Ricardo Perez’s trip to Spain with SAS was canceled.
Then he saw the same flight online – with four times as expensive tickets.
– I can not buy a ticket that does not exist, he says.
Ricardo Perez, 55, was to go to Alicante with his wife in June. He booked already in March to be sure of getting a good price on the trip and chose SAS.
Shortly before he is to leave, the airline hears from him and says that his flight has been canceled and his trip rebooked. He was told that he would make a stopover in the Norwegian city of Bergen – for eight hours.
– It’s very strange, I’ve never seen anything like that before, says Ricardo Perez.
The flight cost SEK 990 per person, which the airline now believes has been canceled. Ricardo thinks that eight hours is a long time to wait and decides to find out what has happened.
After a bit of searching online, he realizes that his journey is still there, but that the same ticket, the same time, now costs SEK 4,500 per person. He calls SAS and asks what happened.
– It feels so stupid, I can not buy a ticket that does not exist, he says.
An employee at SAS explains that his flight has been canceled. When he says that he sees that it is still possible to book the same flight at a more expensive price, she asks to return.
Just an hour later, the woman calls back and announces that the flight has been rescheduled and that they will travel the same route as they booked from the beginning.
Ricardo says he asked what would happen if he did not call. He must then have received the answer he “had to make the stopover in Bergen”.
“It’s the law of the jungle”
Although the problem was remedied in Ricardo’s case, he wants to tell about what happened so that more people will be aware that you may need to get in touch to make sure you get the right flight.
– I think of the others who have been affected. On the elderly who are not so good at technology, those who do not master the language or someone who feels bad who may not have the strength to call. It pisses me off, he says.
Ricardo does not think what happened is okay. He believes that it is a way for SAS to make more money by selling tickets more expensively.
– Nothing surprises when it comes to money, it is the law of the jungle, where is the small consumer’s right against such a large company?
Ricardo and his family often go to Spain because they have houses there, but they no longer trust SAS. He is afraid of a similar rebooking again.
– The trust is completely run down, he says.
SAS denies
According to SAS’s communications director Karin Nyman, the rebooking is probably due to a kind of system error that has made some customers not visible in the system.
– It may be that the flight has been canceled and then the flight has been rescheduled. Then the system has not known the customer number, and therefore they will not be reinstated on their original flight, she says.
Karin Nyman believes that this probably only applies to a few cases, and clarifies that SAS is aware of the problem and is investigating what has happened.
– It is difficult to say what happened in this particular case, but the customer has received help so we have identified an error. That we would do it to sell more expensive tickets, I can totally deny, says Karin Nyman.