I’m looking for advice after a frustrating experience at JFK on April 15.
I booked two tickets from New York to Copenhagen directly through SAS (117 ticket numbers), with the flight operated by Delta. I even confirmed the booking with SAS the night before, and everything seemed fine.
However, when we arrived at the Delta counter, they couldn’t find our tickets in their system. They could see the reservation (PNR), but said the e-tickets were missing or invalid. I called SAS from the airport, and the agent acknowledged the tickets existed but said they were somehow “exchanged” or glitched, and couldn’t fix the issue.
Delta offered to put us on a later flight, but only if we paid a new fare. Since SAS wouldn’t reissue or fix the tickets, we had no choice but to buy new flights for $2,476, which included a stopover instead of the original nonstop.
Now SAS is refusing to refund the original $1,639 tickets, claiming they don’t have a record of the issue or asking for documentation that airport staff never provided.
So far, I’ve:
Filed a dispute with Amex for services not received
Prepared a complaint with the DOT
Recorded a call where SAS confirmed the ticket existed but still denied a refund
I’m trying to understand:
Whether this falls under US DOT rules or if EU261 applies
If anyone has successfully gotten reimbursement in a situation like this
And if there are better ways to escalate this with SAS beyond standard support
This situation has already cost over $4,000 and turned into a major hassle.
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