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CANCELLED - Unfinnished Business | FINLAND |24th - 26th Jul 2020

It is worth bearing in mind if you change your flight or take a voucher for future use and then your original flight gets canceled outright you won't be entitled to a refund.

The reason for this is you in effect enter into a new contract / legal entity with the supplier ( E.g. Flight Carrier ) at the point you accept their offer, along with all known liability at that time ( E.g. A current pandemic ) which will undoubtedly invalidate any future travel insurance claims you may try and claim.

The only time a voucher would be a viable option is if:
A) Supplier is likely to collapse but has good/service that could be claimed immediately ( not exactly applicable for air carrier flying nowhere at the moment )
B) Supplier offers you far greater value in voucher/goodwill than the cash alternative and the business is unlikely to collapse in the meantime ( Wouldn't say any company in the travel sector is exactly sound at present time ).
 
.Ac. said:
It is worth bearing in mind if you change your flight or take a voucher for future use and then your original flight gets canceled outright you won't be entitled to a refund.

The reason for this is you in effect enter into a new contract / legal entity with the supplier ( E.g. Flight Carrier ) at the point you accept their offer, along with all known liability at that time ( E.g. A current pandemic ) which will undoubtedly invalidate any future travel insurance claims you may try and claim.

The only time a voucher would be a viable option is if:
A) Supplier is likely to collapse but has good/service that could be claimed immediately ( not exactly applicable for air carrier flying nowhere at the moment )
B) Supplier offers you far greater value in voucher/goodwill than the cash alternative and the business is unlikely to collapse in the meantime ( Wouldn't say any company in the travel sector is exactly sound at present time ).
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Yes, I was aware that you can't do both, hence the question.

If anyone gets any news on refunds etc it might be helpful for people to post it here to help others.
 
Booked through Finnair as well and I have hotel booked for the Thursday and Sunday night.
I don't see any point cancelling right now. Will do it early July or if I can still travel probably just go on the trip anyway even if I were to only stay in Helsinki during that entire time and just get on Taiga 100 times.

It's too bad this Coronavirus is especially bad in the UK and they are introducing a bizarre 2 week quarantine thing just at a time when the rest of Europe is looking to open things up again. Can't see that lasting long though without collapsing the entire airline industry in the UK. No offence to anyone but the average health / fitness must be pretty poor for us Brits. I'm on a diet now myself. I do hope we get more safe cycle lanes and walk ways (not just London) but somehow I doubt it. Realistically I can't even walk or cycle into the next two villages where I live without going on an unlit A road suicide mission.
 
Everybody who has applied for a refund should've received it. By my counts, there are six attendees who have not responded. Please check your emails - including junk - to make sure you've got the instructions.

If possible I'd like to get them all sorted by the weekend so people have their money back, but also because every refund is a depressing reminder it's not going ahead.
 
Finnair have just updated their policy for July flights. They’ll only be operating around 30% of flights for a while, and will inform those flying with them in July of whether or not their flights are cancelled by the end of May.

If your flight is cancelled in either direction, that appears to be grounds for a full refund on your Finnair booking, but if your flights are still operating and you have a non-flexible fare, it looks like they are only allowing rebooking to alternative dates.

So basically, wait for the end of the month and hope for a cancellation of at least one of the flights. If Finnair haven’t cancelled anything on the booking by the time June rolls around, it’ll probably be time to look again at the fine print and maybe contact travel insurance providers.
 
if the Uk change their mind to allow visitors into UK without having to quarantine from countries with low coronavirus rates, Finland is a low case country.
If Finnair dont cancel the flight, may be worth using them and get a small trip in ?

not checked Finlands position on allowing outside visitors into their country tho ?
Screenshot 2020-05-19 at 15.34.24.png
 
BlueSonicHD said:
not checked Finlands position on allowing outside visitors into their country tho ?
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Basically, if it's not essential travel, and you're not either a resident returning home, or transiting through Finland on your way home, you're not getting in. If they are letting you in, you're going to be self isolating for 14 days on arrival, at least if I'm reading the guidance correctly.


In other words, no Finland trip any time soon for any of us.

