gnaget

Ok, I am at LHR. I was supposed to depart 13:50 LHR-ARN. This idiot drives the baggage truck into the aircraft and we sit for 2.5 hours while they try to determine whether the flight could take off and finally offload. Try to get on the 18:00 flight. Give me a BP, but then page me and retract BP. I have to take original flight now departing 20:30.

My flight was overbooked and they were soliciting VDBs and I volunteered. EUR 500 and I could take 14:05 flight to CPH, and would arrive ~3 hours late. (Good deal!) But they decided in last minute to not offer it (and we did have one empty seat in C).

Ok, so what are EU rules for compensation? It looks like EUR 250 for < 1500 km. But not clear if that is only due to IDB. And how does one go about this? So my arrival is delayed 6+ hours, and it was clearly not an "act of God' unless "the Lord" directed the idiot to drive the truck into the aircraft..........

Damn it. SAS deserve to be punished for this. I noticed that they were accommodating some kids in M class since the 18:00 is/was also oversold. But shouldn't they prioritize getting as many C pax as possible on to the earlier flight! There were two empty seats in C (only two rows in C on this aircraft!) It really stinks in my opinion.

SK_RSJ

If those kids was UM they get priority over anybody. But obviously C-pax needs to be accomodated first end then the pecking order is FF-status. But I don´t think they will IDB passengers booked on a flight operating to accomodate any pax from a delayed earlier departure? Which I think is wrong actually in some cases.

SK AAR

No, this is out of question. Would be very expensive for SK.

Anyway, this was not the situation. The OP tried to do VDB for the 13.50 flight to ARN, but VDB was no needed. His flight was then delayed due to ground accident.

SK AAR

According to EU regulation:

No compensation for delay and no compensation when "extraordinary circumstances". Sorry, but you don't have a case...

gnaget

This is not an extraordinary circumstance. What they mean by that is things out of control of the airline. Potentially severe weather, terrorism, airport shutting down..... Your interpretation takes it to an extreme that could include anything. How I read the rules is that delays get no compensation but IDB does and this influences SAS in how it acts.

Whether I tried to VDB or not was irrelevant........ it justs adds color to my bad luck.

I am sure that the EU rules have put extra pressure, which inconveniences their premium passengers. In other words, in the past they maybe would have at least filled C (as I said, they had 2 empty seats in only 2 rows of C) and then IDBed a couple of pax and put them on the delayed flight, which would have delayed 2-3 hours.

But the eco passenger on a cheap ticket is now protected by the requirement that SAS forks out EUR 250. That's what happens when the government gets involved...........

gnaget

Shouldn't they at least fill the minimum sized two row C cabin? I.e. they had 2 seats in C 90 minutes before scheduled departure.

So they grossly oversell their crappy M class and have no room to accomodate C customers........

Why doesn't SAS just move to a full LCC model and get rid of C and Y? They can follow the Easyjet model and charge Y/C type prices when the flight is close to being filled and then save money by not having premium service.

p.s. I think they lied to me because my flight was 100% full except for one seat in C. The agent in the lounge said that they were going to be IDBing two people to accommodate these kids. And that I had zero % chance and should not bother going to the gate. If that were true then that one seat in C would have been filled. We departed with the same number of passengers.

bowman

To stink is part of SK's core values.

Avoid if possible. All arlines execept AZ are preferable to SK

Echo J

261/2004 Art. 6 doesn't state that monetary compensation comes in to play when delayed.

On the other hand, it wouldn't hurt to email SAS about the incident. Worst case, they ignore you. Best case, you get miles or something and an apology. Which of course won't do anything to fix the past, but might make you feel better about it at least.

SKmanLHR

I have had a look at this one, and what I am about to say is not SK's opinion, just my take from what info I gathered about this.
Technically, the flight was delayed for technical reasons (yes, there was damage during ground ops but it amounts to the same thing as far EU rules are concerned) so this means whatever compensation is due in tech delays is due here too. I'm not an expert in the EU law so cannot comment on what that may/may not be.
The children being transferred to the 1800 departure were indeed UMs with very anxious parents at the other end...had we had room for more we would have taken more people on that flight - and yes, due to some 'number crunching', we did have to ask for people from the 1800 flight to travel on the delayed 1350 to accommodate the UM (this may also be why your the OPs BP was retracted - but I cannot say for sure).
As SK_RSJ correctly states, SK would not DB people to accommodate those on a delayed/cancelled flight - there are exceptions, such as UM, but even that is not that common - usually the parent/guardian would be called and the UMs would fly later. On this occasion, an exception was made.
I hope this helps clarify a few things - as I say, this is my opinion on what went on and not SK's official statement.

jfidler

Here's some information:
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_po...rmation_en.htm

Their website used to be much worse -- now you can view the exact details of circumstances and how much compensation you may be due.