AY & RJ recent booking experience when a booking leg gets cancelled

[nonpop]

Thought I'd share some tribal knowledge for anyone that has had part of a journey cancelled by the carrier and the options presented by them are not ideal.

I have an upcoming AY return flight from BKK to CDG via HEL due in a few months in J.
Well I get a notification from Finnair to say the HEL to CDG leg is cancelled and no other flights are running that afternoon.
They offered me to go HEL to AMS to CDG arriving into CDG very late (and I'd miss a dinner appointment) via non-OW carriers and non-OW flight numbers i.e no SCs earning. Would have probably been ok if extra SCs but when nothing, then I'm not interested.
So I went away and thought about it.

I then contacted RJ (after contacting other airlines).
RJ offered me a 1-way tix from BKK > AMM > CDG arriving into CDG earlier than my original AY flight.
RJ offered to hold the tix for 24 hrs - the 1-way fare was without penalty for being 1-way.
The RJ return fare was too expensive as the CDG to BKK was a little rich for my blood and it may have meant I would have returned with a *A carrier.

I then contacted AY and asked if they would offer me a half refund (or approx depending upon taxes). AY charge almost as much for 1-way vs return. So they went away and thought about it. Next day they emailed me to say they would allow me to keep the AY return from CDG to BKK via HEL and refund the outbound leg at no penalty.

So I now have a booking AY J BKK > CDG via HEL.
Return RJ CDG > BKK via AMM in J.
Price is same as original AY booking + A$23.50 which I can live with (well my company can live with).
The danger here is I now have 2 PNRs.

Both flights connect with my QF SYD > BKK > SYD flight nicely as well.

And I get to keep earning OW SCs for my WP maintenance ... need those 50k bonus points each renewal.

 

[KitKat]

OK experience with AY operational flight change as well. Was on a HEL-HKG flight that was cancelled and put on a later flight (think they have cut this route to once daily now), thus cutting my transit time in HKG (wanted an extended transit to visit friends in HKG). Asked them if they could put me on the next day's CX day flight (HKG-MEL) so I could have an overnight in HKG (at my own cost for accommodation). Request was put in and confirmed when I checked on check my trip a few days later, so all good.
Only problem I imagine is they have their call centre inundated when such major changes occur and it took up to 20 minutes on hold before being able to speak to someone.
Otherwise they seem OK to deal with when the changes are done by them.