Indemnización por vuelo retrasado de SAS Scandinavian Airlines

SAS delays: what is specific

SAS connects through Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm, so on a single booking the delay is measured at your final destination; a short delay into Copenhagen that costs you the New York connection is a €600 case.

Winter weather is SAS’s standard defence and is genuinely extraordinary when snow closes a runway — but SAS must show the weather affected your flight and that it took all reasonable measures. Strikes by SAS’s own pilots or cabin crew are not extraordinary: the Court of Justice decided exactly that in Airhelp v SAS (C-28/20).

How the 3 hours are measured on SAS Scandinavian Airlines flights

The delay that counts is the arrival delay at your final destination, measured when at least one aircraft door opens — not the departure delay, the touchdown time or the block-on time. Compare it with the scheduled arrival on your booking. A SAS Scandinavian Airlines flight that leaves 3 hours 30 late but makes up time to arrive 2 hours 50 late is not compensable; one that leaves on time and arrives 3 hours late is.

How much SAS Scandinavian Airlines owes for a delay

Under EU261 the amount depends only on the great-circle distance of the flight (or of the whole journey on a single booking), never on the ticket price: €250, €400 or €600 per passenger. On flights over 3,500 km SAS Scandinavian Airlines may halve the amount (€300 instead of €600) when the arrival delay is between 3 and 4 hours; from 4 hours the full amount applies. The table above shows the amounts on SAS Scandinavian Airlines’s typical routes.

Care while you wait

From 2 hours of delay (short flights), 3 hours (medium) or 4 hours (long) SAS Scandinavian Airlines must offer meals and refreshments in proportion to the wait, two phone calls or e-mails, and a hotel with transport if you are kept overnight. If it does not, keep receipts for reasonable expenses and claim them separately — they come on top of the fixed compensation. After 5 hours you may also abandon the trip and claim a full refund of the unused ticket.

What SAS Scandinavian Airlines may argue

Only extraordinary circumstances exempt SAS Scandinavian Airlines from paying: severe weather, air-traffic-control restrictions or strikes, security incidents, bird strikes, external strikes. Technical faults, crew shortages, late inbound aircraft from an earlier rotation and SAS Scandinavian Airlines’s own staff strikes are not extraordinary. The burden of proof is on SAS Scandinavian Airlines: ask for the precise cause of your flight’s delay and the measures it took, and treat a bare “operational reasons” as no answer.

How to claim a delay from SAS Scandinavian Airlines

1. Note the actual arrival time (arrivals board, flight-tracker screenshot, SAS Scandinavian Airlines’s own notification).
2. Ask SAS Scandinavian Airlines in writing for the reason for the delay.
3. Submit the claim through SAS Scandinavian Airlines’s official channel (https://www.flysas.com/en/customer-service/), quoting the booking reference, the flight, the date, the arrival delay and the amount per passenger.
4. If SAS Scandinavian Airlines refuses or does not reply within 8 weeks, escalate to ARN (Sweden); a court claim remains available within the limitation period of the departure country.