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Customers have collapsed and the Swedish Consumer Agency has demanded a response.
SAS has provided figures on how they met the reimbursement requirement for canceled trips.
Documents show that even though almost all cases have been handled, there are still hundreds of clients waiting.
In early January, the Swedish Consumer Agency (KO) initiated an oversight case against SAS after several travelers learned of late refunds for flights canceled since the start of the corona pandemic.
According to regulations, SAS must reimburse customers for canceled flights within seven days. Until February 3, the company had to report its reimbursement rate from December 2020 to the Swedish Consumer Agency.
In the letter to the authority, SAS describes how many have requested a refund, received a money back within seven days, and how many have had to wait longer than that.
Hundreds received a late refund
Figures Aftonbladet has received from SAS show that on January 1 of this year, the airline received 6,976 refund requests as of December 25, 2020.
All but 702 passengers got their money back in seven days.
On January 1, there were also 239 passengers who requested a refund in December and had to wait longer than that. 99 percent of these were processed on February 1.
Regarding the period from January 1 to January 25, the airline received 4,047 applications. Of these, 3,656 received money back in seven days.
On February 1, a total of 255 passengers requested a refund in January for canceled flights that are still waiting for money. 98 percent of these have been handled.
– Where we received all the information, more than 90 percent received a refund within seven days of December. There is a number that has not received your payment and this may be because we do not have all the information or because the reservation is made through a travel agency, says SAS press manager Freja Annamatz.
Do you think you live up to the rule?
– In most cases, we can handle this rule now. But just like before the pandemic, we have had occasions where for various reasons we have not been able to pay in seven days.
Photo: SAS press photo
Freja Annamatz is SAS Press Director.
“Nothing is happening”
Aftonbladet has previously reported that many commuters are furious about slow driving. One of the people we’ve talked to is Lena Mellström, who has been waiting for ten months.
– I’m so upset. It’s okay, he had previously told Aftonbladet.
She is far from alone. As early as April last year, KO started a case against SAS as a result of the cancellation of so many flights. But it was not until December that the injunction took effect, meaning that the Swedish Consumer Agency can only request figures for the last two months.
Do you think that the Swedish Consumer Agency will be satisfied with what you have reported?
– It is up to the authority to make an evaluation based on what we have presented. We have done everything possible to speed up these processes. We are basically on target with all cases, in 99 percent of cases, says Freja Annamatz.
Within two weeks, the airline expects to be fully ready with all applications in progress.
Photo: Johan Nilsson / TT
SAS-Airbus stationed in Kastrup.
If the Swedish Consumer Agency finds that SAS does not meet the requirements, the company is threatened with a fine of SEK 1 million per month.
The airline also runs the risk of having to pay a fine if they have recommended consumers to demand a refund from travel agencies. Even there, the responsibility rests with the airline, according to KO.
What will you do now?
– We will see what they have submitted and then we will assess what the next step will be, says Maja Lindstrand, lawyer and case manager at the Swedish Consumer Agency.
The goal is to respond to the airline in two weeks.
What happens if SAS doesn’t pay?
– Then we may have to take the company to court, says Maja Lindstrand.
In total, the airline has paid more than 5 billion SEK to 2.4 million passengers since the pandemic broke out last year.
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