Andaman

At the moment the symptoms sound a lot like an influenza, common flu is a different thing. An ordinary influenza kills 500-1000/year in Finland alone, mainly elderly people. It's still not known for sure how the new corona virus behaves and how the epidemia develops. One thing seems to be clear, it mostly hit older people.

Let se how Finnair reacts, usually AY is not the first airline cutting services in similar situations.

ffay005

If you are scheduled to fly more than two weeks out, then no EC261 compensation.

Overall, AY is quite strict when it comes to EC261, especially if you don't have status with them.

cantongirl

Boarding the AY98 now, around 15 in J and 100 in Y. Everbody face masked. 21 row full of baby(srsly!) so we moved to second and third row, with both entire rows own by ourselves. just grateful to be able to fly back HEL before route suspended. (probably the last one from AY CAN under current circumstances.

Edit: when boarding flight attendants face masked but after take off they all off masks til the end😅

intuition

That load still outnumbers what used to be an ordinary load on CKG flights in low season (and they kept that route alive for 5 years...)

SuloL

Article in Finnish, but according to it, AY has stopped taking reservations for any mainland China flights.

Finnair ei ota enää uusia varauksia Manner-Kiinan lentoihin

AndyA

I can confirm that. Talked with AY chat and he said the same.

Clydez

still dont understand why AY opened CKG. such unusual location. i'd prefer Wuhan, but oooopssss

intuition

Presence of Nordic industry? (Volvo at the time, Ikea, ...)
Ambitions of local party hot-shots?
AY failure at the time to keep the promise of one new LH destination each year?
Subsidies that made the choice easier?

vanmunchen

I have non-refundable tickets travelling Helsinki to Beijing mid May. I phoned Finnair to inquire what portion of the taxes would be refunded if I cancelled now, being aware that they are only issuing refunds at present for flights booked to end of February. My tickets itemise that only Ł97 out of Ł467 is the flight cost but Finnair said only Ł70 could be refunded so it's obviously not worth my cancelling at the present time. If the situation doesn't improve by April, no doubt I will be able to obtain a full refund then. What I don't want is to find that flights resume but that all tourists attractions etc remain closed which would make it pointless going there and I would then lose most of the ticket price by cancelling.

tobsw

The problem with coronavirus is that its transmissible before symptoms appear. This is unique to this coronavirus and different to SARS or MERS (and even common influenza). That´s the main big concern. The actual disease has better prognosis than SARS, MERS and common influenza.

Clydez

there is certainly political reason in play like you mentioned local authorities hot shot.
Wuhan is extremely good to onward travel to rest of china.

temppa

There is a rumour now that crew will not stay in China destinations, but will return to HEL immediately after outbound. Eventually this will result planes flying empty back to base.

intuition

Because all destinations are now (going to be) cancelled.

• Finnair cancels all its flights to mainland China between 6 February and 29 February 2020.
  

• Finnair cancels its two weekly flights to Guangzhou between 5 February and 29 March 2020.
  
• As communicated in a press release on 27 January 2020, Finnair cancelled its flights to Beijing Daxing airport between 5 February and 29 March 2020.
  
• As communicated in a press release on 27 January 2020, Finnair cancelled its flights to Nanjing between 8 February and 29 March 2020.
  
• Finnair stops accepting bookings to its mainland China flights between 31 January and 29 February 2020.
  

SPBanker

Subsidies from the local authorities. Similar subsidies are keeping several freight train routes operating at the moment between China and Europe.

Kelju

Got my flight cancelled from CAN. Asked by chat about possibilities for rerouting, but basically were told that only way is to travel on last flight eg. 2.2 or then after the flights get back to normal. Other choice was money back for unused flight. No rerouting offered thought i volunteered to pay us to BKK or SGN so all they have to do is change the departure city.

Sounds quite harsh, any experiences on similar cases?