Finnair Flight Changes - award impacts

[ANstar]

Just a heads up that Finnair seemed to have loaded some flight changes in upcoming bookings. I had a connection in SIN that is now illegal (45 mins) due to extended flight times from SIN-HEL due to the Russian conflict. (QFF ticket AU>SIN>EU)

Called the FF service centre and they pretty much said they couldn't rebook me as it wasn't a Qantas sector so they have no responsibility and as no other availability I could just cancel and get a refund. Keen to hear others experiences?

 

[Guvner]

I would wait a bit, if that’s an option, and keep looking for availability to pop up.
Other pax on different flights will also be impacted by the schedule updates, so cancellations and changes will be happening all the time.

 

[The man with no name]

I’ve had flight changes on a J award flight from Tokyo to Helsinki due to the frequency of the flight reducing from daily to 4x a week.

The result is that we now leave Tokyo a day earlier than planned and have a13hr flight instead of a 10 hr flight.

We’re grateful Finnair found us an alternative flight as it would be tough finding an alternative flight at late notice.

 

[aikman]

This is a very common problem at the moment. There is a small number of reports where Qantas has opened up award seats for them on Qantas operated flights to get them to their destination but it seems that you have to be very very lucky in speaking to the right phone agent to be offered this option. It is otherwise generally accepted that you would have to find award seats on alternative flights yourself. Good luck.

 

[Kerrodt]

Finnair emailed all customers who subscribe to their emails earlier this month to advise of the changes to their network flights due to avoiding Russian Airspace. The email contained a link on the situation, the changes being introduced and what customers should expect if their booking is impacted.

The link is here: Changes in Finnair flights to Asia and Russia

There may be further updates to this on the Finnair website. Would be worth checking.

I think if you take a read through this you will find some helpful information and some options on what you can do. My advice in general though would be to not just sit and wait for something to happen for you as I imagine that there will be a lot of other passengers being proactive and getting the changes that suits them best - which may leave you with an unsatisfactory outcome if you leave it too long.

 

[kelvedon]

Finnair appear to acknowledge they are expecting the no fly over Russia to last. I got notification last night that the arrival time of my HEL -SIN flight booked for the end of September will arrive 2 hours later than originally scheduled.

 

[renatts]

I got the dreaded e-mail this morning 'We've had to make some changes to your flight'. Luckily it was for my backup booking in August/September which it looks like we won't have to use.

Flight time for my May/June booking was also updated HEL - SIN, but we had a 4hr layover so that's just been reduced to 2.5hrs, so it doesn't make a difference.

August/September booking is totally unworkable now, but I was going to cancel or change it anyway. I feel for people who needed those flights to work.

As for QF flights being offered as replacement - keep calling and trying until you're successful. I had MEL - NRT cancelled by JAL and just kept calling until they offered me revenue J seats converted to U on QF9 to get us to Europe. Other people have had similar success in the last few days, so just don't give up and don't accept an inferior solution.

 

[ANstar]

Tried 3 agents this morning all just said no other award availability either side so only option is to cancel and get a refund.

Doesn't really give me any confidence to book a QFF award and expected to be carried to the destination I booked. One of the agents even asked if I could run between the flights to make it despite what they have rebooked me on (not ticketed) as it is not a legal connection.

 

[renatts]

Tried 3 agents this morning all just said no other award availability either side so only option is to cancel and get a refund.

Doesn't really give me any confidence to book a QFF award and expected to be carried to the destination I booked. One of the agents even asked if I could run between the flights to make it despite what they have rebooked me on (not ticketed) as it is not a legal connection.

Took me 37 calls to get my QF9.
6 or so at the start to be offered the flights, the rest to actually have it ticketed.

It was put through as an Involuntary Reroute, try asking for that.

 

[levelnine]

37 calls to get my QF9.

So that means you spent more time on the phone (including waiting) than the length of the flight itself?!

 

[whereiskym]

Yes I had the same problem, had Finnair booked Melbourne via Tokyo and Helsinki to Dublin now a misconnection spent 7 hours on hold to QF Bronze member here.

I was not able to find any other availability in business class online this is for July travel. Then spent 2 hours speaking to a agent who looked at all possibilities was even happy to do an invol reroute and put me on Emirates even though I was booked on a oneworld but alas nil seats in business class.

So booking has now been cancelled points refunded will keep an eye out but looks like will just be buying a ticket to travel in economy.

 

[Mattg]

Personally, if I had an affected booking I would start proactively looking for alternative flights. You can't rely on QF to offer you a suitable alternative.

Qatar Airways has just opened up a decent chunk of new availability to/from Australia, including F availability between SYD-DOH (with onward F connections available DOH-CDG) - see Qatar Airways A380 to Sydney (with F availability). Perhaps that might be another option to get to Europe?

 

[aikman]

Tried 3 agents this morning all just said no

3 calls done. Only 34 more to go...

