Many months ago, last September that is, Mrs. Marathon Pundit bought airline tickets for herself and me from SAS for a flight to Riga, Latvia, with a connecting flight by way of Stockholm, departing Chicago around 4pm on June 18. A month later we were notified that our flight had been moved up in time--up to a redeye 10pm departure.
That was the first warning sign that all would not be well.
Oh, after thousands of blog posts, mostly about politics, I believe I am due one post about myself and how my wife and I have been screwed over. I've helped many others, here's a post for me--and my wife.
Last week, I received an email that our airplane had been switched. Yesterday morning my wife noticed that the seat assignment couldn't be found on the new plane. She retrieved the email from her smartphone, then retrieved her original reservation.
But an hour later, Mrs. Marathon Pundit received an email confirming the cancellation of her flight reservation.
She didn't cancel it. Or at least knowingly. So Mrs. MP got on the telephone, called the SAS customer care line, 800-221-2350. After 15 minutes of waiting, my wife, a calm woman, of course calmly then suggested that she drive to O'Hare Airport, which is about 15 miles from our home, and find someone at the SAS desk to explain what the hell was going on.
"There is nothing we can do," she was told by the desk agent. A refund--just the taxes--which amounted to about five percent of the total ticket price--was on the way.
Yep, five percent. Ugh.
Meanwhile, I waited at home--still awaiting an agent because reaching a telephone customer care agent would take "more than 10 minutes." About ninety minutes into that call--still waiting to speak to someone--my wife returned home from O'Hare. I had something to do, so she then waited--and waited.
After two hours of waiting for a customer service telephone agent, someone finally picked up.
And Mrs. Marathon Pundit was told, wait for it that "nothing that could be done." Her reservation was cancelled. She could however, rebook--paying a much higher fare.
I don't believe any of these SAS agents. If they really wanted to rectify my wife's issue, even on a Sunday, I believe that they could find a supervisor who could quickly correct this error. After all, SAS has a flexible booking policy when you, ahem, purchase tickets. Really? How do I know? It's on the SAS website. "Our 24-hour flexible booking policy," you can read on that website, "allows you to cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking at no charge."
We don't quit easily. So Mrs. Marathon Pundit set her alarm for 3:00am this morning--her plan was to call Stockholm's SAS customer service.
She was told, again, that "nothing could be done." But that pittance of a refund, five percent of the total ticket price, was coming. Oh joy! An email confirming the miniscule refund information arrived in my wife's email box around 4am this morning.
Later morning Mrs. Marathon Pundit had to go to work. So then I called. The first agent said, well of course, "nothing could be done." I asked him, "Who cancelled the reservation?" He replied, "It was done from the website."
"How," I replied. He answered back, "It was done from the website."
Take a look at my slightly edited SAS flight reservation.
BOOKING CONFIRMATION |
Here's your booking reference and information about your trip. If you want to know more about what is included in your ticket type and its cancellation and rebooking rules, you can do so here. |
|
 | OUTBOUND | |
|
Notice "cancel booking" on the far right. Don't forget, my wife insists she didn't cancel her reservation. But is the SAS system so ridiculously sensitive that brushing up against the "cancel booking" link, could, well, cancel it? I don't know. And SAS isn't saying anything definitive regarding issue. Oh, depending on your browser, the "cancel booking" link might be obscured by a graphic. But it's there, I assure you.
If that is the case about cancelling, then not only does SAS suck, so does their internet interface. Is there an "Are you sure you want to cancel" prompt? If Mrs. MP did indeed accidentally "butt dial" that link, then the SAS internet interface is reckless. Again, I said "if."
The first customer service agent I spoke to said I can file a complaint on the SAS website. But I can't. I discovered that only grievances on
concluded flights can be filed. So I called customer service again. A woman answered this time, she gave me a step-by-step explanation how I can file a complaint about an upcoming flight.
And where on the website I can file a grievance.
It didn't work again.
So I called customer service a third time. If you are keeping track, this is the fifth customer service call my wife and I made to SAS in less than 24 hours.
That agent, in a forty-minute call--I was on hold a lot--was the best of the bunch. She explained to me that the prior agent was wrong, you cannot file a customer service complaint on a future flight from the SAS website.
If an SAS agent was incorrect about the how the website works, then perhaps my wife didn't cancel her SAS flight reservation.
However, there was some good news that the last agent gave me. Since my wife's original flight was changed, she was entitled to a full refund for her ticket, which, if the last agent is correct, should arrive in a few days. But why did we only learn this after five, yes, five phone calls?
So all is well for us with SAS?
No.
For starters, that refund hasn't arrived yet.
As for me, my flight plans are unchanged. But at a considerable extra expense, Mrs. Marathon Pundit had to make--with another airline because we don't trust SAS--new travel arrangements that our quite inconvenient for her. Oh, did I say, "at a considerable extra expense?" I did.
All because, maybe, my wife accidentally "butt dialed," or maybe "thumb dialed" a cancellation of her flight reservation because the SAS website is poorly designed.
Do such things happen to other people?
I suspect they do.
Does SAS care?
I suspect they don't. Because SAS can sell my wife's Flight SK946 seat to someone else for a lot more on a date that is only a few days away from departure.
We are considering legal action. Not just because of the unexpected cash outlay we have to suffer, but because of the aggravation and stress we have been compelled to endure.
As I told a customer service agent this morning, "Unless SAS fairly compensates us, we'll walk to Europe before we buy another SAS ticket."
Hello SAS? I am at john "dot" ruberry "at" sbclobal.net.
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