jlm21

Hello,
We recently had a rather horrible experience with Finnair coming back from our honeymoon and have found this forum very helpful in understanding our rights. We would appreciate any advice for navigating compensation based on the experience described below:

We were scheduled to fly on a Saturday from Kansai (Japan) to London with a layover in Helsinki. However, our first flight from Kansai to Helsinki was cancelled due to maintenance last minute. We received an email right as we were leaving the hotel for the airport. We called Finnair at that time to rearrange our flight, but were told to inquire at the airport check-in desk. We then stood in line for over six hours on our feet as they worked to individually rebook each of the hundreds of passengers. When we finally got to the desk, we were told that the main office had taken over and that we would have to instead wait in a hotel for an email with instructions.

In the end, we were not able to take a flight home until Monday evening (2 days later), meaning we arrived home three days late. Both of us missed two days of work because of this, meaning the loss of wages valued collectively at over £500. Our door-to-door travel time was additionally 32 hours, when it was previously supposed to be only 17 hours. However, Finnair did provide a hotel and meal allowances for the interim days until our new flight, as well as a shuttle bus to the airport.

With that said, we recognise that we are should be offered the 600 euro EU flight delay compensation for our delay being over 4 hours. Yet, these circumstances feel as if they go above and beyond this minimum requirement, considering the physical, mental and financial losses incurred as a result. At the same time, it feels unlikely that Finnair will volunteer to compensate above the minimum legal requirement.

Does anyone have any advice for making our claim, or had any previous experience with obtaining compensation above the EU requirements?

Thank you in advance for your advice!

fransknorge

The 600 EUR is to compensate for the losses (whether they are physical, financial or mental). You can ask for anything above but it might be refused.
For your claim of 600 EUR (+ any expenses occurring from the delay for duty of care), since you seems UK based, I suggest you look at the British Airways forum, at this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...61-2004-a.html

If you are UK based, replace every occurences of BA by Finnair and this will do.

ffay005

Welcome to FT! Sorry to hear about your experience. AY is not a good airline when things go wrong. And it seems that they wanted to save money by putting you on one of their own flights instead of rebooking you on a competitor as soon as possible.

The aim of the EU compensation is to cover your losses, like the lost wages, which in this case they do more than well. I don't think there's reason to request anything more than the EU compensation. However, it's really a hit-and-miss, AY might pay the compensation quite easily (fill in the internet form, wait 6–8 weeks for response; it takes a long time but they will get back to you) and then again they might not. Since your journey originally originated in the UK, you have the advantage of a small claims court system, which may increase AY's willingness to pay the compensation.

This thread is really long, but the wiki might give you some ideas about what AY compensates and for which compensation you will need 3rd party assistance: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/finna...pensation.html

Please report back when you have a solution. That helps us all in knowing what to expect.

heatsink

I would not generalize to that extent. Like with the crews, it seems to depend on who you're dealing with. One year ago, PVG-HEL (departs in the morning) got canceled and AY managed to get me on a night flight to HND, which meant I was able to catch the morning flight from NRT instead. I arrived in HEL only one hour late! Was very happy...

WilcoRoger

Yeah, that's the weird thing - there are 2 dailies from NRT (incl JL) and countless KIX-NRT connections. + all the other AY options - NGO, PEK, INC, ... all very well connected to KIX.

Why on Earth AY made this couple wait two days in KIX??

mogumogu

I saw similar complaints about the accident at KIX on 22nd April on twitter. One customer was told at the check-in desk to go back home and wait further instruction, or to wait at a hotel provided by AY if not possible. According to the tweet, the agent said that it was not possible to book any flights on the same day and there was the possibility of Korean or Chinese airlines also on the next day.

ffay005

Yeah, I think the main issue here is that the cancellation was at the very last minute, so no one was prepared. In cases like this, AY is not very good.

When they know about the irrop well in advance, they can be quite good, especially if you travel in J. I've been called the evening before about a cancelled HEL-JFK, with an option to fly in the morning via LHR instead of the direct flight. It suited my plans just fine and I was actually in NYC earlier than I would have been with the direct flight. And I've been called about a cancelled WAW flight and offered several alternatives, including an overnight at the Hilton @hel even if I live about 25 km from the airport. So yes, they can be good when they know about the situation well in advance.

