– The information they provide on the website is very concise and general. There certainly could have been more. You become critical of what you should trust, says Gvendolin Kugappi. At the end of June, she and her boyfriend Adrian Sollund were going on holiday. Just when the pilot strike in SAS was on the horizon. During the holidays in Oslo and Frankfurt, the couple spent many hours trying to get the necessary information from both SAS and the travel company they had booked the SAS trips through. – Prior to our trip, when it was uncertain whether there would be a strike or not, we stood in a telephone queue at SAS for three hours without an answer, she says. The couple escaped to Frankfurt, but while there, the strike broke out. Then they had new questions for both SAS and the travel company they had used. – The travel company only referred us to SAS. But there was again a telephone queue, and their automatic chat service worked very poorly, says Kugappi. The young couple are not the only ones who have spent a lot of time in the telephone queue at SAS in recent days. On SAS’s Facebook page, many claim to have waited up to ten hours to get a response from the airline. Telephone showing a Swedish person who has tried to contact SAS for more than nine hours. Telephone showing a Norwegian person who has tried to contact SAS for more than nine hours. Telephone showing a Norwegian person who has tried to contact with SAS for over two hours. Many are frustrated Odd Langvatn in Widerøe Customer Care also notices. The company runs customer service for Widerøe. They have offices in several places in the country, but the head office is located in Mosjøen. – The pressure is quite extreme during the day. We have 3-4 times as many inquiries as usual. Yesterday alone, we had almost 3,000 inquiries, says Langvatn. The main topic in the many talks is the SAS strike. ALMOST 24 HOURS: Odd Langvatn and the rest of the gang in Widerøe Customer Care answer questions about the strike from 06.00 to 24.00. Photo: Ole-Christian Olsen / news – It’s a lot about rebookings and refunds. Many people are frustrated because this is their holiday and the strike could have financial consequences. But most people take it all in good spirits in the end. Langvatn & co has closed the telephone line. They also handle inquiries via chat, email and SMS. – In this way, we can handle several customers at the same time. We experience that the conversations become much more straightforward and more effective, says Langvatn. SAS itself is also experiencing an unusually large increase at the moment. SAS believes the information is good enough IMPORTANT TO GET INFORMATION: Tonje Sund at SAS understands that many have questions related to the strike. She praises the work her colleagues have done to get information out about what you as a traveler should do if you are affected by the strike. Photo: Vilde Helljesen – We have around 100 flights and around 30,000 passengers affected by the strike daily. We receive thousands of inquiries every day, says Tonje Sund, communications manager at SAS. She does not know exactly how many people are currently working to answer desperate travelers. – But we doubled the staff before the summer, and we have increased capacity even more now in connection with the strike, she says. Info from SAS about the strike If a flight should be changed, you are entitled to be rebooked as soon as possible, rebooked at a later date or refund of the ticket. When rebooking, you are entitled to food / drink during the waiting period and if there is a need for accommodation as a result of the change, the airline will cover this. We always recommend taking care of receipts for any extra expenses directly related to a traffic disruption, so that you can apply for any compensation for this. The following now applies: If your flight has not been confirmed canceled: Free rebooking. If you are booked on a SAS flight departing between 26 June and 16 July 2022, you can rebook your trip free of charge at a later date. You can rebook a SAS flight on another date within the next 360 days to the same destination, if the same service class is available. If your flight is canceled: The rebooking process starts immediately and we will get back to you with information as soon as possible. During the summer period, there are unfortunately fewer places available to rebook to. Unfortunately, this means that there will practically be limited opportunities to find new places in approximately the same time period as your original trip. You can cancel yourself and get your ticket refunded. You can rebook at a later date or arrange alternative travel options within certain given limits. See all details on sas.no here: Travel and Service Updates | SAS Sund does not share Gvendolin Kugappi and his girlfriend’s experience that the information from SAS online is a little difficult to understand. – That so many make direct contact with us is not about that. This is because there are so many who need assistance. Then there will of course be more inquiries, says Sund. Is the information from SAS good enough? Yes. No. It’s all right. Show result What are you going to do then? Negotiations between SAS and the pilots will start again on Wednesday. Then the strike lasted for a week and a half. It was speculated whether the Norwegian Board of Health would say that the strike posed a danger to life and health. Then the government would most likely intervene, as they did when the technicians in Widerøe went on strike earlier this summer. But on Tuesday it became clear that the Norwegian Board of Health does not think the situation is as precarious this time. Thus, there is a certain probability that the strike will continue. If you are wondering what you are entitled to in connection with the strike, this article can help you. Here, representatives from SAS and several insurance companies answer the public’s questions about the strike: If you are wondering how to proceed to get money from SAS, Tonje Sund at SAS may be able to help you a little along the way. – To get a refund, we have several different forms on our website, says Sund. See all the answers when news invited SAS and several insurance companies to answer the audience’s questions about the strike: Hi! Welcome to dialogue at news. Since you are logged in to other news services, you do not have to log in again here, but we need your consent to our terms of use for online dialogue
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Several thousand call SAS every day. Think even the information they give about the strike is good enough – news Nordland
