EuroFlash

Had a flight booked from KUO via HEL to AMS with an overnight layover in HEL of about 12 hours. Called Gold CS line to prevent a 'walk of shame' at the lounge and asked if me and my travel partner could make use of the lounge upon arrival in Helsinki for a small refreshment and snack. Got put on hold, and once the agent came back he told me it would be no problem at all. I could use the lounge upon arriving in HEL and then the next morning before my flight to AMS. He guaranteed me it would all be OK as it's part of one booking, I'd be in transit and I do have right to lounge access.

So on 30th Dec I happily walked to the lounge however...... two ladies at the entrance turned me away saying I could not make use of the lounge. Reason was that my flight would fly the next day, I could return the next morning to make use of the facilities. I told them CS told me otherwise but they said: ''then they must have given you false information''.

bad bad bad.

Anyway, I sent them a complaint and got quite a generic answer + explaination that lounge can only be accessed 3 hours before flight) + a 50 euro Finnair voucher. I'm OK with it, but still disappointed in CS providing false information. It is for a reason I call them to double-check these kind of things, because I am not sure. How to know how to trust them now if I have any similar questions, if they can ''change'' the rules anyhow.

lkrt

And again, they give wrong information. The 3-hour limit only applies to purchased lounge access, not access that comes as a tier benefit. I guess the only real limit is that the flight is on the same day (unless it's something like before 1am the next day).

EuroFlash

Oh damn are you serious? That's really bad. Below you can find their response to my feedback (lots of grammatical errors there btw, lol):

ffay005

Really sad. The gift card is a nice gesture, but this is not how CC should operate.

I don't know what the rules say, but for me, logic says that with a flight in the morning, you don't have access the previous evening. In cases like these, an email would probably have been a good idea instead of a phone call. You could have shown the reply from your laptop. The lounge dragons probably wouldn't have budged, but at least you wouldn't have looked like a fool with a "but CC said so" explanation (which they probably get all the time anyway, from people who just make it up to gain entry).

SuloL

I think it's quite usual to deny departure lounge access if the departure is on the next airport day. CS clueless as usual, but at least offered a gesture to right their mistake.

FFlash

U got a gift voucher 50€ for that? You should be very happy with that resolution, to be honest. It is self-evident that a lounge cannot be enjoyed on a previous day, this is universal. And also clear for Finnair. I have also "tried this" the same way you did, just last year, only to "try" but was obviously denied and I just "walked the shame" in full knowledge that it was a stupid try. It is very surprising that you succeeded in getting such false information over the phone at Finnair, they must have misunderstood somehow your purpose.

Let it pass and enjoy your voucher

EuroFlash

Absolutely, I am certainly happy with the €50. But it's not self-evident that a lounge cannot be enjoyed on a previous ''airport day''. I am a frequent traveller but only recently gotten access to lounges, the rules are nowhere to be found online and I had absolutely no clue. That is why I wanted to check this upfront. It's is very very bad that when a customer who has genuinely no clue checks something with CS, that false information is given. And apparently after complaining again false information if being given in their response.

joakgarp

Received my response now from my feedback to Finnair about above. They explained that GetJet has forbidden the use of earphones during take off and landing. This is due to GetJet is a Lithuanian airline and must follow Lithuanian laws which Finnair admits are a bit stricter than the laws from European Aviation Safety Agency.

Must say Finnair replied very fast to my feedback and I'm happy how they responded and explained. This won't change my addiction to Finnair however but good to know next time I'll fly with GetJet. Flew back from Vienna to Helsinki with Wideroe but was sitting like a cat waiting for the stewardess to tell me to take off my earphones haha. Wideroe is a danish airline so they didn't care The leg space in Wideroes aircrafts was awful though.

Richey66

flymetoHEL

Did you change your loyalty card number in the reservation at any point of time?

FlyingFinn

Norwegian, mind you.

FlyingFinn

Last Friday's AY1341 HEL-LHR was absolute shambles, mainly due to the crew who seemed to either not give a flying Finn about anything or were just completely unorganized. At least got the Lumo BMW ride to the plane (yeah, the inbound came from MXP so it was busaroo once again...) with my favourite driver, but that's about where anything good ended. Instead of getting some kind of a friendlyish greeting the purser and another FA looked shocked when they saw me and the purser actually said to me "So you got here with your own ride?". No welcomes, nothing like that. I was already in a rather dire mood after spending a couple of hours in the ghetto J lounge (went to @home but it was mobbed by Aeroflot and BA J pax so decided to bail out) so this wasn't a good start.

Oh well, once airborne it didn't get any better - granted there were around 11 rows of J which was mostly full so they did have a lot to do - so they decided to cut corners. No pre-dinner drinks, everything bundled at one, no status-based meal choices (luckily sitting in 2A I did get my choice - wouldn't have touched the pork option with a big stick), trays and dishes collected at a totally random order, no coffee or tea offered etc. Hell managed to get only two drinks on this flight which must've been record low for me.

The light at the end of the tunnel was a super smooth LHR transfer to T5 - exactly 30 minutes after leaving the plane in T3 I was sitting on the Galleries First balcony with a glass of champers in my hand. Can't really get better than that!

on22cz

MagmaH

When flying from HEL to NRT on a codeshare on JAL (It was cheaper, and wanted to try JAL Business Class), I was turned down at the lounge. Even though I bought the ticket on Finnair as a Finnair (codeshare) flight. The people at the lounge didn't care that I was Finnait Plat. They gave me a 40€ voucher instead. I was really annoyed by this.

WilcoRoger

You got a good deal, though.