I should probably add, if you've done your homework and intend to change the dates of a Finnair flight to another date, I think I remember seeing somewhere that you need to do so at least 7 days before your original departure date. I don't think it'll apply to many people, but it's worth bearing in mind.
 
MouseAT said:
Basically, if it's not essential travel, and you're not either a resident returning home, or transiting through Finland on your way home, you're not getting in. If they are letting you in, you're going to be self isolating for 14 days on arrival, at least if I'm reading the guidance correctly.


In other words, no Finland trip any time soon for any of us.

I should probably add, if you've done your homework and intend to change the dates of a Finnair flight to another date, I think I remember seeing somewhere that you need to do so at least 7 days before your original departure date. I don't think it'll apply to many people, but it's worth bearing in mind.
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nooooo. my short lived happiness dashed to the rocks

oh well ?

I read it is only till the 14th June so far, they could change their minds ?
 
BlueSonicHD said:
nooooo. my short lived happiness dashed to the rocks

oh well ?

I read it is only till the 14th June so far, they could change their minds ?
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A lot of EU countries are looking to drop border restrictions mid June, however it will still be difficult to travel given majority of flights will be cancelled due to low demand. The UK is obviously looking to bring in a 14 day quarantine from beginning of June so those travelling would likely have to quarantine upon arrival back into the UK.

Worth keeping an eye on things, but just because you can travel legally doesn’t mean you will necessarily be able to. And then you have to remember to follow the rules and regs in the country you are visiting rather than those of the UK.
 
JammyH said:
A lot of EU countries are looking to drop border restrictions mid June, however it will still be difficult to travel given majority of flights will be cancelled due to low demand. The UK is obviously looking to bring in a 14 day quarantine from beginning of June so those travelling would likely have to quarantine upon arrival back into the UK.

Worth keeping an eye on things, but just because you can travel legally doesn’t mean you will necessarily be able to. And then you have to remember to follow the rules and regs in the country you are visiting rather than those of the UK.
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there was this tweet that maybe the 14day quarantine wont be all encompassing

https://twitter.com/x/status/1262743111899308034
 
My flights are booked under Norwegian, so presumably may be a similar situation there.

Am guessing the best thing to do is wait until nearer the time and hope they cancel them.
 
Going to be frank here - it's not helpful to read speculation about what restrictions might be lifted, or what could happen. I appreciate everybody is gutted and understand that there is a slim chance everything might be ok by end of July, but it doesn't mean this Live will suddenly be back on this year. The posts about flight refunds etc are perfectly fine, and appreciated, as they are useful. Sorry to be blunt.

Thank you to those who have sent in refund requests in the last 24 hours. All processed. Three left - @Nic, @peep (including Paultons!) and @chainedbanana. Please check emails.
 
I don’t think anyone was suggesting the live should go back on

But if restrictions are lifted for incoming people and flights don’t get cancelled why let them go to waste.

Got to have something to look forward too. Even if it is just a pipe dream :)
 
BlueSonicHD said:
I don’t think anyone was suggesting the live should go back on

But if restrictions are lifted for incoming people and flights don’t get cancelled why let them go to waste.

Got to have something to look forward too. Even if it is just a pipe dream :)
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I'd be astonished if one cannot travel freely to Finland by July 23rd from the UK and come back without the quarantine thing. We are talking a longer period into the future (9 weeks) than we have had the lockdown (just over 8). Certain other countries such as Brazil may be a different matter.

Having said that, it was absolutely the right decision to cancel the Live for sure.
 
It seems Finnair are being a bit sneaky in terms of how they process cancellations, communicate them to you, and present information to you on their website.

My evening flight from Manchester was cancelled, and I received an email stating that "Your journey has changed. Please see below for further details. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Please check your itinerary and possible other flight options at Manage booking." It listed the old flight details and the new flight details, which were for earlier in the day - there are two flights per day in each direction, and it looks like they cancelled the evening flight and wanted to rebook me on the morning one. The new outbound flight number was different from the old one.

When checking the online manage booking page, they showed the new flight, and had not automatically re-booked me onto their suggested replacement flight. I was given buttons to accept the rebooking, or look at alternatives. Only once I clicked to view other options did it display what they weren't being upfront about - that the evening flight was officially cancelled.

