the strike: – Spends 3.5 days on the journey
Among the many thousands of Norwegians who on Monday had their long-awaited flight to warmer regions canceled, as a result of the pilot strike in SAS, is the Hansen Wilhelmsen family from Tromsø.
The family of four was actually to take a flight from Tromsø at 10.40 on Monday morning, stopover at Oslo Airport, and then fly to Split with an arrival there at 20.00.
When Dagbladet talks to the family a little over 21.00 on Monday night, they are not near Split.
– Well, we are deep in Sweden with a rental car on the way to Copenhagen. We have 159 kilometers left there. We have booked a hotel in Kastrup, and will spend tomorrow in Copenhagen before we fly on tomorrow evening to Sarajevo, says Maja Wilhelmsen to Dagbladet.
It will be a pilot strike
She says it was impossible to find a plane with an affordable price from Copenhagen to Spilled, and that Sarajevo thus became the best alternative.
– It’s going to be Sarajevo. It is four hours from Croatia, so we have booked a hotel in the old town there, also we have to find public transport from there to Croatia the next day, she says.
This means that the trip’s first planned holidays in Split are canceled, but that they still come to the house they have rented with other families in Oberic in Croatia at the scheduled time.
– This has not been planned, but we are trying to make the trip part of the holiday, says Maja.
– There will be ice cream and beer in Nyhavn, and coffee and baking in the old town of Sarajevo instead, she adds.
– More expensive and more expensive
Of course, it would have been nicer to fly straight to Split, she admits, but adds that none of the sons, Snorre (16) and Birk (13) have been to Copenhagen before, and that Bosnia is a country not even the adults in the family have. visited before.
The family was interviewed by NRK on Monday morning at Oslo Airport. Then they said they wanted to find a train they could take down Europe.
However, that was not the case.
– We first tried to book flights, but it only got more and more expensive with each passing minute. The prices from Oslo to Split for a family were sky high – they approached up to 100,000 kroner, says Maja.
– It has also been frustrating how difficult it has been to get hold of the rental car company, and surprising how complicated it should turn out to be to book together. It was very difficult, someone you in these environmental times had not thought would be so complicated, she continues.
– Like being deceived
Three and a half days
Since today’s flight from Tromsø was canceled, the family already understood yesterday that today’s trip would not go as planned, and therefore chose to “throw around” and order new tickets with Norwegian from Tromsø last night.
– The whole trip should actually have taken ten to eleven hours. Instead, it now takes three and a half days before we arrive, says Maja.
– Have you heard anything from SAS during the day?
– We received a message that the trip had been canceled and that we could try to rebook. Then we got a message that there was no flying with affordable prices and that they could not help us, Maja answers.
SAS despairs: – Risks the company’s future
– In good spirits
She says that they try in the best possible way to travel in the most reasonable way, in the hope that the airline will be able to cover the expenses.
Both her husband, Thomas, and son Snorre and Birk, try like her and see positive relationships.
– The boys are in good spirits. They are happy that they have got McDonalds, because we do not have that in Tromsø, they also enjoy Swedish sweets now. Fortunately, they love to travel, says Maja.
– And Thomas says that he is very happy with the roads, she adds.
And when asked if they fear that the trip home could be as complicated, she answers:
– Then we cross our fingers that the strike is over.