[Anonymous]

[KARLTZ1]

We had a flight on June 26 with SAS from Rome to Brussels via Copenhaggen besides a delay flight and the worst chif cabin stewart, our both checked in luggage went missing, we had a flight early morning from Brusels to Cancun Mexico so we did not get them after 2 weeks they send one of the pieces all damage and the second one is missing still, they are the worst customer service, they havent found anything whats the worst they havent even try all they say is they are unable to find it 🙁
I would never recomend it to nobody!!! ever
Please have somebody to contact us from SAS useless

[nmh1204]

I’m sorry to hear of your issues.
You’re legally entitled to compensation under EU laws.
I would suggest ringing SAS, or whoever you booked your tickets through, and state your rights. Unfortunately, posting on a forum won’t make SAS contact you.

[DavidGordon10]

Interesting – I have often travelled on SAS four times within one week, and have never had a problem. That does not mean that SAS is perfect (far from it) but my sample is bigger than one pair of flights.

It does seem odd for that pair of flights to be Rome – CPH – BRU. Why not go FCO – BRU direct?

[MrMichael]

Agree with DavidGordon, I fly SAS around 8-10 times a year, generally between London-Oslo-Stockholm-Copenhagen. Other than one issue (sorted to my satisfaction) back in about 1990 have never had any issue with their customer service, econ and business. I also am responsible for around 150 ships crew flights a year, generally through SAS on same routes, again, never had any serious problems bought to my attention. One flight with a problem is unfortunate and frustrating, but is not a reflection on a whole airline.

[takiskonst]

SAS is, indeed, the worst airline I’ve ever met.
Because of their refusal to take any responsibility, I couldn’t fly to Buenos Aires. My flight was delayed. When I told them they should find the next flight for me, they refused claiming “we have no responsibility”. And when I challenged this they replied: “who talks of responsibility, a Greek?”
The full story
here
and
here

[seasonedtraveller]

Seems like very strange behaviour to me.

Was your connecting flight all part of a single ticket (ie a single journey, Arn to BAI)
or was the Frankfurt to Buenos Aires sector a separate ticket?

I can’t see any excuse for the apparent rudeness and comments about racial origin under any circumstances.
I would be interested to hear the outcome since the letter from SAS customer service is akin to a joke.

[MrMichael]

This seems pretty outrageous. I have never had a big problem with SAS and am really surprised at all this. Personally I am not a big fan of the alliances, for a number of reasons, and this perhaps one of them. Relying on an airline one is not flying to sort out a problem for you. As you booked through AMEX business travel I recall when I was a client of theirs they had a twenty four hour helpline, did it occur to you to call them at the first opportunity?

[seasonedtraveller]

Today, I received this Email from the CEO about brand loyalty to SAS – it was sent to Eurobonus ‘Diamond’ members (double tier points required to qualify against ‘standard’ top tier Gold) of which I am one.

I write these lines to you, because you’ve been so loyal to SAS and thus deserved the high membership status you have within EuroBonus.
It is no secret that SAS has had a few tough years. We are not alone in this respect in the airline industry – a number of airlines have even disappeared in the last few years. But through hard work, sacrifice, innovation and above all, our large circle of loyal travelers, SAS is still flying, and we are filled with hope for the future.
Sometimes it is good to be tested. It has forced us to turn every stone, led us to question every truth and inspired us to think again.
When we dug deeper into the very core of our business and searched for the very soul of our company, we found some basic values such as the joy of flying, and we see people that appreciate that everything works as it should. This is simple and obvious, whether it is us who work at SAS or our travelers; in this we are united.
What separates you as a traveler from us working in SAS is that you can choose who to fly with. Therefore, we decided that the one thing most important for SAS is that every trip you take with us should help make your day a little better.
We are in the process of developing one of our most important assets, our EuroBonus program to provide you even more benefits. As you know, loyalty is not just about financial rewards, although opportunities to enjoy award flights and upgrades will always be a central part of EuroBonus.
So keep your eyes and ears open. We will continue to do everything we can to live up to your expectations on every single flight. Starting in January, we will also upgrade the decor of our long-haul aircrafts, improve schedules and introduce new routes. And in the fall of 2015, we will begin to take delivery of new aircrafts.
I would like to thank you for the patience you have shown SAS in recent years. Your loyalty is the most precious thing we have, and we will do everything we can to prove this to you going forward.

