Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
The hotel (or booking.com?) buys AY points to reward(bribe) you for staying at the hotel.
The hotel (or booking.com?) has to inform AY to put the points into your ffp account.
The hotel wants business, so pays booking.com for any booking.
Booking.com wants more customer thus more sales, so pays Finnair to display booking.com link and pays a commission to Finnair every single time someone make a booking and actually complete stays.
Finnair wants the commission, maybe on a more sales more commission deal, so encourages its customer to book through the booking.com link through finnair.com by get AY+ points.
Customer book the hotel through finnair.com's booking.com link to get the Finnair points.
So he stays in the hotel, and the hotel should report the stay to booking.com as a complete deal. And pays booking.com commission; If the booking is non-refundable and paid directly to booking.com, the hotel get paid.
Booking.com get the commission and pays a percentage to finnair for the corporation.
Finnair get the commission, and pays the customer the AY+ points (which is peanuts in terms of monetary value).
Customer did not receive AY+ points, he should speak to Finnair.
Finnair should not tell customer to chase from booking.com, instead should dispute with booking.com for its commission.
The hotel is not responsible for any of the transaction other than being a witness to tell booking.com that the deal is done.
Moral side of the story: book from a cash-back website. Screw booking.com and Finnair.