All the time, OMAAT readers will share with me the frustrating situations they encounter with airlines, and I try to share my take and provide tips, best I can. Well, I’ve just encountered a situation with a ticket I had booked on Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), which is leaving me very frustrated.
I guess I should take responsibility here, though it really exposes how one-sided airline contracts of carriage are, and how unforgiving airlines are when it comes to applying logic to these kinds of situations. Let me explain…
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I then decided to start an online chat with SAS to try to cancel my original flight. However, despite what the website says, the online chat doesn’t actually transfer you to a human, and is just AI (at least it was when I reached out). So instead, I called SAS the second I landed in Frankfurt.
I explained my flight was canceled, and I would like to refund it, as the schedule for the new flight didn’t work for me, and I rebooked a separate itinerary. The agent explained that my ticket was non-refundable, because I had accepted the new flight.
Okay, as she said that, I kind of thought to myself “oh boy, this is going to be a headache.” Technically she’s correct — I did “accept” the new flight, but that’s because the website wasn’t working correctly previously with rebooking, and I wanted to see what the option actually was, in terms of the cabin travel would be in, etc.
She explained that SAS had no further obligation, since I accepted the rebooking, and therefore a cancellation was no longer possible. She insisted there was nothing else she could do. Okay, that’s super annoying — I suppose technically she’s correct that I accepted the alternative, though this just strikes me as incredibly customer unfriendly.
I’m a SkyTeam Elite Plus member booking business class who had a flight canceled on me last minute. The website was bad for rebooking, and I just wanted to see what the alternative option actually was, in full. And then when I reached out almost immediately to explain I didn’t want to take that flight, I was essentially told “tough luck,” because I agreed to the alternative. Grrrr!
Do I just take the loss on this, or try to fight it?
I try to hold myself to a high standard when it comes to how I interact with airlines, and I also know to expect the worst when it comes to airline customer service, and their willingness to apply logic to a situation.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
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