Are others having difficulty booking U.S.-Europe flights on SAS's website? For a couple of weeks, I've been looking at fares from either Newark Liberty or Washington, DC to Paris or Brussels for flights between June and August. I'm looking for the lowest fare for a three- to four-week trip.
Using both the regular calendar and the low-fare calendar - which always shows a wide range of fares for each month and fares on nearly every day of the month, I plug in my desired departure and return dates, hit the blue "search" button and invariably get two and somethimes three different messages on a red background:
1) "Unfortunately, we can't seem to find anything that matches what you're looking for. Please refine your search." 2) "Flights are not available for requested date(s). See other dates below." and 3) There are no available seats on the selected date. Please select another date."
Sometimes, these messages appear even before I have plugged in the dates or hit the "search" button. At other times, the system continually reverts back to the calendar (after I've hit the "search" button), which still shows the same full range of fares as before. These messages appear about 80%-90% of the time; 10%-20% of the time, my selections go through, but not necessarily with the fare or dates I want.
I've e-mailed SAS, and a representative replied within a day or two. Per his request, I cleared the cookies and my cache and tried using the system on Firefox (my regular browser), Safari and Chrome, all with the same results as above. I assume he's looking into possible bugs at his end, but have not heard back now for a few days. I also conducted a full scan and an off-line scan and got a clean bill of health for my computer (Windows 10).
This morning, I tried something different a few times with various dates and cities. Instead of choosing the lowest departure and return fares, I chose the lowest departure fare and a much higher return fare ($300 or more over the lowest) and had no problems at all. The same for a high fare-high fare combination. This raises the question whether the system's algorithms are rigged to steer customers to higher fares and that the low fares shown are fake or just no longer available. If so, not a good way to win customers.
Three years ago, I had no problems at all booking an IAD-CPH fare on the website using Firefox. And now...
I appreciate your thoughts, comments, etc. Are you also experiencing these problems?