davehammer

Hi there. Haven't been on here before but I've just booked an itinerary with Finnair and had a bit of a nasty surprise.

I searched for and booked an Open Jaw LHR-HEL-HKG-AKL SYD-SIN-HEL-LHR all supposedly in Business. The flight options screen showed all flights on each leg as 'Business Saver' and that is what I thought I'd booked!

I then check the itinerary after I've paid and the flight details at the side of the screen show the CX flight between HKG and AKL as being in Economy. There was no mention at ANY point of Business Class not being available on the flight and I'm somewhat confused as to what has happened.

Any help on this would be gratefully recieved!

Many Thanks
davehammer

JnsV

What is the booking code for that leg? There is a possibilty that the booking engine is showing the wrong cabin for a CX booking code.

That left side infobox was actually there during the booking process as well.

You will probably have to sort it out with AY, but if you PM me your PNR and last name, I can look into the issue.

davehammer

Thank you JnsV. You have a PM.

intuition

Oh, sounds not fun at all.

CX booking engine can display flights available even when no seats are left in service class, with a small marker and a footnote saying "booked in class x, charged as y"
In my experience, AY booking engine does not do this, instead displays no flights available in such a situation.

So if there is a change in how AY booking is made, or if there is another explanation to what happened, it would be interesting to hear.

JnsV

Based on what the OP sent me, exactly this happened: he was booked into Y on the CX flight on an I fare for two subsequent bookings. The AY legs are wide open in I, the CX leg is I0 if "married" with the AY legs, but open in C/D/J. I myself could only partly reproduce the booking on finnair.com: I could select a Business saver (presumably I, ca. 1500 GBP rt ai) fare on the first screen after the date selection, but it would put me into D (listed as Business flex, ca. 3000 GBP rt ai) for the whole outbound portion.

davehammer

Hi all - just to report back

Contacted Customer service and they were very helpful. Unfortunately, they couldn't help enough and so I've had to take a refund and rebook. Not ideal, but such is life.

Basically the AY booking engine allows any flight that is oversold in I to be put into Y without proper warning during the booking process. The lady at CS said they were aware of the problem and were constantly badgering their providers for a fix. (This should not be difficult). She apologised profusely.

Thanks again for your help JnsV. Your quick explanation saved me a fair bit of international call time!

So a warning for all. Make 100% sure that all your bookings are in a Business Fare bucket before you press buy!

intuition

Thanks for reporting back!
Do you mean any or was there any hints for special circumstances were it would happen? ie open-jaw (when you need to use the "Multiple destination booking"), mixed tickets with other carriers etc?

davehammer

A warning sign I guess would be that the Economy fares showed up on the date matrix page even though I specified Business on the front page.

intuition

No, it always does that as soon as it is a mixed ticket (AY + partner)

bluemoon68

Exactly the same here. I booked a return LHR-HEL-SIN-SYD SYD-SIN-HEL-LHR all supposedly in Business.

All showing as business, except for the SIN-SYD outward on BA which is now showing as Economy.

I'll be on the phone to them on Monday! Not impressed!

bluemoon68

Spoke to FinnAir CS, they are looking in to it.

There is Bus class availability on the SIN-SYD leg, but they seem to think the price would have been higher if I had been offered that originally.

Which is totally wrong. If you book a business class ticket you expect business class travel in all the legs of your journey.

Getting back to me about what they can do. The problem now is that a few weeks have past and the price has gone up if I cancel and rebook myself.

bluemoon68

An update. Finnair couldn't help so refunded the flight.

I then rebooked with the next cheapest business class I could find with availability and ended up with China Southern. That lasted for 10 days before they cancelled one of the legs, another refund and I'm now on Ethiad!

WilcoRoger

A happy ending, one might add ^

MrSoft

Watch it guys!

I have just had exactly the same problem, in this case, the HKG-SYD leg of a multileg is in the Economy Cabin. Cathay being the carrier for that part.

As with others, front page is specified "Business" and throughout the booking, it's showing as "Business Flex" (not even saver!).

I have booked this ticket many times before, previously it always booked into CX J class without a problem. Finnair strikes again, pfft.

intuition

I have now been trying to book a AY ticket with 1 segment on CX, and it is impossible to make it a business ticket all the way. I am wondering if AY did something to their system (or if CX did). It is clear that something changed somewhere making the married segments AY-CX go crazy. Before there was never any trouble booking such tickets.

My trip is a 3 segment r/t flight, BE-AY-CX, and regardless of the price options I choose on AY site (business restricted of full flex), the return CX segment books into Y.
That CX flight is wide open in business (J/9 C/9 D/9 I/9) but it is impossible to get AY to access it.

I tried several different dates, exact same behaviour. So it is not about loads.

matrix has no trouble finding a D-ticket all the way, and also claims it is priced the exact same amount as AY website (where one leg gets Y).

Expedia can also find the trip and price it the same (+ expedia fees), but expedia books it into D on the outbound and J on the return.

I do also notice that even if I choose "Business restricted" on AY site, it still books all AY legs into D (BUSINESS UNRESTRICTED FARES ).


I am not skilled in reading fare rules, but maybe someone is and can find out if there is something in the rules that makes this go bust.