Tofino87

Had some NH changes to departure/arrival times for a flight. Had to login to confirm acceptance of changes. But i saw something interesting below:“Please confirm the following, and click to place a check if you have read, understood and agreed to the items stated below. (Required)

• conditions of carriage (International Passengers and Baggage) and the ANA privacy policy

• Customers departing from or connecting via China should make sure to confirm the customer service plan for China

• Taxes, fees, etc.

You may be asked to pay an additional charge if there is a rise in the taxes, fees, etc. imposed by government and other public offices.



(Check box) I have read and agreed to the information provided herein.”



- Now it does state taxes imposed by government or public offices, so I’m guessing this does NOT refer to fuel surcharges and it’s probably unlikely that there would be any government tax changes before my flight departs, but for an award ticket would they really invoice you/expect you to pay upon checkin at the airport, any increases in taxes? I’ve never heard of this before

SugoiHikouki

ANA has no hubs outside of Japan. I think they're under the impression that SFO and JFK are more important to the airline and I don't think this is true. LAX is the only airport in the US that continued to have daily passenger service and has had the most service consistently before and since the pandemic. On top of that, LAX is probably just as important for cargo. On the other hand, until ANA figures out and loads their post-pandemic rotations and schedule, anything is possible and everything is still fluid.

Ian Z

Stupid COVID! Had tickets I booked a year ago for our trip LAX-HND in first for the wife and business for myself. And when I returned alone i was booked in the suite. Now all planes cancelled or changed so reservations all cancelled without notice and no help whatsoever since it was a virgin booking. ****JUST VENTING***

Dave510

JFK (along with LHR and FRA) are more premium than the other routes, because they serve Hibiki 21 instead of 17.

CPH-Flyer

Frankfurt is premium enough to be operated with 787-9, and London premium enough to be cancelled while not using Russian airspace

Dave510

Might just be because they wanna save on Hibiki 21 money.

CPH-Flyer

I had not thought of that angle to the changes....

Gberg

Two data points:
(1) I just had to refund an NH F oneway from SFO-NRT and it shows airfare as $513 (guessing this is what VS pays NH)
(2) I snagged 2 seats on a HND-LAX flight in F so availability is out there for some days

carserus

Hey folks, my flight home LHR-HND (NH212) (J booking through VS points) has been cancelled b/c of the Russian airspace issue—surprise surprise. VS says they can't do anything, that it's NH's responsibility to rebook me (e.g. LHR-FRA-HND). ANA says they have no points availability, and VS would have to cancel and rebook in any case. They're waitlisting me but no guarantees at all. This is BS, right? A cancellation is a cancellation, regardless of how I paid. Does VS have to book me onto a reasonable J routing that has cash availability, even if there's no points availability? Or does the buck stop with ANA?

Dave510

When is the flight? If it's not soon I don't see why they have any responsibility beyond cancelling and refunding your ticket.

carserus

Cheers for the reply. Flight's Saturday. Cancelled today, within the necessary 14 days for CAA UK law on cancellations to kick in, which makes it clear that the customer can choose between a refund and an alternate flight, and that there's no difference in customer rights between a points booking and a cash one. As I live in Tokyo, they can't just cancel and refund the ticket.

Tofino87

I think the issue you’ll have - if I’m not mistaken, is that whereas FRA-HND is rerouting south to avoid Russian airspace and subsequently adding on approx 1h30m flight time, NH are NOT currently diverting LHR departures (incurring approx 4h30m extra flight time, to go north I’m around Russian airspace). They’re simply cancelling them outright.

They will claim circumstances outside of their control - I.e. Russian airspace being unsafe to use in the current climate, to get around their responsibility of re-booking/re-routing.

I would argue that this is not unforeseen - as it has been ongoing for at least a couple of weeks now and the airline could see this coming… but good luck arguing that.

carserus

Yeah, they're doing their darndest to argue that it's all "extraordinary circumstances", and that's true—meaning I don't get the up to £500 compensation I'd be due for arriving late (/not at all)—but it doesn't stop the law applying that while there is still cash availability for flights going, they are still obliged to let me choose between a rerouting and a refund.

CosmicGirl

You are correct. And if the CAA kept the regulation as it was under the EU then the operating carrier is responsible for rebooking you. If that requires reward space and VS reissuing the ticket then it's up to NH to open up reward space for you. They can do that and then add the new flights to your PNR. VS would then have to cancel the old ticket and reissue with the new flights at no cost to you.

CPH-Flyer

Have you flown the first leg of the itinerary, or is this the first leg?
​​​​​If it is the first leg, ANA is right that it is the issuing agent that has to manage the rebooking process, which would be VS.
If you already flew HND LHR on the same ticket, ANA holds the ticket and needs to manage the rebooking.

I don't know about the UK version of EU261, how it is defined around award bookings. EU261 say under comparable conditions, and while customers and consumer organisations say that means rebooking awards in to revenue booking classes, airlines as object to this interpretation. And as far as I know no legal precedent has been established on this point.