Booked a Qatar Airways itinerary — first leg by Finnair (big mistake). Finnair cancels it (as usual), reroutes me via Bangkok, arriving 30 hours late
Tried calling customer service = no chance.
Went to the airport = Finnair rep says "this is your only option, but it might also get cancelled." 😐
Uhh… no thanks. I booked a new flight myself to actually get there on time.

Now I asked Finnair for compensation, and this is what they send me after three months.

Is this just normal Finnair things now?

by for_no_reason_man

15 comments

  1. What do you mean ”now”? It’s been like this with them for at least 15 years.

  2. I hope your travel insurance isn’t with Xcover (Revolut). They’re just as bad as Finnair. 

  3. They’re not wrong though, it’s a strike and the contract you have with Finnair is from getting you from point A to B. If they offered you a reroute and you didn’t take it due to the long layover etc that’s understandable but legally they don’t owe you compensation. They’d have had to compensate you for personal expenses to a certain amount if you had taken the long layover and then had to get some personal effects e.g. sanitary stuff etc due to the layover. I know it sucks but on this one, regardless of the airline, you wouldn’t get compensation under EC261 that’s for sure

  4. It’s truly incredible how long this has been going on for. I suppose finnair is making their money either way while their reputation plummets, and their employees get paid less than half of what the average EU worker makes.

  5. It’s not Finnair where the strike is, but IAU

  6. They cancelled my flight in April due to the pilots strike and I got 400€ cash compensation last week. I’m still waiting on my other compensation claim because the flight they put me on got delayed and I got stranded for 12 hours overnight.

  7. If only people would understand not to buy anything from Finnair.

  8. You will probably get compensation, the airlines always try to wiggle their way of out of it claiming all sorts of bullshit. I’ve been compensated three out of three times when I’ve had my flights cancelled or rebooked because of a strike. Twice with SAS and once with Finnair. It may take a while though, but you’ll get your money eventually.

  9. This is common with all airlines, they all want to minimise the costs so often when they cancel flights they do try to say it’s exceptional circumstances.

    In this case tho they are most likely correct that it is an exceptional circumstance. The strike in march was not just Finnair’s own workforces strike but it was a larger political strike where other airport workers also participated. And when it’s a strike you are compensated for the flight the same way if the strike is just the company’s own workforce (pilots, flight attendants) but when there are other people involved and it’s not a workforce strike but a political one it gets more murky. This is due to the fact that Finnair cannot in a situation like this solve the issues of the strike alone and thus they cannot be held liable because they could not stop it from happening. Finnair also offered you alternative flight so most likely they will win this one.

  10. We know. But why are you showing us your troubles that happened in march now? That is 25 strikes ago or something.

  11. I think the key here is that this wasn’t part of the strikes that are going on at the moment, between the Union and Finnair in terms of their own agreement. This was a different situation, were the unions wanted to express their frustration with the high salary increase Finnair’s board was getting.

    I hope you get it solved via the consumer’s helpdesk or a flight compensation company, but this might be one where Finnair actually draws the longest straw.

  12. I bet you won’t get anything as the union action was a political strike so Finnair couldn’t and won’t have to do as much as in a industrial action relating to work agreements.

  13. Qatar and Finnair have some sort of agreements so if you fly with them, you can’t avoid Finnair.

  14. I got put into limbo this week. I have a flight on Monday to London from Helsinki. Travelling in Europe from the USA, started in Helsinki. Intended to go to Talllin a few days (there now), return to Helsinki and go on.

    Got notice my flight could be cancelled, and they wouldn’t know until tomorrow (Saturday). My hotel in Helsinki had to be cancelled by yesterday for a refund. Finnair was overloaded with calls, so I couldn’t get anyone to clarify my options.

    I ended up cancelling the hotel, buying a flight from Riga to London, and rebooking a hotel in Riga. I’m hoping the flight is cancelled so I can get compensation. But I’ll probably eat the cost. Ugh. Finnair.

  15. As much as I think finnair has gone to shit. In this they are right. And sounds like whining post

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