My original flight routing of BKK-HEL-LHR in Business Class on a Reward Ticket on 19 June was at risk due to the proposed strike.

As I’m in Thailand, I called the Finnair office in Bangkok and got through within 5 minutes. Spoke to an extremely helpful lady and explained I wanted to switch my flights to another One World carrier. I’d researched in advance the three alternative One World options and checked there was availability the first of which was switching to Qatar, BKK-DOH-LHR (similar departure and arrival times).

As I had booked a reward ticket, she had to go away and confirm with the ticketing department that my request could be fulfilled. I did mention I knew the UK/261 rule and by rebooking now it would save Finnair difficulties in rerouting my flight once/if officially cancelled and would likely save them having to pay out £520 compensation per person if the subsequent reroute resulted in more than a 4 hour delay.

The agent called me back within 20 minutes to confirm my request and reissued the e-tickets by email, along with seat reservations for one of the 2 legs. I added the booking reference to the Qatar app, checked all details and selected seats for the second flight. There are no additional costs at all.

To be honest, this was seriously awesome service. By working with Finnair, having alternatives and being flexible has resulted in an excellent outcome.

I will definitely be booking subsequent flights with Finnair, safe in the knowledge that if something happens, like strikes, that their customer recovery is on point.

An excellent outcome experience to act as a counterpoint for some of the understandable frustrations I’ve read here and elsewhere.