NoWindowSeat

This is more or less how UK was thinking a week ago. They turned back.


No country or society is ready for the amount of dead bodies this approach would lead to. Simply impossible also to ramp up the healthcare system to cope with the demand in that scenario, not even close, anywhere in the world.

niksal

I don’t know what is right or wrong, and I’m happy I don’t have to make such decisions. I agree that if society is closed until June-July, then there is a high risk of anarchy. At some point someone needs to assess when the price of closing the society becomes too high vs the number of lives that will be lost. These measures are in place to protect the weakest and ultimately the society. But if this goes on too long, there will not be a society as we know it. A controlled decision to go back to normal needs to be taken at some point, even if the price of that may be very many human lives. But that is better than anarchy, with at least as many lives lost.

ffay005

The way things are going now, we’ll end up having more small business owners committing suicide than geriatrics dying of the virus.

FFlash

Not sure they had even applied first measures to start with.

And to compare to other countries way different in healthcare basics is not applicable IMO.

Anyway, opinions are free and I would add one more recipe to my hotpot, namely common sense (if there is any left in Finland, even the word maalaisjärki is unknown for new generations) and good hygiene skills would help miles. Even without corona, in ”normal times”, I for one have always been using pretty fargoing hygiene measures in public places. Just looking how people behave in public toilets makes me nauseate.

Flying Yazata

You're basically saying out loud what I've been thinking about for the past 3-5 days, but which I have hardly mentioned to anyone here in Finland, since many are currently anxious or agitated by the situation. In Sweden there's been some healthy public commentary about youth crime and disorder possibly increasing as schools are closed and there's less adults present in the public space. Also I'm certain many will get agitated and anxious about being at home for weeks, if this keeps going on. Violence in close relationships will also become an issue at home.

Now, I don't questionise the current measures, rather I'm just nodding to your sentiment and adding my own longterm concerns. I certainly hope this won't last all too long, because then we'll have a further wave of new crap hitting the fan of our society.

If your flight has been cancelled, you can initiate a refund online as well, but at the moment you need to do a technical circumvention to avoid the voucher option. You find the details in the BA subforum.

Not just that, but e.g. cancer diagnosis and treatment gets postponed, which will directly result in maimed and dead citizens. There's a plethora of diseases that will get worse without diagnosis and medication/surgery. Someone will have to think at some point are COVID-19 patients more valuable/precious patients than e.g. mesothelioma patients.

jakas

Delhi Airport

@DelhiAirport
Passengers of the last international arriving flight have now exited the airport. Operations at T3 international arrivals will remain suspended till 0531 hours of 29th March 2020.

NoWindowSeat

Yeah these are so difficult and unprecedented times that it’s impossible to know what is right and what is wrong.

I respect the many invincible and immortal millennials, many of who would just party on as usual and fly off to the other side of the world etc. tomorrow if possible. I just hope that not too many of them won’t need to regret their comments later when their grand parents are in dire straits with potential covid-19 infection.

I’m more in the ”better safe than sorry, do too much now and ease off when needed/possible” -camp. I strongly believe that approach will also give a better chance for people with other ilnesses, not only covid-19 patients.

intuition

A colleague at the office has family members in Japan. With the return flights now cancelled they first encountered the same problem: No change between NRT/HND allowed and thus only solution offered was cancel-refund and then book a new one/way TYO-HEL at 1900€. Not really ample, he decided his daughter had to stay in JP until he found another solution.

Half an hour later, agent calls back from Finnair and with the good news she found a solution: JL to LHR and BA to CPH. Reissued ticket at no extra cost.
Yeay!

That only solved 50% of his problems though.
Now he's been in waiting line with travellink for at least an hour trying to claim refund for his wife ticket that was cancelled both ways. I peeked into his office to check how things are going. He said:

- Finnair told me I need to claim from Travellink but I've been on hold for such a long time I wonder if there are any money left for me!
- Ah, don't worry. If they don't pay you can always claim from the credit card company for non-delivery.
- Oh I feel so much safer now, because I paid with the Norwegian card!

(big laughs even though we both knows Norwegian actually have sold the bank so bankruptcy threat is not imminent)

OH-LGG

NRT is cancelled from 26MAR20 and HND cancelled until 03MAY20

haapalainen

To follow up, I got an email today that my flight on 4th April is cancelled. No refund or rebook option available online on MMB so I guess I need to call for refund.

florens

There is also a form you can fill out to request a refund:

https://www.finnair.com/en/customer-...ms/refund-form

No need to call.

Courmisch

I don't get it. Why bother waiting in the line to get a refund? Unless you really need the money ASAP, can't you use the customer support form?

In those times, I think it's best to avoid customer services, both for yourself, and for the others who actually need to contact it urgently.

intuition

I guess the normal passenger is not "savvy" enough.
Finnair sent him a cancellation message. He called Finnair, was told to call Travellink, so he called travellink.
If he had started operating a customer support form, he probably would have chosen a form on Finnair page, only to be told days/weeks later he contacted the wrong place. Then he is supposed to find a contact form on Travellink? (I just went there and I can't find any such form) so spend more time filling out a form and hoping for it to be the right one and to have the request positively answered, whenever that happens?

I am not surprised at all that people do not use contact forms. They are slow and error prone. Call in, wait in line and then get a 100% one-on-one conversation where all potential problems are worked out straight away.

To each their own, but unless it is absolutely trivial I too shy away from forms, chats and emails.

niksal

I made a mistake in the debacle about getting my parents home, and booked something via ebookers. Waited one day 4.5h in line on the phone, then it got disconnected. No forms what I could see, except for complaints. Well, I hope I get the money back at some point.

intuition

One thing that can be good to know is that Finnair made changes last year in how tickets are handled when it comes to Amadeus based OTAs. (pardon my ignorance in the correct TA lingo) Previously, if Finnair did "stuff" to the ticket (like re-issue) then "ownership" was transferred to Finnair and OTA was locked out of the ticket. (ie something they do not want to happen, hence the reluctance to touch OTA tickets I assume). Now finnair can "do stuff" like re-issue ticket and OTA still has access to it.

I believe this has come in handy these last weeks - I have had one OTA issued ticket that Finnair had no problems touching, doing all kind of bad stuff to like rebook into new flights and new fare buckets.