Lubans1

This is the gist of a note I sent to Finnair customer service two or three weeks ago:

I made a mistake when buying my round trip tickets on Finnair this current trip from Raleigh-Durham, NC, USA to Riga, Latvia. My mistake was not noticing – this was not at all well marked on the their online display - that we would arrive at LGA and then have to transfer luggage and ourselves to JFK, check in again, and go through security again. Had I known this ahead of time, I would have kept looking for a better connection.
My wife and I are senior citizens and it is a hardship to truck ourselves and luggage (four heavy bags) between airports. I dread having to do this on the October 28 return.
If at all possible, I would like to re-arrange our return flight so we can connect with a direct flight from JFK to RDU. Is this possible?
I appreciate your helping me with this request.

Finnair responded in a few days, saying yes, we could connect to RDU via JFK. Just a small fee, $200 per each of us! When I asked for the change fee to be waived due to my making a simple mistake by not seeing the NYC complications, Finnair said no, blaming the partner airline (AA) for its intransigence in not cutting me any slack. As a budget traveler I paid a pretty hefty price, over $1450 for each of our tickets, I really thought Finnair should give me a break. But, no.

So, I write to alert others flying Finnair – avoid the hellish LGA-JFK-LGA connection. The American Airlines counter person, btw, was no help at all when I asked her at the start of the trip in Raleigh, back in August, once I had realized my mistake, to change the tickets to a direct flight to JFK – she said, in a condescending manner, that the LGA-JFK connection was well known and any change would be calculated at the current price for the ticket. She made no effort to tell me what the options might be.

Fims

Sadly airlines are happy to cancel and change only fare mistakes. In current case the quoted 200USD sounds like usual change fee for economy class tickets. Actually there are some other airlines in other cities as well, who use multile airports (for example London with BA serving LGW, LHR and LCY; in Paris AF operating out of CDG and ORY; Tokyo with HND and NRT; Bangkok with DMK and BKK for Thai Airways, etc).

I guess it is lesson for the future or if you are lucky enough, they might cancel for example the RDU to LGA and you could be rerouted then RDU to JFK, depending on the availablity. But for that you need extreme weather event or something...

ffay005

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Lubans1.

This is the major con with self-service online bookings. If you make a mistake, it's yours to keep and live with, unfortunately.

Some airlines have a 24-hour "regret window" where they will cancel and refund any online booking if you call them within 24 hours of the booking. If memory serves me right, AY has such a window as well, but it is a lot shorter. 2 hours perhaps?

Lappe

http://www.finnair.com/INT/GB/customer-care/faq#1-3-2

"If the reservation was made seven days or more prior to the flight's scheduled departure time, you can cancel it within 24 hours from the time of booking without a refund fee."

NoWindowSeat

If you cannot change, or it's too expensive option, it's not the end of the world..use porter service at JFK + ca. 40usd cab ride + curbside check in at LGA to make it a bit more bearable with the luggage.

janetdoe

As a senior citizen, if it will be difficult for you to make the transfer, I would just request wheelchair escort at JFK and let them take you through customs, help you collect your bags, and take you to the bus stop for the JFK-LGA shuttle bus. Let AA pay for it. <shrug>

But if that doesn't suit you, then here are some other options:

1. When do you land in JFK and how tight is your connection? There is a decent chance you could 'miss' your connection and AA would rebook you direct from JFK-RDU.

As of today, the one way ticket on AA on October 28 from LGA-RDU is selling for $429. The one-way ticket from JFK-RDU is selling for $237. It sounds like it would actually be in AA's interest to change you to the cheaper flight.

2. Another alternative is that you can sign up for British Airways Executive Club and pay $245 for 9600 Avios points. Then you can use 4500 Avios per person to book the JFK-RDU flight (12:35 pm departure) on AA.

3. Personally, I wouldn't want to give Finnair or AA any additional revenue. I would probably book a $235 ticket with Delta before I would spend $200 to change a connection.

dera

These options only help on the return, not the outbound.
Also, if considering booking another carrier, how much does it cost to check 4 bags with Delta, $200+?

Often1

The $200 change fee is the standard change fee for all legacy (AA, US, UA & DL) domestic air carriers on all discounted tickets.

In no way accusing you of anything here, but one of the purposes of the 24-hour fee free cancellation is that it allows you to review the itinerary one (or several more times) in order to make certain that each segment is properly dated and correct. People make all manner of innocent errors and this allows for their correction. Surely the itinerary shows the segments as RDU-LGA and JFK-Onward.

