In the summer of 2022, several hundred thousand fliers were affected by the SAS pilot strike. Many had to use credit cards to pay for hotels, food and other running expenses while the strike was going on. It also means that many have had to pay interest while waiting to be reimbursed for the outlays from the airline. One of these is traveler Tore Buene. – Now I have started submitting monthly claims to SAS for interest corresponding to the rate on the credit card I had to use to pay extra expenses. So far, the demands have been refused by SAS. news has seen documentation of the refusal from the airline’s customer department, which states that SAS does not refund interest on credit cards. The Consumer Council: You are entitled to interest But according to the Consumer Council, Buene and other travelers are entitled to just be reimbursed credit card interest. – If new travel has been booked with a credit card, and the credit has become interest-bearing, then it is natural that SAS also covers the part of the credit interest that exceeds the interest on late payment. That’s according to Thomas Iversen, senior legal adviser at the Norwegian Consumer Council. For compensation claims or claims for standard compensation, interest runs from the 31st day after the consumer sent the claim. For refunds of unused tickets, interest runs from the 8th day after the consumer demanded a refund. But you have to claim late interest yourself to get it paid out. On the government’s website, you can calculate how much you are entitled to. Thomas Iversen is senior legal adviser at the Norwegian Consumer Council. Photo: Halvor Pritzlaff Njerve / Forbru It is the airline that has the duty to book a new flight when the original one is cancelled. But in connection with the pilot strike, SAS left many of the passengers to book a new journey home themselves. – We believe that credit interest is a direct cost linked to passengers having to arrange their own journey home. According to documentation news has, SAS does not practice paying interest that has accrued on credit cards due to delayed repayment. This despite the fact that the Consumer Council believes this is the correct practice. Refuses to answer – If someone feels that a claim for interest on late payment has not been approved, we encourage you to contact us so that we can look at the matter once more. Everyone who is entitled to compensation from SAS should of course get it, says press manager at SAS, Tonje Sund. She does not want to answer concretely about why they do not issue late interest corresponding to what customers have lost by using credit cards. – All customer claims are assessed individually and we cannot deal with individual cases in the media. But as emphasized, everyone who is entitled to compensation from SAS must naturally receive it. Tonje Bjerve Sund is press manager at SAS. Fined by the Norwegian Aviation Authority – Now they are threatening more The follow-up of strike-affected passengers has not gone unnoticed by the Norwegian Aviation Authority. In October and November, SAS was imposed a total of NOK 200,000 in compulsory fines from the Norwegian Aviation Authority due to delayed repayment. SAS promised to finish the compensation claims before the new year. Now the company claims that they have processed all passenger claims they have received. But that in individual cases they are waiting for feedback from passengers. Photo: Privat Before Christmas, the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority sent a letter to SAS after registering that several passengers feel that SAS has not paid late interest. There they asked the company to answer why. Now SAS has responded. They believe that they are following the Interest on Delay Act, and ask the Norwegian Aviation Authority to be more specific. “SAS is of the opinion that the company complies with the Late Interest Act. SAS must therefore request that the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority specify, or provide examples of, the information relating to interest on late payment,” they write in a letter to the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority, which news has obtained access to. Director of Communications at the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority, Håvard Vikheim, tells news that the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority has not yet decided whether they think the response from SAS regarding refunds to customers is good enough. – If it is such that they cannot document that they have come far enough, in our opinion, there may be a need for a new compulsory fine, says Vikheim in the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB Over 1,000 complaints about SAS During 2022, the Norwegian Transport Complaints Board received 280 complaints after SAS’ pilot strike. – The tribunal dealt with the first strike cases at the end of November. Complainants were successful in all four cases in November. That’s what Cecilie Asak Oftedahl, general manager of the Norwegian Tourism Forum, says. Cecilie Asak Oftedahl is general manager of the Norwegian Tourism Forum. – In the tribunal in December, two cases were dealt with – one complainant was upheld and one complainant was not upheld. Some cases have been closed, either due to a lack of documentation or a settlement. But the appeals board still has many cases on the table. – We have approximately 150 cases about the strike that are still being processed by us. In addition, the Consumer Council received 1,040 inquiries about SAS last year. That is around 40 per cent of all inquiries about aviation that year. – A great many of these inquiries are about people who have had problems with reimbursement as a result of the pilot strike during the joint holiday in 2022, says Iversen of the Consumer Council. He writes in an e-mail to news that they will keep a close eye on next week’s inquiries, to see if there are more claims that have not been concluded. The Consumer Council will thus keep the Norwegian Aviation Authority informed in the future.
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Still waiting for strike money from SAS – sending claim with interest – news Nordland