Sincerely,

Rickard Gustafson
CEO SAS

I get it.
I understand and appreciate that the whole loyalty thing needs taking care of but;
Perhaps they should begin by addressing the issue of a 7 week wait for complaint responses.
Confirmed yesterday by SAS customer service – “you will receive a reply from us but, it takes 6-7 weeks”

[Senator]

It is always good to include all relevant details when making a “complaint thread”. One important aspect is to remember that if a traveller takes advantage of cheaper fares from a different market and book travel on separate tickets across multiple carriers there is no legal responsibilities for the first carrier (for example SAS) to deal with the consequences of a late arrival when one has booked an onward journey on a different carrier.

Having said this, the issue of missed cruise connections in Florida comes up time and time again.

I am pretty ambivalent about SAS; it is my home carrier. I understand the changes to the service offer they have made. Pricing has subsequently come down. Their competitive landscape = Norwegian. They made a mistake a decade back when the road should have been long-haul.

Are they the worst airline? Not in my experience. Is their customer service slow? Absolutely! Probably the worst response time of any airline I have dealt with. Have they ever left me stranded? No, they have always sorted it out.

It would be great if @KARLTZ1 and @takiskonst could provide a factual, non-emotional detailed response of the string of events including how ticketing was done. Did they on their own account, book multiple different tickets for example?

[SimonS1]

They won’t, Senator. Two first time posters – the objective is clearly to come on here to have a good whinge and then move on.

[DavidGordon10]

For SAS to say “you will receive a reply from us but, it takes 6-7 weeks” is not a record at all for a mainstream full-service carrier. My current request for a refund from LH has now been with them for 14 weeks. My record is about 50 weeks with BA, the refund only being prompted by a move to the small claims court.

[takiskonst]

seasonedtraveller:
Thank you very much for your understanding. I was deeply insulted by their comment “who talks of responsibility, a Greek?”, not because I’m Greek (yes, we are, in general an irresponsible nation because we have had irresponsible, criminal, governments), but I don’t live in Greece. I lived in the US (20 years), the UK, and now in Sweden. Also, it is insulting to hear a racial comment from a big company (SAS) representative, especially when it’s absolutely clear it’s them who have the responsibility of helping a traveler.

I will write, in this forum, about responses. I did get a phone call from SAS last Friday. A lady, called Josefin, in a rather agressive tone demanded to talk to me there and then. I was in a meeting in Switzerland and couldn’t speak. I asked for her phone number so I could call back. She refused to give it to me and said, aggressively: write to your travel agent, they will connect you to us.

Senator: Y
ou say that SAS is your home carrier. Probably this means you are Swedish. Did you read their insulting racial comment towards me, a Greek who lives in Sweden? That you had no problem with them while I have is not necessarily an indication of their quality but an affirmation of their discriminatory/racial policies.

[canucklad]

Hi takiskonst
In no way am I suggesting you’ve not given an accurate account of events, in actual fact if you’ve even embellished on ½ of it, and removing the emotional tonality I’d say SAS and Lufthansa are equally at fault .
SAS shockingly so………Why
LH has a Swedish website with this local contact number 0770-11 10 10
Checking the ARN website all flights to Germany are SAS/LH code shared
So Lufthansa have been negligent in either not having a representative available to you, or negligent because they haven’t empowered SAS staff to manage problems when they arise.
A bigger question has to be, what is the point of alliances, this is a classic example when an alliance strength could have resolved the issue. And in actual fact demonstrates just how pointless, or rather one sided they really are from a passenger perspective.

I’m not a genius, but with my limited knowledge of Star, you could have flown
SAS to LHR and connect with TAM to get you to BUE .

And as MrMichael suggests AMEX probably would have sorted it out, after SAS failed. Airlines don’t like getting a bad / malevolent reputation with corporate bookers.
I think a few of us here would be interested in the response you get from Star !!

And as a bit of a side issue, and crossing topics……..
(LH805, scheduled departing time 18:45, 25 July 2014). I was supposed to fly to Buenos Aires, via Frankfurt (LH510, scheduled departing time 22:05
Another example of MCT’s gone bad ?

[SimonS1]

@takiskonst

We are still none the wiser then as you didn’t answer the questions Senator posed.

Did you have multiple tickets or one PNR?
Did you call the AMEX Travel Agent who booked the ticket?

No excuses for their rudeness but without the facts we will never know what happened.

[Author]

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