FFlash

I started not too long ago the "well done AY - positive feedback" thread and I have tried to look at the positive since then, but I just cannot help living with the things that they constantly fail even if some of those issue would be very easy to rectify. It seems that the thread is quite active so far.

Thus, I felt now like there must be room for a collective thread which hopefully sticks out for AY lurkers as a channel to convey experiences which could have been handled better, and can be rectified for an eleveted customer experience. My purpose is not to replace any other channel. Instead, sometimes additional channels can add up to reach out the target, while sometimes a channel can simply serve as a relief mechanism for expressing out the mood resulting from mistreatment.

Let's see if this flies and if so, I hope AY lurkers read this, as well as the positive feedback thread.

FFlash

For starters, I will note something I am struggling with right now again:
I cannot book a flight on AY, there is again something going on their website. Please AY, whatever you are doing with your booking engine and MMB, don't continue this kind of development! It has been for some months going into the direction as bad as with SAS website, it is very irritating! And don't start blaming your browser is not up-to-date etc. Please. Thank you.

SPBanker

Good idea for a thread.

According to AY Twitter feed there was some problem with net bookings earlier tonight, but it is now rectified.

Justinus

The intra-European J fares are just ridiculous!

With the following simple improvements AY could easily fill up its intra-European J class that over the years has become smaller and smaller in most of the planes:

1) Sell J class tickets that are only 200-400 EUR more expensive than normal Y tickets. This will bring in more capital, because the product in no case means such expenses for AY.
2) Sell one-way J class tickets for affordable prices. For some strange reason AY does not want to sell true one-way tickets, losing lots of potential customers to other carriers.
3) Sell combined J and Y tickets on your website. I guess some people would be interested in such tickets, also for LH flights. I don't understand why AY - unlike other carries - does not sell such tickets online, but only through its (unreachable and expensive) call centers.

intuition

Good thread, I just hope someone pays attention.

We might need to add a wiki for those things that get volume of posts. Especially if we need to add "+1" posts for things we agree on (just to show support).

The web-site and the booking engine is terrible, but has been differnt kind of terrible over the years. What we are seeing this time is a gradually roll-out of an ipad-ifying of the site. Completetly worthless. Take a look at the "Information and services" tab to see what I mean. There is no menu to navigate anymore, and you need to scroll endlessly to find the sub-menus.

I was looking for the page desribing rules of child travelling. It was a separate section before, but is nowhere to be found now. Because they won't show the menu structure, you can't find stuff that is sorted under a third-level menu item.

I have no energy to rant over the booking engine anymore, but it is terrible. I don't think we will ever see any improvements, because Finnair webdeveloper decided there is only one use case:
"Once-a-year user comes to the site, enters origin and destination, enters date, books whatever airline, routing and price that comes up. Also, assume everything always works perfectly, so no need to handle errors, exceptions or any alternative flows. "



I also agree on Justinus suggestion about reasonable shorthaul J pricing. AY is one of the few that still offers J (albeit with poorer and poorer service) and a more modern pricing would sell better.
But again, I don't think it is coming. AY has a very odd approach to J on both short- and longhaul. They rather keep the marketed price way above what the market wants to pay, and then oversells Y. I guess they believe 4 extra Y tickets sold at 200€ is better than 2 extra J tickets sold at 400€.

intuition

I just found out that the new webpage books the ticket after you have selected route, not when you reach the payment page!!

In the christmas package this week, CKG was offered in J for 339€ so I looked at availabilty. Sure there was, but it turns out that it is booked in economy, not J as advertised. OK, a misprint, and So I back out of the booking.
Suddenly there is a booking reference in MMB and the ticket is made available in Amadeus. Seriously, Finnair?!?

TPJ

This is a good one. Many times I end up on SK in Plus only because they offer one way fares...

aama

Let's start with the basics shall we, like treating the customer with care.

Secondly it wouldn't harm the pr image to obey laws & regulations.

After those they could start getting themselves to the soon to be 2016 level of pretty much everything. (A350 is a plus, to leave this with not so harsh tone)

Trav1970

"Basic" ticket tier point earning is currently making me consider other alternatives to AY, as I pointed in another thread earlier.

teemuflyer

I fly AY a few times a year, and I'm a OWE (AA EXP). A recent trip is emblematic of what I've come to expect from Finnair as OWE treatment (or lack of):

1) No Priority Tags added to luggage, although checking in at the Emerald Desk @HEL

2) Seat reservations not honored. I had intentionally selected window and aisle seats for my wife and didn't pay attention as we got the boarding passes. I guess I just assumed I was getting my selected seats since the TA mentioned something about preassigned seats handing over our BPs for both the AY segment and BA segment.. (turns our she was talking about the BA seats )

Well, once we start boarding I did a double take.. I had been assigned a middle seat, next to my wife, 2 rows behind where I had made my selection. Not only that, someone else was seated in the aisle next to me. Not sure if she was also a OWE, but I had spotted her in the Premium lounge earlier.

Turns out the flight was half empty so as soon as the doors have been closed, we scattered up to some completely empty rows (My wife actually seated in the seat I actually had originally requested for her, me behind her since we both prefer window seats..)

3) Unlike most of the other OW airlines, I have NEVER been acknowledged for my OWE status and been thanked personally for choosing to fly AY. Now, this is not important to me per se, but it is really common on CX, JL, QF, and sometimes on BA and AA. I'm pretty sure there are other OWE that might find this a disappointing omission though.

On the flip side, we received excellent and friendly service at the Premium Lounge..

Steve_Hun

AY stopped using the orange priority tags about a year or so ago, and since then they print PRIO(?) and priority on the actual tag they "attach" to your suitcase, so I'm guessing this was the case now, too.

teemuflyer

Which I'm sure will be easy to see by the ground staff unloading the plane..

Jainzar

I still get this priority tag paper usually attached. Nevertheless the baggage tag says itself PRIORITY. So in case I use the self service baggage drop it still is tagged as priority.

Edit: and to add something concernig the topic itself... Boarding groups were not used on my flight today... Is it so difficult?

lkrt

I don't think the ground crew has paid any attention to those tags ever. As far as I know, machines automatically divide the baggage to different loading groups, so that the priority and stand-by baggage would then be loaded last.

The priority tags might have had some effect, but I'd say it's been minimal.

teemuflyer

It is a little hit'n'miss for sure. LHR, is pretty good though when arriving from the US with those bright orange tags.. and of course, that was where I was flying to from HEL