RanChin

A few of you will remember me from yesterday when I mentioned trying to book an award flight on SQ J class for the DEL-TYO route. Thanks to your help and suggestions, I was actually able to find an award on SAS' own Star Alliance award search that was NH on the outbound and SQ on the inbound. When I did select the flights, I was taken to a page that didn't show me any tax and fee details. After entering my personal details, I was presented with an error message (see image). Following the instructions, I kept searching for the same flights, selecting them and being presented with the error message.

After about 5 tries, something happened, and trip (with a booking reference number) showed up in "My Trips". I was elated, and the booking page even had a phone number to call. The trip had an expiry time of about 2 hours, so I immediately got on the phone and called. The number given was a UK number, and no matter what option I chose, I was given the pre-recorded message that the office is currently closed and the call promptly ended. I was a bit disappointed, but still bright and hopeful. So, I decided to call the EBD/EBG 24hr helpline.

Upon calling the premium helpline, I was promptly connected to an agent. I gave the agent my booking reference, and upon verifying my details, the agent tried to find the tax and fee information for me and I was told to wait. A few minutes pass, and then a few more. About 10 minutes later, the agent says that they were unable to find any availability on my NH outbound flight!? Further, they said, they were probably not seeing the availability because I had been booked into it by the system, and as a result inventory for that flight was at 0. Which meant that I couldn't be ticketed. The agent was apologetic, and honestly, I don't blame them. They even tried to find some other award space for me, but were unable to find any J fares to Tokyo, except on the day immediately preceding my return flight (which would give me a good 13 hours in Tokyo).

What is even up with this system. As an EBD, I have accepted many of the shortcomings of this frequent flyer program. I do not live in the verdant Nordic states, so I cannot receive any EBD gift (other than the baggage tags, of course). Fine, I'll take that. I can't even have that gift shifted to friends who live in the Nordic states (in fact in all 5 Nordic states, I have friends who were willing to accept my EBD gift for me), but no that does not work either. OK, SAS I guess I'll live with that. But now, can I please use my hard earned miles so that I can have a weekend away in Tokyo to compensate for having to work on a mid-week new year's day? Seems like the answer is still no.

PAX_fips

Hang on.. the Diamond hotline cannot "see" the actually booked farecode for a booking but need open inventory to look it up?
That would be pretty pathetic.

The inventory block should go away after "some time" if not ticketed, so HUACA?

RanChin

If my unticketed trip expires, I'm afraid I'll not be able to get the same award availability again, and even if I do, I might hit a dead end with that error message I keep on getting.

But to answer your question, they were able to "see" my booking, but not able to ticket it since me that required open inventory. But there was no open inventory because I had "booked" it. Quite a chicken and egg problem. Wonder how they plan to resolve it.

PAX_fips

So check inventory on e.g. expertflyer and then call in directly?

livious

SAS has botched ticketing award tickets for me in the past, but has eventually sorted things out. In my case, the ticket was not issued correctly and the availability disappeared....similar to what you are seeing. In my case, they had to contact Thai and have them re-open award space before the could issue the ticket. I would call again and try and elevate this to a higher level. The normal phone agents can't book tickets as the space does not exist, but they need to realize that the system botched the ticketing and that someone needs to look into what happened. Sadly, that person is likely not going to be the phone agents answering the phone.

Out of curiosity, was any payment on the ticket made? As you had a booking reference, there should be something in the system to indicate the problem. If they have taken the miles or payment on the taxes, I think you can pressure them to fix this. If not, your case will be more complicated.

fassy

Same here... SK botched up my tickets this summer.

NEVER EVER book using the Star Alliance Award booking tool. Always call in. I had so many issues with it.... either payment was rejected or the SMS they are supposed to send never comes through.

I would try to escalate this through the EBD team via mail.

ScandiGB

Agree. Always find the exact departures where availability exists. Then tell them precisely what I want with specific dates and flights on the phone.
Only way forward.

H.J.Simpson

Never had problems using Star online award booking on sas.dk.
Recently booked Air China between Osaka and Shanghai. Ticket issued immediately and booking exist. Called Air China to get it confirmed and assigned seats. Aircraft change has taken place after ticket issue. Seating was changed automatically to the new business cabin configuration.

fassy

Just planned my next award trip and tried using the Star Alliance tool from SK. It doesn’t work!

First, I researched options on UA.com and there were plenty... then went to the SK tool. Almost no availability in J at all. And if I changed the day, the whole tool crashed and I had to log out and in again. Tried a couple of times...

To make sure the inventory UA shows was available, I called in and it was not a problem to book the flights which were available on UA.

I just stand by my opinion. The tool is utterly cr@p and useless!

RanChin

Quite agree with that. It's rather unfortunate that SK would still not have a functional tool even with all the fanfare around it when it launched (and re-launched).

highupinthesky

I agree, but given that the *A airlines are reducing the number of *A award tickets available, together with reducing the other *A benefits, the problem might soon solve it self.

fassy

Well, I do not have any problem with limited inventory availability. It is there... just the SK tool won’t show it.

Either deliberate, to save SK some $$$ hoping people will just book Economy instead or because of the usual incompetence in SK’s IT.

fassy

bah... this is sooooo frustrating.

Looking for CPH-IAH/AUS/SAT for end of January and while plenty of J availability on UA, 0 comes up on SK's tool. ZERO!

e.g. Jan 26th. CPH-FRA-AUS with LH833 and LH468 shows availability in I. The SK tool offers those flights only in economy.

How about Jan 27th CPH-FRA-IAH? Sure, no problem.... just book SK 639 or LH833 connecting to UA47, both show availability in I. Well, not on SK's tool.

Or Jan28th, CPH-EWR-IAH with SK909 and UA1476. Crappy option with the UA domestic first leg, anyway sure thing.... shows open in I... let's book. Well NOT available according to SK's booking engine.

And then.... from now and then, it stops working... red bar across the page "sorry, the system is f@&%ed up, please call us (Sorry, something went wrong when we were processing your request. Please call us and we'll try to help you.)". Only a full page reload helps.

Sorry, but from now on I think this is not just a IT problem but a deliberate act from SK to restrict people booking J/I using EuroBonus and from my point of view scandalous.

EDIT:// btw, the AMEX EuroBonus agents could see those flights being available.