .

And yes, the last paragraph is a classic

cbourl

Interesting how you mostly all seem to defend Scandinavian. FYI my laptop was in a backpack and I was seating myself in the bulkhead seat in Row 1 and was going to place my backpack in the overhead stowage area. As I'm doing a round-world trip. My meeting was with family - business related - you obviously dont know greeks, nor do you know any australians. ust becasue its a holiday does not mean the world stops. Hey you wont ever see me in any Scandinavian cabin after I arrive in New York. Why I chose Scandinavian over my regular Lufthansa/Singapore Airlines/United RTW combo I don't know - saving a few cents. As for my flight with Scandinavian from Bangkok to Copenhagen staff were very friendly and did their best to make the flight very enjoyable - despite having a seat free next to me - so an aisle seat for my laptop 2G and a window seat for me 2H. And lets face it the Scandinavian C - class cabin looks tired even when it was new last year - last year on another flight with Scandinavian from Bangkok to Copenhagen my row 1 seat 1G was non-functioning.

So I may have been a bit tipsy - never a problem before. Serving raw alcohol in business loungers without food seems to be a European phenomenon - in the Middle East and in Asian lounges food is plentiful, can even extend to full meals eg SATS Premier Lounge, and perhaps European carriers can take a look at the setup Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines have in their lounges. Whether you believe me or not, I experienced what I experienced. I posted as a warning to other SAS customers and also to potential SAS customers. I've been reading these forums for many years, but have not previously had the need to post.
Lets see now what sort of catty comments I get from some members here

Tor Viking

I`m sorry to hear about your horrible experience with SAS.

You really must have met the worst cow at this airline.

miikka

And fair warning. But what do you want us to say? You have already decided not to fly with SAS any longer so there will be no point of contacting SAS any longer as nothing they will do will make you change your mind and nothing we will say will make you change your mind.

If your laptop was broken (as you mentioned in the first post), then I am sure SAS will take care of it. If nothing bad happened to your laptop then no harm done. Are you absolutely sure you didn't verbally attack the FA when your laptop was put into the overhead locker? Verbal attack is taken seriously by most of the airlines - aggressive passengers do not belong onboard.

I have never seen anyone being removed from the airplane so it must take quite much before that happens.

But as said, we do not know the whole story, we know your story. And even here, you are quite offensive, you think that we are just defending SAS but if you would have read the stories in here, you notice that there are quite realistic posts about SAS. Some of us love to fly with SAS and some of us complain a few things.

Well, I hope your matter is resolved and since you will not fly again with SAS, then enjoy the other airlines.

cbourl

As I expected - Unfortunately I have to fly with SAS today to Newark via Copenhagen from Athens. Hey I travel for pleasure every year - I don't really travel for business much so I expect a bit more - I am fully aware of cabin protocols with many airlines and my laptops have gone a long way with me - I used to love the broadband on board Lufthansa before Connexion-Boeing stopped the service.
So if Im seating myself and am about to put my laptop backpack into the overhead lockers one minute after I board the plane when the rest of the plane hasn't boarded yet one would naturally react to the aggression of the stewardess. And if unfortunately the stewardess speaks German then she may not like what she hears after she has physically assaulted both my laptop and myself - grabbing bags is very rude anywhere. Hey I would not even speculate as to why she was so rude without any provocation - maybe she needed a drink????????????? Or a cigarette????? Maybe she woke up on the wrong side of the bed with her pilot friend.