SAS Flight Delay Compensation

How much compensation are you entitled to for your SAS delay?

The length of your journey and the duration of your disruption will determine the size of your SAS flight delay compensation.

Passengers can claim €250 for delays or cancellations of flights with a span of less than 1,500 km. For flights ranging between 1,500 and 3,500 km passengers may be eligible for €400. This is also the maximum compensation amount that can be claimed for flight delays or cancellations for flights between EU members. Finally, passengers may be entitled to a claim of up to €600 for flights over 3,500 km.

When Can You Claim Flight Delay or Cancellation Compensation?

Passengers are entitled to compensation for their delayed or cancelled SAS flights in the following cases: 

SAS Flight Delay

There are two important considerations in order to be able to claim EU flight compensation.

• First of all, your flight needs to have been heavily delayed. Heavy delays are those that arrived at their final destination with a delay of over 3 hours.
• Please note that a prolonged delay before your departure would not automatically entitle you to a SAS delay refund. In some cases, the flight crew can make up for some of the delay during the flight and arrive with a delay shorter than 3 hours.

Submit Claim

In addition, your flight delay should not be the result of any extraordinary circumstances. In most cases, these would be any events that cause an unavoidable delay. The most common cases of extraordinary circumstances include:

• Bad weather conditions (for example low visibility, strong headwinds)
• Air traffic control restrictions
• Bird strikes
• Union and airport strikes

Does this mean that you cannot claim for your SAS weather delay? It’s complicated.

In general, bad weather is beyond the airline’s capabilities to prevent. But while under certain conditions some aircraft may not be capable of flight, others would be able to take off without incurring a delay. In addition, weather conditions can change quickly and in the space of an hour they can differ enough in order to preclude or allow a flight.

That’s the circumstances around each flight should be analysed on a case by case basis-- something SkyRefund’s experts excel at.

Check My Compensation

SAS Cancelled Flight Compensation

In case of an SAS flight cancellation, your claim eligibility is determined by the time frame in which the airline informed you of the disruption.

If you were notified of the cancelled flight between 7 and 14 days before departure and your alternate flight reached its final destination more than 4 hours behind schedule, you can claim SAS cancelled flight compensation.

In most cases, however, airlines will inform you of your flight cancellation rather late, leaving you with little time to amend your plans. This is why if SAS informed you of the cancellation less than 7 days before takeoff, the conditions for claiming compensation will be less stringent. You need to have reached your final destination with an overall delay of over 2 hours in order to be eligible for a refund.

As with SAS flight delays, claiming compensation also depends on the presence of extraordinary circumstances. For example, if your flight was cancelled due to bad weather you may not be entitled to compensation. And as with delays, conditions will have to be evaluated for each case individually.

But remember: whatever the reasons for your cancelled flight, SAS Scandinavian Airlines should offer you a choice between a full refund of the ticket cost and an alternate flight to your final destination.

Is My Flight Eligible?

Denied Boarding

If SAS denied you boarding, you can choose between the following:

1. A full ticket refund and a return flight to your starting point of departure (in the case of connecting flights)
2. An alternate flight to your final destination

In addition, you can claim compensation from SAS for denied boarding. The amount you can claim will vary between €250 and €600 depending on the distance of your journey.

SAS Missed Connection Compensation

If your trip featured connecting flights and an SAS flight delay resulted in a missed connection, you could be entitled to compensation. The flight requirements for claiming are almost identical as if you had a single flight:

1. Your delay duration exceeds 3 hours.
2. There were no extraordinary circumstances
3. Your flights were on the same booking.

If your tickets are on the same booking, even though your trip may include one or more connections, it is interpreted as a single journey. If any one of your flights is late, your arrival at your final destination is delayed and therefore you can claim compensation for your SAS missed connection.

The easiest way to find out if your tickets are on the same booking is to check if your tickets are issued under the same reservation number.

Submit Compensation Claim

About SAS

Scandinavian Airlines System, commonly referred to as SAS, is the flag carrier of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. The airline’s main hubs are Copenhagen Airport (CPH), Oslo Airport (OSL) and Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN). SAS is a founding member of Star Alliance.

SAS was formed in 1946 and in 1954 it became the first airline to successfully complete a transpolar route from Copenhagen to Los Angeles (making use of two stops along the way). Soon after, SAS began transpolar flights to Tokyo via Anchorage, Alaska and the pioneering nature of these flights resulted in a publicity windfall for the airline.

Since then SAS has become a leader in airline innovation and the company introduced the first airline to offer in-flight entertainment and in 1969— the first one to employ a female pilot. More recently, they have introduced sustained efforts to decrease their carbon footprint.

Today SAS is the largest airline in Scandinavia. In 2017 it served more than 28 million passengers.

SAS Rankings

The leading airline review website Skytrax has assigned SAS an aggregate rating of 5/10 based on the airline’s overall comfort and value for money.

While SAS has a reputation for punctuality, nearly 30% of all SAS flights experience a delay and the average delay duration is 39 minutes according to flight data provider FlightStats.

Luggage and Fare Information

SAS offers four different fare plans for your trip. The Go Light allows bringing a piece of hand luggage with you to the cabin but no checked-in bags. If you choose SAS Go instead you could check-in one piece of luggage that weighs no more than 23 kg. SAS Plus offers you to check-in two pieces of luggage and with SAS Business on a flight to or from the USA or Asia, you could bring two suitcases of up to 32kg.