Who do you think you are?

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The most cruical moment of any transcontinental flight always occurs at the smallest of airports involved. I arrive at Jönköping international airport at 11.30 only to learn that my connecting flight to Copenhagen has been delayed due to "technical malfunction" and we're awaiting a new plane. The Skyways crew however gets busy and proceeds to rebook us on new flights out of Copenhagen were necessary. However, since my flight requires a stop over in Bangkok for some reason they cannot issue this ticket (only a connection via Munich to Shanghai) they ask me to check with the SAS service center in Copenhagen. I sense trouble.

Wasting the afternoon I sit down, chit-chatting with a 50-something ex-air hostess who is en route to visit her daughter in Paris. When Skyways finally get a plane here our flight leaves almost two hours delayed past two o'clock. The beautiful sunny weather soothens my mind a bit, and the conditions for sightseeing are excellent. You can see views of Landskrona (the fortress, Barsebäck power station, vinddön island), Helsingborg (Kärnan tower, the port) and the great bridge across the Öresund which all stand out beautifully. As we arrive and the transfer bus is taking us to the terminal we meet the Thai 747 which is taxiing out to the runway. The curse still stands. Never will I be able to fly this one.

A mad dash later I am in front of the SAS service center, where I get to waste even more time arguing with a rather unfriendly clerk. She tells me that it is all my own fault and that there is nothing she can do about it, and that it is Thai's fault, and that there is nothing she can do about it, and that it is Skyways' fault and that there is nothing she can do about it, and that my ticket is incorrect and that the rebooking is incorrect and... (well, you get the picture). After much malign she agrees to book me on a later flight over Munich to Shanghai, which is not really helping because in my pocket I am carrying the tickets for my travel partner who I will meet in Bangkok. In a lost cause of displaying logic I argue, that if it is possible to change a flight to go via Munich, it should also be possible to change it over Bangkok, but oooooh noooooo. Not at all, Sir. More hassle.

After a lot of squabbling and waiting around her boss appears and starts spouting accusations around. Am I "aware that I will cause them a higher cost?" and that I am manipulating the system and blah blah blah. Are they aware that I feel like kicking their stupid teeth in, I wonder. However, I have an ace in my sleeve, the fact that Skyways have already made a preliminary rebooking. SAS claim that the rebooking is not valid, but kudos to Skyways, they stand up for me when the Danes call them to spill their wrath. So much for customer service. After an hour of bickering they tell me that it is "my lucky day today" and reluctantly book me on the SAS flight departing for Bangkok later that same night. So my "lucky day" means I am stuck for another 8 hours in Copenhagen. Great joy indeed...

I spend some time in a quiet room slumbering in the darkness until I at 10 pm finally get to board the SAS airliner. Once aboard though I forget about the mad eyes of the service center clerks and enjoy the comforts of the Airbus A340, which offers a good range of in-flight entertainment and best of all, an empty companion seat. Maybe next time I will fly Scandinavian after all.

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