Reisebyrå canceled flight – claimed at SAS has gone bankrupt – VG
Hans Christian Pettersen and the family will be leaving in a few days. The travel company Travellink has canceled part of the flight and refused to refund the ticket, citing that SAS has gone bankrupt.
– This is quite unbelievable, and it has not been a pleasant time, says family man Hans Pettersen.
Together with his wife and daughter, he is scheduled to fly on August 1 from Gardermoen to Manila, Philippines.
They have booked a trip through the booking portal Travellink.
In June, he receives an email that the flight home has been canceled and that Travellink is working to find a solution.
– After the e-mail, it becomes quiet. I then do everything I can to find Travellink’s contact information, but find nothing. It is very difficult to get hold of them, he says.
After talking to a Norwegian Travellink number, he is told that they have nothing to do with the booking itself. They give him a new phone number that he is asked to contact.
– Then I came to a call center in India, which I had to contact within 24 hours with a solution, he says.
Pettersen says that it continued, nothing happened.
The journey to the family goes via SAS Star Alliance and Singapore Airways. It is back from Singapore to Copenhagen on 21 August which Travellink believes has been cancelled.
The Consumer Council says they see an increase in the number of Norwegians who do not get money back from travel agencies after canceled flights.
Wera and her husband Rodi Hübenthal waited for almost a year before they finally got help.
Contacted the Danish Consumer Council, SAS and Travellink
He finally got word from Travellink that the problem is delayed because they “can’t solve the problem with SAS”.
The family then tries to contact SAS, but even after days on the phone they did not get an answer.
Finally, he got this week’s email from Travellink on Monday, which says they want to inform him that the airline is bankrupt and that they cannot therefore offer the family a refund.
Shocked
– I was completely shocked when I received this message in writing from such a large player. Right now I feel that Travellink is behaving like a villain, says Pettersen.
Finally, Pettersen and the family got tired of waiting, and he decided to send an e-mail to SAS management to inform that traveling through Travellink with SAS has been canceled because they claimed that the airline was bankrupt.
– After the email was sent, five minutes before I was called by someone in the SAS management who of course apologizes and says he must take the matter further with Travellink.
An isolated case
The communications manager at Travellink confirms to VG that a customer manager at Travellink has sent out this message, and says that it is very regrettable.
They state that one of their customer handlers has published inaccurate information about SAS’s financial situation and that this was due to human error.
They also believe that this incident is an isolated case and is due to a misunderstanding.
The family says SAS is helping them rebook the journey. Tonje Sund, press manager at SAS, says they are doing what they can to find a solution for the family.
– We register that, unfortunately, erroneous information about SAS from Travellink has gone out, and this is regrettable.
When asked why the family first receives an email from Travellink that the flight has been cancelled, when it is still possible to book the same flight, Sund replies that the flight was first cancelled, but that the flight was then reinstated.
Senior legal adviser at the Consumer Council, Nora Wenneberg Gløersen, informs VG that they have received almost a hundred inquiries about Travellink so far this year.