Originally Posted by
WiVM
I had to travel for work from BRU to RVN on 14 May. As there was no connection the same day, I had to stay overnight at an hotel near HEL airport. All went relatively normal until the next day when I had to re-enter the airport. It started with an extremely rude RAJA border guard. He found it necessary to call me a foul and I was going to bring Corona to Finland, etc... in the end he told me "I cannot refuse you to travel". OK...
I was waiting at the gate with about 40 other passengers, of which about 5, including myself, were wearing a mask. Moments before boarding I was called forward. The gate attendant told me: "You are denied boarding because you arrived from Brussels. The government decided that no compensations are given, your flight ticket will not be refund and you are basically on your own. We may suggest to take the train to RVN." A Raja official who was standing at the gate approached me and suggested me to leave the gate area so boarding could start. While the gate attendant gave me the message, I noticed multiple passengers taking distances as if I was a confirmed COVID-19 case. A rather surreal experience...
As a Platinum member I hoped that customer care would be able to help. She was obviously unprepared and had to call in for information. When I asked her why this was announced to me moments before boarding, she told me that this rule was "made up" overnight. It was Finavia how denied me boarding, not Finnair. Long story short, I had to take the train to RVN followed by a 3,5h car journey, resulting in a 3 AM arrival at my destination.
When I raised an official compliant Finnair responded "Our ground handling supervisor has reviewed your case. According to her, even though the Finnish Government changed the restrictions on entry to Finland on 14th of May, allowing business travel to Finland, they did not remove State Council official’s ban to admit those passengers to a domestic connecting flight. This ban was removed on 19th of May. We have acted in accordance with Finavia's guidelines, who are responsible for the airport and its border control. Because the tighter border control is in place due to COVID-19, we consider this to be an extraordinary circumstance and we unfortunately do not pay standard compensation by virtue of EC regulation 261/2004."
So in other words, this so called domestic ban was already in place for a long time, but Finnair refrained from informing me. When I asked to provided the official document stating that I was banned they answered: "Finnair received oral information about this on 19th of May from Finavia, where the head of Finavia's Corona task force had informed the Finnair chief executive officer at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport, that the restriction had been lifted. Based on the information we received from Finavia, domestic connecting flights were allowed when traveling with the same ticket beginning on 19th of May, after 12 o’clock. So far, the instructions are not public, but the government is negotiating internally if they are to be opened to the public. For this reason, Finnair does not have any documents on the matter, as Finnair has acted in accordance with the instructions given by Raja."
So Finavia (who is not a governing body but an airport operator), Raja (who checked and allowed me in the airport), ... ??? Until today they are unable to provide such document or any reference that suggests that I was supposed to be banned. In addition, if flight restrictions are "not public", how am I supposed to comply with them?
You really need to press this issue and not be a surrender monkey now. First of all: I've never during this whole SARS-CoV-2 ordeal heard anything in Finnish or English about an official, mandatory restriction on domestic flights from HEL that would only apply to foreign citizens. If there has been one, then indeed it hasn't been communicated at all and you're absolutely entitled to EC261. Furthermore in that case you've been misguided by AY, which isn't a crime as per say. However obviously something is not right there and they're making things up in a Finnish manner, if they can't show you the official notice they imply would have existed. However that still doesn't make it lawful to deny your boarding, unless it's done under a decree from the state council (i.e. cabinet) and some wierd rule nobody here has heard of. And yes, Finavia isn't an authority. They're a state company (registered as a public corporation in its own right) that runs airports.
The provincial travel restriction of Uusimaa didn't apply to your travel, since it ended on 15 April. Now since then it's been free to roam within Finland, inc. Åland, and it has applied to foreign citizens as well. Actually the claims are so grave that I'd escalate this with the Belgian department/ministry of foreign affairs (or whatever the Brussels government calls it), if you've been mistreated in Finland and need assistance to solve it. (Assuming you're a Belgian national.) IMO this is a legal matter regarding your right to travel, not just an ordinary EC261 case or utterly bad customer relationship handling from AY. To me it sounds somebody is making up their own rules and they've inflicted injustice upon you by denying you the right to travel HEL-RVN with AY. Yes, they did suggest it's doable by train, but not allowing to fly without a formal reason is unlawful discrimination. You've been given false information and given no written, verbatim guideline you could refer to for any legal challenge.
As for the Finnish Frontier Guard and being treated like trash, I would lodge a written complaint. It's pretty wierd logic anyway to think you'd be somekind of a threat to public health here. Like there's no COVID-19 cases here anyway and you'd be a specific threat? Utterly ludicrous. Truth to be told, I hate paying taxes so that idiots like that can get paid. Remember: he was an official and he can be held accountable for such conduct. I feel sorry for your experience, even though it's not my case etc.
Originally Posted by
WiVM
I used Finnair as only option to fly this northern route at least twice a month, but this is history now.
Your new solution will be TK via IST?
Originally Posted by
WiVM
As a Platinum member they had multiple options, that would basically not cost them anything. It would kept me as a customer and I would have had a story to tell. I feel they think that I cannot get around them on this route. Which might be true to some degree, but I already found options via Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. They could even used this to strengthen the customer relationship. Examples could have been things like assigning some points, upgrade status, offer some upgrades, ... Even if they would not have to changed my status of given any of these, converting it to a life time membership at the same level would have been a proper way say sorry and treat your frequent travelers with respect in, indeed, unusual circumstances.
This is the only part where I didn't feel like I could agree with you. Like who gets lifetime status for being denied boarding, even when it involves a lot of crap?
I agree some form of "we're sorry" would be warranted here, like extra award points, but I think it shouldn't be overkill. Otherwise I'm pretty certain some FT'ers will do anything to get denied boarding for lifetime status.
