SAS is fined NOK 100,000 for being too lazy with refunds – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
The two-week long strike this summer has cost SAS dearly.
In the quarterly figures presented in August, it was stated that the company owed people DKK 10 million – just in canceled flights.
Nearly 400,000 SAS passengers were affected.
In addition, there are large sums of money for everything people have spent while they themselves have had to arrange new plane tickets with other companies, rented cars, the bus, taken trains and other things to get to or from vacation.
SAS receives a fine of DKK 100,000
At the beginning of August, SAS received notice from the Civil Aviation Authority that the passengers had to get his money back quickly after all cancellations.
The Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority ordered SAS in September to pay all customers money for canceled flights within seven days, from 15 September.
SAS reported that they were up to date on this date.
That turned out not to be true. After the deadline, the Norwegian Aviation Authority has assessed whether they should give the company compulsory fine. And now they have concluded.
– We call it a compulsory fine, but like to call it a fine. They get a fine of DKK 100,000, they got a letter about that on Monday, says Kobberstad to NRK.
Kobberstad says SAS takes too long to refund the customer for canceled tickets.
Photo: Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority
SAS gets a 10-day deadline before any new fine
SAS has been given ten days to correct what they are fined for, namely not refunding enough tickets. After that, they can get a new one every other day, says Kobberstad.
It can be higher.
– The first fine was DKK 100,000. It can be higher if we receive information or insufficient information that things are not going as they should. But we make a new assessment after ten days have passed.
The director of aviation now expects SAS to do what they have to do in order to reach the goal of these refunds to the passengers.
– For us, it is important that consumers can trust aviation and that they actually get the money they are entitled to.
He says that for individuals it can handle sometimes large sums.
– We believe that it is important for aviation as a business, and for the individual people it applies.
SAS must report the status back to Luftfartstilynet next week.
SAS: Complex cases
Head of press at SAS Norway, Tonje Sund, confirms that SAS has received the decision and that they are now going through with it.
Tonje Sund, press manager at SAS Norway.
Photo: Vilde Helljesen
Sund says SAS and the supervisory authority are not alone in how they look at the complex cases and applications of the seven-day deadline. SAS believes that in September you were on your way with ticket mergers and within the seven-day deadline for these.
Sund says it is the more complex compensation cases that remain, which do not have the same deadline. These are cases with “expenses for hotel, food, alternative transport, and so on”.
The press manager says SAS lacks information in some cases.
– Overall, we aim to be finished by the end of December at the latest. The cases that remain are complex and must be dealt with individually, he writes.
Read the full response from SAS below:
Has DKK 38,000 outstanding
Tonny Blom-Stenbakk, his wife and their 17-year-old twins were left to fend for themselves when they were on their way home from Split to Bodø this summer.
The flight from Split in Croatia went to Copenhagen. It was flown SAS Connect, and therefore went as planned.
From Copenhagen they had to go on to Oslo, and then Bodø. But the flight was canceled by SAS due to the pilot strike.
They were told to submit refund claims, which they did in mid-July.
– With each passing day, you lose more trust in the company. I think it seems like they are training the case so that they have to complete their bankruptcy case in the USA, says Blom-Stenbakk.
Tonny Blom-Stenbakk still has 38,000 kroner outstanding with SAS.
Photo: private
In total, the family spent DKK 38,000 to get home. Money they had to spend to spend the night at the airport hotel, plane tickets to Oslo and a rental car to Bodø.
The family has not recovered anything, neither for specific expenses nor for the approximately DKK 14,000 they had paid SAS for the flight in the beginning.
Nor have they received the legally standard EU compensation they are entitled to.
Blom-Stenbakk has repeatedly tried to make contact with SAS. On social media, he is told to contact customer service, without getting a clear answer.
– After three months, it has not managed to do anything with the claim. SAS should be able to estimate when they are finished now. The information is terribly bad.
He is now appealing the case to the Transport Complaints Board for aircraft.
– DKK 38,000 is a lot of money for us ordinary people, he says. They should do away with the customer now!
Money for new tickets takes time
Thomas Kent Jørgensen has not yet received money back for new tickets he had to buy for SAS canceled this summer.
They were five people who were going home from Crete when the flight was canceled due to the strike.
Jørgensen is still waiting for DKK 53,000 from SAS after the summer’s strike.
Photo: private
Nor has he been paid standard EU compensation. According to Jørgensen, the family is entitled to 400 euros per person.
The money for the canceled tickets they never got to use, on the other hand, got money back. Nevertheless, Jørgensen estimates that he and his family still have approximately DKK 53,000 to their credit with the airline.
– I know I’m starting to get annoyed with SAS. No one gets in touch with the department that processes refunds. And we are not told how long it will take, says Jørgensen.
Hundreds of complaints
Until mid-September, the Consumer Council has received 750 inquiries about SAS. It is like many throughout 2020, which includes the corona problem. And over twice as many as in the whole of 2019, which is also included in pilot strikes.
Iversen says it is a shame that SAS does not follow up on the customer’s request.
Photo: Consumer Council
Thomas Iversen, senior legal advisor at the Consumer Council, thinks that SAS follows up on its customers too poorly.
– We react to SAS with a lack of follow-up by customers. People get little to no information about where their case is in the track, and several say that they get no answer if they call customer service.
It is clearly frustrating for the customer, and contributes to creating extra uncertainty and irritation, they say. And points out that SAS benefited from following its customers in a proper way.
– Dit’s a shame they choose not to!
Conciliation councils are one way to go
Over 370,000 passengers were affected by the pilot strike in SAS this summer. Many have laid out large sums for SAS, and sit with expensive claims they should rather have on account.
This is perhaps especially true now at a time when increased expenses and more expensive goods are putting pressure on the household economy.
Iversen says the conciliation council may be the way to go to repay money.
– If you need to do something more active with the case, the only way out is actually to go to the conciliation council. You can do that yourself, for a fee of approximately DKK 1,400.
The Transport Complaints Board
In September, the Transport Complaints Board for flights had received over 500 complaints about SAS.
Of these, about 50 cases apply to the pilot strike this summer, says Cecilie Asak Oftedahl, general manager of the Norwegian Tourism Forum. She is in the secretariat of the Transport Complaints Board.
– What do people complain about the most?
– There are many complaints about cancellations and delays, lack of rerouting, claims to be reimbursed for the cost of buying new tickets, hotel expenses, claims for standard compensation, claims for a refund of the ticket, and so on.
In September, the Transport Complaints Board had received over 500 complaints from SAS customers.