I doubt that they would pay compensation if the delay was announced before the purchase.

That has nothing to do with the EU261.

Today this could work. I smell delay might be coming: PVG aircraft had to change (PVG delayed for 3hrs) and after PVG takes off, 2 aircrafts left in HEL.

AY99 Y is zero and C two seats left. Price (cheapest r/t) is 3336€

Jackpot!

AY 99 ESTIMATED TIME OF DEPARTURE 0700

And it would work. AY99 leaves at 7:00am tomorrow...

This is unbelievable. Third time in 7 days AY99 is delayed for 7 hours. I'm not travelling myself today, but a friend is coming HEL-HKG. This just cost us many Friday night 'salads' here... Good reminder to stay away from 99/100.

What the .... is this?

Three weeks ago I was on a plane that arrived just over 3 hrs late (I am yet to claim EU compensation - but considering they refused my last claim that was obvious I am not hopeful).

Today I am booked ARN-CDG-HKG on AF but because of a 1hr delay on AF ARN-CDG I would most likely misconnect on that so they rebooked me on AY.

After landing in HEL I was advised by gate staff to go to arrival services. When getting there they had a line of about 20-30 passengers and no priority line or queue number system that prioritises Status or Premium cabins.

Wise from my last overnight experience at HEL with a rebooking by AY they then put me in a hotel far away (bus) that required waking up an asleep receptionist and changing rooms due to getting an uncleaned one as well as shuttle running every 30 mins. I was not gonna let this happen again and cause me to lose 2hrs of sleep; or for that matter queuing for an hour...

Now in Hilton that I have booked myself an will be claiming to be reimbursed for (€120). Not particularily impressed by this handling.

Skba1, sorry to hear that you are affected, and against your own will, too. AY99 is notorious.

I would urge you to continue fighting AY for that previous EC261 compensation. And certainly file a claim for today's delay, too. They seem to be a bit better in handling the claims than they used to. And I believe they will pay your Hilton stay, too. If you are travelling in J, they would most likely have put you up at the Hilton anyway. Ask the receptionist in the morning if he can bill AY directly. They must have their own AY contacts (I'd assume a great deal of their customers are AY irrops).

I am a pretty regular traveller on AY99 (probably 10 flights on it over the past year), but it has been significantly worse recently. My last 3 trips are now 7+, 3+, 1+ hrs delays. Flying AF today was meant to be one way of moving away from AY (I am not renewing Plat this time as I have started to avoid their flights), but it was not very successful...

I will go back to my 2016 claim after filing for last month's and this upcoming one tomorrow. Is the best course to use the public form on the website? [At SK and BA which I have most of my claims with there are better options by email directly to GGL team or Diamond support]

I would expect them to reimburse the hotel without too much trouble; I already spoke with front desk when checking in and they can't bill AY without the vouchers or similar that you get from arrival services. However i really question how an airline at its main hub can lack priority handling for luggage and rebooking queries? The Swissport machine at HEL prioritises for SK IIRC!!!

Sad to hear this is just like it always been. Despite this happening every week, there is no will to make it smooth for the affected. And especially not for status members or business class pax. :td:

Skba1, you're probably (and hopefully) asleep by now, but I'm looking at tomorrow's (well, today's to be exact) early arrivals, and it seems AY100 is expected at 5:25. That's the first widebody of the morning. There's no way they will turn that bird around in 95 minutes, so I'd say 7:00 is a very optimistic ETD. More likely, they will start boarding at sevenish.

AY is pretty adamant about receiving the EC261 requests through that feedback form on the website. But there have been reports of them getting back with a positive reply within days, so there's certainly been improvements.

Did you get a text from AY? What did it say? I flew in from TXL tonight and in front of me, there were some Y pax connecting to HKG. They had received a text saying luggage will be checked through and they should contact arrivals services for hotel vouchers.

If I was running an airline and had a similar system of "always" cancelling/delaying one particular flight when any problems occur, I would work hard at creating a policy that would make it as smooth for the affected pax as possible. As in sending a text saying "we cancelled, blah blah, go to the Hilton Airport hotel adjacent to T2, where your room keys will be waiting for you at the front desk" and then sending a list of names to Hilton so they could prepare everything. "Check-in" at the hotel would take 30 seconds, or as long as it takes to fill in and sign the passenger card.

Awake now and leaving lounge as they announced boarding.

No info whatsoever from AY apart from crew as well as arriving gate sending me to arrivals info B2 area. Had I been thinking straight I would of course have gone to B1 where it would have been fewer pax.

+1, but this seems to be a completely white spot for AY.

Finnair long-haul is struggling today... Inbound ICN badly delayed. PVG too. NGO outbound cancelled. KIX and PEK outbound delayed...

But AY99 is advertized on time !

:D