memory is short. when i tried to use scandinavian airline's site a couple of weeks ago, we ended up travelling with flynordic instead. back then, i swore to do anything i could not to come near sas.se ever again. yesterday, i was at it once more. see, the thing is i have a bunch of bonus points earned through their frequent flyer program to spend. i thought now is a good time to do that. but there are so many flaws in their site, interaction wise, that i don't know where to begin this rant. here's a little something that happened;
when logged into their system as a member of their eurobonus program, one can select to book a bonus trip. that's what i did. i picked the destination, entered the specifics of our family configuration, selected dates and hit next. the message that came up was fair enough "you don't have enough bonus point for this trip". ok, so i know it is possible to purchase extra points to reach the level required. the problem is that the system only told me i didn't have enough points, not how many i was lacking. it would've been so easy if the system would've told me "you need 2000 extra points to reach the level for this trip. wanna buy?". but oh no. instead, i had to go back to the menu and look for a chart listing the required amount of points needed for various destinations. found it after a while. looked for the place to purchase more points. hmm.... apparantly, it'd take a working day to register my purchase with my account. a working day!? don't think so. how am i to know that there are seats available for the flight we want to go with in a working day? it shouldn't be a problem to register the points right away since the system knows me already; i'm logged in, i have a history of travelling with sas, and they definitely know where i live if my mastercard doesn't cover the expenses for the extra points purchased.
growing frustrated, i looked up the contact section. there's a link to "internet support" in there. fine. but, wait a minute! it's not possible to email sas internet support. you either have to chat with them on-line, or call them. the chat is only open between 8 am and 4 pm. i didn't know the exact time, but i definitely knew the hour was later than 4pm, so i called support.
the horrible, near-airticket-experience with their site was neatly topped off with an equally frustrating encounter with sas' automatic telephony support. it required a handful of input and 44 seconds before it told me the opening hours of the telephony support... the voice didn't even say it, as it only gave me the opening hours, but apparently, the support department had closed for the day.
if someone calls support, is it so hard to let that person know right away that the support function has closed for the day?
fuck sas!