So, long story short - if you get an email from Finnair stating that they've made changes, do a bit of digging to determine the facts, as they're not being upfront about supposed "changes" that are actually cancellations, or whether you qualify for a refund. If you're in the same situation that I was, you won't have an option to cancel your booking online. You'll have to give them a call and speak to them if one of your flights has been cancelled, and you want to cancel the entire booking, but once you're through to an operator, you should be able to cancel without any difficulty. They say refunds may take a while (6-8 weeks) though, not that I'm particularly bothered as long as I'm getting the full cost of the flights back.
 
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MouseAT said:
It seems Finnair are being a bit sneaky in terms of how they process cancellations, communicate them to you, and present information to you on their website.

My evening flight from Manchester was cancelled, and I received an email stating that "Your journey has changed. Please see below for further details. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Please check your itinerary and possible other flight options at Manage booking." It listed the old flight details and the new flight details, which were for earlier in the day - there are two flights per day in each direction, and it looks like they cancelled the evening flight and wanted to rebook me on the morning one. The new outbound flight number was different from the old one.

When checking the online manage booking page, they showed the new flight, and had not automatically re-booked me onto their suggested replacement flight. I was given buttons to accept the rebooking, or look at alternatives. Only once I clicked to view other options did it display what they weren't being upfront about - that the evening flight was officially cancelled.

So, long story short - if you get an email from Finnair stating that they've made changes, do a bit of digging to determine the facts, as they're not being upfront about supposed "changes" that are actually cancellations, or whether you qualify for a refund. If you're in the same situation that I was, you won't have an option to cancel your booking online. You'll have to give them a call and speak to them if one of your flights has been cancelled, and you want to cancel the entire booking, but once you're through to an operator, you should be able to cancel without any difficulty. They say refunds may take a while (6-8 weeks) though, not that I'm particularly bothered as long as I'm getting the full cost of the flights back.
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Thanks for this, I’ve just received a similar email. I’d looked a flights a couple of days ago and seen my flights had been removed so knew it was cancelled. Did you managed to get through to someone on the phone quickly? I think usually changing flight times is something they reserve the right to do, but it’s not normal times and I’d rather just get a refund!

Finnair customer services were very helpful and promptly refunded when I cocked up and booked flights on the wrong day, so I trust them to have decent service and refund and it’s genuinely just a delayed due to the circumstances.
 
I think I spent around 15 minutes on hold early this afternoon, but once I got through to their team, it only took a few minutes to get things sorted out. I guess they’re dealing with so many of these calls at the moment that they’ve got the process down to an art.
 
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Just to add to what I said above, I think Finnair are acting reasonably reasonably - the coronavirus Page on their website list out the options, including them offering possible alternative routings (which is in the email) and also a link to an online form to apply for a refund. Apparently you cancel it from mange my booking then fill out the form and they’ll refund in full in 6-8 weeks. Might be nice if they’d made it more obvious, but no ones perfect. Think I’ll try phoning up though just to make sure I don’t inadvertently do myself out of a refund by selecting to cancel.
 
I couldn’t find an option to cancel online, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t one. Finnair’s guidance page does seem to imply that sometimes you may not have the option to cancel online, and may have to call instead.

Their telephone staff certainly have treated me fairly, and I can’t say I take issue with how they’ve handled things. I’ve flown with Finnair before, and I’ll be happy to fly with them again in the future. I suppose the way in which the emails and bookings pages are presented make perfect sense in a pre-Covid world, where in the event of a cancellation you’d probably want to be rebooked onto the closest available flight, and it’s only because everything is so crazy at the moment that the semantics, terminology and technicalities are suddenly much more important.

I’d have appreciated it if they had been fully up-front under the circumstances, but they’re probably under a lot of pressure at the moment, and at least now all of us Finnair customers know where we stand.
 
Called them up this morning and after 30 mins on hold got through to an operator, who confirmed I was eligible for a refund though warned that processing time was now up to 8-10 weeks! That’s far longer than any of the many refunds I’ve requested in recent months but at least they are being upfront and setting the expectation of a long wait.
 
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