But when they find out at the outstation at the last minute that the plane won't fly, then it means a huge line at check-in and third-party contracted staff, maybe inexperienced, trying to find flights that fill AY's requirements. Remember that if those third-party agents are mostly doing check-ins all day, changing bookings can be anything but routine for them, sadly.

My experience from AA is different: it seems that they have a back-office that handles all such reroutes. They are there 24/7 and probably do nothing but take care of irrops. So they know what they're doing, they know the rules and requirements of the airline and the (usual) wishes of the pax. Your new itinerary appears in the system and you just check in according to it. No need to stand in line anywhere etc (unless of course you need hotel vouchers etc...). Moreover, if you are PLT or EXP, you can simply call in and discuss with an agent, who will change your booking over the phone. No reason to stand in line six hours. I wonder if this would have worked with AY, as well – call CC in Finland and ask them to reroute.

Anyway, what for AA is basic routine still seems to be an exceptional situation for AY and sadly, they act accdordingly.

intuition

OP says he tried but was denied.

Rosel Pe Chu

On Nov. 13, 2016, our flight from Helsinki to Kaohsiung via stopover in Hong Kong was delayed for 8 hrs. FINNAIR announced it at around 8pm, AY69 flight was supposed to depart at around 23pm. We were already at the airport because we just flew from Rome that afternoon. FINNAIR ground staff tried to reroute us through Singapore but we'd still miss the Hong Kong flight to Kaohsiung, so in the end they rebooked us to the 23pm flight the next day. We arrived in Kaohsiung 24 hrs later than our original time. We applied for 600EUR compensation, FINNAIR replied and said cause of delay is flap roller damage and considered as extraordinary circumstance, therefore no standard compensation will be paid. Instead, FINNAIR offered 125 EUR cash or 250 Eur voucher per person in our group. Finnair also mentioned Airbus has released a TFU regarding the defect. I messaged them asking for documentation from AIRBUS, FINNAIR says unfortunately they're unable to provide us any official documentation.

I want to pursue this until FINNAIR provides satisfactory proof that it is an "extraordinary circumstance". The problem is I live in Taiwan, I don't know where to pursue this. I haven't received a reply from FINNAIR for 3 days now after my last message repeating my request for solid proof. I've been thinking of messaging Consumers Dispute Board in Finland but I'm not sure if they'll help since I'm not from there. Any advice will be much appreciated, thanks!

skywardhunter

delayed from 8pm to 23pm that's tough

Rosel Pe Chu

Oops, I'm sorry, I didn't realize my information was unclear. Our original AY69 flight was supposed to leave at 23:50 but was delayed till 08:00 am the following day. The delay was announced around 4 hrs before the departure time. We finally arrived at our final destination a day late because FINNAIR has to rebook us to the next day flight since there was no way we can catch out connecting flight from Hong Kong to Kaohsiung.

Courmisch

That does not really add up. There are plenty of flights between HKG and KHH, so you could have made a later one with less than 24h delay. You might have had to overnight in HK however.

With that said, the technical problem with the plane looks very much in scope of EC261 compensation.

WilcoRoger

What I don't really understand is why you didn't take the original flight to HKG (admittedly 8 hrs late) and took instead the following one 24 hrs later? There are 11 daily flights HKG-KHH, if you missed your original flight, you could have taken another one during the same day and reach KHH 8-10 hrs later (which is a lesser pain than 24 hrs later)

That said, AY is stonewalling, bird going technical is not extrordinary circumstance per EU261. You may want to sue them in a small claims court (if you strated with them in FCO, you cando it probably in Italy) or in your home country. Also in Finland, but that's not so easy, as there is no small claims court in the Finnish legal system.

Rosel Pe Chu

If we took the 8am flight, we would have still missed the last flight HKG-KHH, we'll have to wait there for the next earliest flight which would be 8am the following day. We have children in our group, youngest is 2, so we decided instead to stay in helsinki and wait for the next 23:50 flight, at least that way we got better sleep than if we took the 8am. FINNAIR tried to reroute us to Singapore but same thing would happen, would still have to wait till the following day in HKG. Also, with us being Taiwanese, we'll have to apply for some kind of visa if we'll stay in a hotel in Hong Kong.

Rosel Pe Chu

I'll try to file a complaint in Consumer Disputes Board, if nothing happens, will sue them in court here