SAS Messed up. What to do? Sue them?

[Felipe]

I am facing a very urgent situation and I don't know what's the best move in this case and would appreciate any advice.

I am in Thailand right now with my girlfriend, we arrived at the beginning of December from CPH and will go back early January (in a few days).

My flight was originally happening on the 3rd of January at 19:15, but being unhappy with the schedule and the number of layovers (BKK-PEK-VIE-HAM-CPH),
I called the support center on Dec 28th to find a better option. After speaking a lot with the support agent and trying different options,
I decided to book a business class for the 2nd of January at 00:25. The support agent assured that my booking was confirmed and that my seats were guaranteed. He even said I could cancel my hotel for the two nights I would not be needing it anymore (between 1st and 2nd and 2nd and the 3rd). The new route would be BKK-ARN-CPH. The next morning the difference in points were deducted from my EB account (to cover the upgrade price from economy to business) and I even managed to book the seats on the BKK-ARN flights through the SAS app.

But today (30th of December), the flight from BKK-ARN disappeared from the booking reference. So, I called the support again to understand what was happening and I was told that they could no longer make the change and that I would get my points back instead. I said this was a joke because I had already cancelled the hotel and changed my plans around it, even promised to be back early to work already. But support didn't care and said there was nothing they could do about it.

So, in summary, after being promised that my seats were guaranteed on the flight on the 2nd of January, changing all my plans and cancelling my hotels, I was informed that I will not be able to fly on the 2nd.
I do not know what to do in this situation. Do I have enough reason to sue them? The calls are recorded and with the calls it can be easily proven that they told me the seats were confirmed. I had booked my hotel with points and I can no longer do that since they are not accepting points payment so close to the date and I do not have the funds to cover with the current prices.

 

[henke12]

Var det 2 enkelresor eller 1 Tur och retur-resa?
Hade supporten någon förklaring på vad som skett?

 

[Felipe]

Was it 2 one-way trips or 1 round trip?
Did the support have any explanation of what happened?

It was 1 round trip.
Support said that after a Star Alliance trip has started, it can no longer be changed, and that is why they had to cancel the changes the first support guy did to my tickets. Why didn't the first guy tell me this when I called to try changing the tickets?
This rule existing is not the problem, the problem is the guy telling me the changes were confirmed and SAS going back on them afterwards, messing up with all the arrangements I already did.

 

[Tamas]

It was 1 round trip.
Support said that after a Star Alliance trip has started, it can no longer be changed, and that is why they had to cancel the changes the first support guy did to my tickets. Why didn't the first guy tell me this when I called to try changing the tickets?
This rule existing is not the problem, the problem is the guy telling me the changes were confirmed and SAS going back on them afterwards, messing up with all the arrangements I already did.

I understand your disappointment but as ignorance is no excuse I don't see that you have any legal grounds to sue SAS. Yes, the agent made a mistake but before you have a ticket number there's no guarantee. You as a consumer may not need to know this though imho and thus SAS could handle this in a more elegant way but it is sort of common knowledge that they don't care and there's hardly any escalation chain for these matters.

I would say talk to the hotel manager, explain the situation and try to get a reasonable price, or find another hotel and you could try to file a claim at ARN (www.arn.se) and try to get back the extra expenses this caused you. No guarantee but this is what I would do without going insane.

 

[Felipe]

I understand your disappointment but as ignorance is no excuse I don't see that you have any legal grounds to sue SAS. Yes, the agent made a mistake but before you have a ticket number there's no guarantee. You as a consumer may not need to know this though imho and thus SAS could handle this in a more elegant way but it is sort of common knowledge that they don't care and there's hardly any escalation chain for these matters.

I would say talk to the hotel manager, explain the situation and try to get a reasonable price, or find another hotel and you could try to file a claim at ARN (www.arn.se) and try to get back the extra expenses this caused you. No guarantee but this is what I would do without going insane.

Thanks for your answer. I will try calling the hotel tomorrow, that'sa good suggestion.

But do you really believe I have no legal ground? A SAS employee directly told me my tickets were confirmed while they were clearly not. I really cannot see how I can be the one wrong, or ignorant, in this situation. If you call the support to get support you should trust what the employee tell you, because they get paid for that. They are professionals. I shouldn't be the one searching for rules and confronting the employee with them. Support should give correct and accurare information.

 

[ekf]

If you call the support to get support you should trust what the employee tell you

Unfortunately you should, but can't. And even more unfortunate is that that behavior is spreading...

 

[Andreas Ekman]

Thanks for your answer. I will try calling the hotel tomorrow, that'sa good suggestion.

But do you really believe I have no legal ground? A SAS employee directly told me my tickets were confirmed while they were clearly not. I really cannot see how I can be the one wrong, or ignorant, in this situation. If you call the support to get support you should trust what the employee tell you, because they get paid for that. They are professionals. I shouldn't be the one searching for rules and confronting the employee with them. Support should give correct and accurare information.

Another thing you need to consider is what proof do you have that the agent said what you claim?
You will have a little difficulty demanding things and suing them without clear and distinct evidence, that "someone" has said something is not proof.

Everyone can make mistakes, it's the human factor…
So before you are sure that everything is ready, you should not do anything.
The hard truth is that you have to take this as a lesson and learn from it.
Then it has always been the case that you can NOT change a T&R trip once you have started the trip.
It is your responsibility and should be in your own interest to know all the rules in order to understand the game.

 

[H4ipM8adRg9nvkRu]

Nyckelfrågan är väl just hur de formulerade din första ombokning och vilket form av dokumentation du har på detta. Jag kan absolut föreställa mig scenario där du har lagen på din sida och kan få ersättning vid stämningsansökan.

Om du överväger den vägen skulle jag rådfråga en jurist. Detta är ett flygforum och folk är väldigt duktiga på att beskriva hur SAS agerar i praktiken och vi anpassat vår "common sense" efter hur den verkligheten ser ut. Detta är inte samma sak hur det juridiskt ser ut eller hur en tingsrätt hade dömt i frågan. Folk här kan alltså idiotförklara dig för att du gjort fel samtidigt som en tingsrätt dömer till din fördel.

Detta gäller alltså i de få fall man faktiskt överväger att stämma någon. I de allra flesta fallen är det just hur det fungerar i praktiken man är ute efter och då är detta forum fantastiskt bra.

 

[Swedestar]

Do you still have the seats for the return flight on the 3rd?

 

[Hachans]

Forget about suing them. Company employees and companies are protected when their employees make mistakes.

Also, Sweden isn’t litigious as American culture is and you’d only be able to sue them for actual damages anyway.

You’ll have to try and use your points to book a new trip, and then submit claims to customer service for any additional costs beyond what you would have paid otherwise within reasonable limits. When they refuse to reimburse you, you can submit a case to ARN.

I’d suggest you just book the SAS ARN flight that you got an award seat on unless your return trip is still valid.

Also, it’s very clearly stated in the booking rules that you can’t change a reservation once you have used the outbound trip. From SAS perspective you’re trying to pull a fast one and they caught you.