 

[renatts]

So that means you spent more time on the phone (including waiting) than the length of the flight itself?!

Yeah probably, over a 2 weeks period. A lot of calls were under 2 minutes because they clearly couldn’t help.
I mostly called early and got a call back, or used the priority numbers (inc the one they emailed me)

It all came down to the agents refusing to calculate payment for the new taxes because “you don’t need to pay anything sir, it’s on us”

Indeed I DID need to pay taxes to get it ticketed. Finally a South Africa CSA believed me and fixed it.

Post automatically merged: Mar 25, 2022

Personally, if I had an affected booking I would start proactively looking for alternative flights. You can't rely on QF to offer you a suitable alternative.

Qatar Airways has just opened up a decent chunk of new availability to/from Australia, including F availability between SYD-DOH (with onward F connections available DOH-CDG) - see Qatar Airways A380 to Sydney (with F availability). Perhaps that might be another option to get to Europe?

I think you’ll find most people do this first, but due to the late notice there isn’t anything available.

Exception being Qatars recent dump of availability which I’m looking at for later in the year.. just gotta decide where to go.

 

[exLXCXFF]

Thanks for this thread. I just logged into my finnair booking (reward via QFF) on finnair.com. To my surprise, it said my booking was cancelled and I got rebooked and can review & accept changes. When looking at the changed itinerary, actually absolutely nothing changed, so I just accepted and got a new eTicket sent immediately. People may want to check too.

 

[WeeGraeme]

I've just received "the dreaded email" too.
I was flying AMS-HEL-HND-BNE. This is not until August, though, and my forward trip is via SIN, so it's not impacted the same way.

The email I received from them showed me on an earlier flight from AMS. Initially, I thought that was fair enough, because the flight will now take longer. But then something didn't sit right about the next flight. On my email, it showed my old and new flight being on AY73 and that there was no change to the time. If that had been the case, there would have been no need to change my first flight. When I checked, I was booked on AY61 previously. AY61 is HEL-HND. AY73 is HEL-NRT. AY is just calling it Tokyo and appears to be deliberately not disclosing the airport change. My onward flight is on QF62 which leaves from HND. As a tourist, I'm not currently eligible for a visa to enter Japan.

I'm only QF Bronze. I've considered the possibility that "something" could happen for a few weeks now. I've searched lots, but haven't been able to find any availability at all. And I've searched cities all around Australia and multiple cities between Amsterdam and Australia. I don't imagine Qantas will be chomping at the bit to create more availability for a lowly bronze. And if I can't get an award flight back, the cheapest flights in J around my dates is $15k for two passengers, one way. It's "only" $19k return.

 

[exLXCXFF]

HND - NRT transfer will be hard (currently prohibited: Border measures to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19))

Have you looked into AMS - HEL - SIN - SYD (or any AUS port)? I found HEL - SIN having quite a lot of availability at least later this year.

 

[WeeGraeme]

Have you looked into AMS - HEL - SIN - SYD (or any AUS port)? I found HEL - SIN having quite a lot of availability at least later this year.

Sorry. I've just realised I left out one detail. I'm looking for flights in J. Using the multi-city search, the QF website says there is availability in J. I can get to Singapore in J, but looking at the so called availability, the flight from SYD to BNE might be in J, but the flight from SIN to SYD is in Y. But that's a whole different topic of discussion.

 

[exLXCXFF]

Sorry. I've just realised I left out one detail. I'm looking for flights in J. Using the multi-city search, the QF website says there is availability in J. I can get to Singapore in J, but looking at the so called availability, the flight from SYD to BNE might be in J, but the flight from SIN to SYD is in Y. But that's a whole different topic of discussion.

Yes, same situation here. I snapped up the Y fare from SIN to SYD and did an upgrade bid which may or (probably more likely) may not work out. I am happy to have at least 3/4 of the way in business and can life with Y for the last leg if need be.

 

[aidan059]

Try HEL-SIN. Then call the priority phone number or the 1300 number and get them to try release availability on QF2 to Sydney if there is none available. I had the same issue as you - was meant to go HEL-HND-SYD but got routed to HEL-NRT HND-SYD. My HND-SYD was on JAL too and not even Qantas, they are more likely to release availability if it's a Qantas flight. I called up and explained the situation and all they did was search for availability or offer to cancel ticket. I asked if they can request release of seats for 2 pax in J to SYD from SIN in which she said no guarantee. Given finnair has huge availability to SG on a reward, this was also no issue. 30 mins later I had these confirmed on my Qantas account and was ticketed. Just demand and complain that the you can't physically get in to Japan and that it is not a 1 for 1 transfer considering the airports are on the complete opposite sides of tokyo. If first operator refuses then just call back and keep trying - someone is bound to help you.

Ticket was RTW ticket on last 2 legs, status is Gold.