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My partner booked an expensive SAS PLUS PRO ticket on the SAS website for ATH-CPH direct. This shows as “Operated by Aegean” when booking.
On SAS short-haul flights, PLUS means you are in the front of the plane in the PLUS section (pretty much business class). You get free alcoholic drinks & food; priority boarding; lounge; fast-track; extra luggage. If you do not book a PLUS ticket, you get free tea & coffee and nothing else.When checking-in at the airport, she was told her seat was 10A, not in the “business” section. She complained and they investigated but said she had an economy ticket. She did not get fast track, or lounge access or priority boarding and the economy service on the flight.
After the flight she complained to SAS saying she did not receive what she paid for, but they replied:
“Your flight was operated by Aegean with flight number A3750. When booking, the following information is displayed, among other things:
The above products, rules and services apply on flights operated by SAS. • Products and services offered by our partner airlines may vary. • SAS Plus is not available on SAS codeshare flights and connecting flights operated by other airlines.”Some conflicts in this text I think and she pointed this out back to them, “if PLUS is not available on SAS codeshare flights, why did you sell me a PLUS ticket?”
They responded that they looked into it again and cannot provide any compensation.
Also note there are only two booking options for these Aegean operated flights when booking via SAS, “SAS GO SMART” (economy) and “SAS PLUS PRO”.
I’ve investigated on the SAS website and what seems to be happening is that for this codeshare flight, SAS PLUS PRO is sold with differing ticket booking classes.
See the section “Earn points on flights marketed by SAS & operated by SkyTeam partner”
https://www.flysas.com/gb-en/eurobonus/partners/airlines/scandinavian-airlines/Sometimes it’s C, D or J which matches to “Business” in the partners section and sometimes it’s Y or B which is considered “Premium economy”. Maybe there are more codes but these are examples I actually found.
You can see the booking class by clicking on the “i” in the box showing the benefits you might receive.So from my perspective, a normal person booking this may end up in economy or business with the associated benefits and won’t know until they get to the airport!
The only difference in the booking process is seat selection. And this is where you can see if you won business or economy…
You don’t get seat selection if you end up with an economy booking class via SAS PLUS PRO, it says “Unfortunately, we can’t show the seat map since this flight is operated by another airline. Please contact the airline to select your seat.”
You do get seat selection (in the first 3 or 4 rows) if you happened to get the business ticket booking class.
So it’s clear that some SAS PLUS PRO will get the real business experience and some will not. But it’s sold with the appearance of the same thing.Not sure how to progress this with SAS as they don’t seem to admit any error here. Any ideas?
“Earn points on flights marketed by SAS & operated by SkyTeam partner”
https://www.flysas.com/gb-en/eurobonus/partners/airlines/scandinavian-airlines/”Aegean is not a SkyTeam partner so I’m not sure how that might work in terms of offering SAS Pro benefits.
Unless this is an an issue that has arisen for a ticket that was bought when SAS were part of Star Alliance?
(I’m sure one of the experts will be along soon to correct the above if it’s not the issue!)
@ming – I’m not sure what you are really expecting to “progress” with SAS here? What have you asked for?
SAS Plus (Pro) is an economy ticket, even if it offers some perks specifically when travelling on SAS flights and it’s stated to be the same economy seat on short haul. SAS Business gives you a business class ticket. I can’t see how one could expect such an economy fare automatically to map into business class on Aegean and I’m not sure that one should be reverse engineering the points table into booking classes/travel classes. I’m surprised that the actual class of travel wasn’t noted on the booking confirmation and/or e-ticket, particularly if the booking class wasn’t visible to you. How was this only discovered at the airport?
It’s obviously not particularly helpful that SAS uses its own fare category names when booking you with another carrier but once they give you the warning you quote “The above products, rules and services apply on flights operated by SAS. • Products and services offered by our partner airlines may vary. • SAS Plus is not available on SAS codeshare flights and connecting flights operated by other airlines” it does seem to be caveat emptor and suggest you need to check what you will be getting once warned.
She asked for downgrade compensation.
My main point really was that clicking a single option for SAS Plus (Pro) can result in an economy ticket or business ticket in this scenario. That seems unfair and unclear.
But yes, if one can pick up on the booking class, then you might be able to find out what benefits you’ll get. I don’t think it’s normal to have such vagueness though.EDIT: booking class shown in emails and etickets is just the code. It never says “economy” or “business”.
She asked for downgrade compensation.
My main point really was that clicking a single option for SAS Plus (Pro) can result in an economy ticket or business ticket in this scenario. That seems unfair and unclear.
But yes, if one can pick up on the booking class, then you might be able to find out what benefits you’ll get. I don’t think it’s normal to have such vagueness though.EDIT: booking class shown in emails and etickets is just the code. It never says “economy” or “business”.
I can’t see any prospect of winning a downgrade compensation case in these circumstances. SAS is very tough on compensation full stop! If she had asked for some compensation for any extra costs incurred (eg buying drinks, extra bag, fast track etc.) maybe a goodwill gesture might have been forthcoming but being downgraded has a very specific definition within the legislation and I can’t see it is met here. SAS would be quite unusual in not noting the actual travel class anywhere – online, app, documentation etc.
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