Some very unhelpful suggestions here which seem to be more about punishing AA for simply charging what it charges all passengers on discounted fares and will work a hardship for you. In particular, if you skiip the RDU-LGA AA segment on the return, your remaining segment back to RIX may be cancelled. In addition, if you book a separate ticket on DL for the RDU-JFK and your DL flight is late, you will not have missed a connection, but actually noshowed for your AY flight. AY may cancel your ticket.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Call AY. Do not send emails. Emails are impersonal and impersonal requests get impersonal responses. Do not go into the entire story. Simply ask if it is possible to switch you to a RDU-JFK service. When you are told about change fees, point out that it was an honest mistake and see if the agent will waive the fee.

2. If you are stuck with the LGA-JFK ground transfer, you can do this for a lot lot lot less than the $400 the change fees mean. A skycap for your luggage with a $10 tip and a $40 taxi total $50. That is $350 less than you face in change fees and, while you are a budget traveler, not a logistical nightmare and vastly cheaper than the change fees.

3. Lastly, take a look at the fares for your return date. The actual charge is $200 + fare difference. If the RDU-JFK is cheaper than the RDU-LGA, that will be a credit against the $200.

JumboJet

Depending what time of day and the day of the week it might not be that bad.

This has happened to me before due to the fact that I use NYC to input instead of JFK, LGA or EWR.

dera

"If you skip the RDU-LGA AA segment on the return", you mean on the outbound? The trip starts from RDU not RIX so there is no "remaining segment back to RIX".
You also cannot jump to the AY flight without flying the first segment on the ticket. If you book a separate ticket for the RDU-JFK, he would no-show the AA RDU-JFK flight.
Perhaps you read the OP's route to go the other way?

About 3. Are you sure about that? This depends on the fare rules, very often they contain a note about the fare difference calculation saying new fare is atleast the old one, so there will be no credit.

Often1

You are correct. It is the other direction. But, that creates its own set of problems. If OP does book a separate one-way from JFK-RDU and the AY flight is late, he will not have misconnected. While domestic carriers such as DL are more forgiving than their European counterparts and I am fairly confident that DL would rebook OP in any event, it is still a major hassle for someone who is trying to reduce hassle. In addition, OP must get himself from AA to DL at JFK. While not the same jaunt as to LGA, the issues he raises about mobility remain the same.

OP also cannot book a separate one-way ticket JFK-RDU on AA as that creates an "impossible" ticketing situation as OP holds LGA-RDU tickets on AA. This can wreak havoc with reservations too. Again, gvien OP's desire to reduce the hassle, this is potentially another mess.

You are correct that it is possible that the change penalties might not permit a lower fare, that is why I caution that these things are all "generally" and OP will need to check the specific fare rules for his specific ticket. It also is likely that the AY agent got it wrong and that the change fee will be $300 as this is an international ticket even though a domestic segment. But, let us not look gift horses....

I still think that it is worth a call by OP to the ticketing carrier which I presume, but do not know, is AY. This is a ticket where the initial segments have been flown, OP has a compelling story and it cannot hurt to try. This is particularly true if OP ticketed this through AA and he calls AA. Much easier for AA to waive its own penalty than for AY to try to get AA to do so.

ffay005

So it's 24 hours for AY as well. Great! Thanks for looking up this information.

ffay005

A friend of mine has booked what I find a very tight connection LGA/JFK.

He is scheduled to arrive at LGA on AA22 from MIA at 15:06 and continues from JFK on AY6 at 17:45. He's traveling with checked bags, has no status and it's all on one ticket (sold by AY; I had the impression that MCT LGA/JFK was three hours, but apparently not so).

I would appreciate your experiences. How big are his chances of making it? How long does one usually have to wait for the bags at LGA? How long does the ride by shuttle/taxi take during evening rush hour? It's a weekday.

Check-in at JFK is no problem, they keep it open until 45–50 min before departure, but the security line can me nightmarish. Will/can the check-in agent help him pass the line if need be?

Since it's all on one ticket, I assume AY will take care of him if he misses the flight. Hope not, though!

Thanks for your insights.

dera

Assuming flight is on time, should not be a problem. That time of the day count an hour LGA->JFK door-to-door. maybe 20 minutes tops for waiting for bags. Should leave 20ish minutes to spare. Security line will be a nightmare, unsure what Finnair does to non-status people.
Atleast for Emeralds, AA has always rerouted me to JFK in a case like this (twice), so maybe worth asking...

Often1

This is way too tight for comfort. It can easily take 45 minutes for bags at LGA and the checkpoint at JFK, as is pointed out, can be a real nightmare at that time of day.

I would beg, borrow or even pay for a change to a JFK flight or at least take a much earlier MIA-LGA.