Flouncing off Finnair flight

Well, I finally did it. Not that I have been waiting, or wanting, or hoping to do it, you understand; the closest I have ever come to it before is wondering whether I would have the balls to do it. It appears that I do…

On Saturday, I walked into an aircraft cabin, turned round, walked off (because it wasn’t the promised product), and refused to fly.

Now you need the backstory to this. The Memsahib had a pulmonary embolism when preggers with Junior Offspring, and so is considered high risk for DVT, so I insist she can only fly long-haul in full-flat beds. We needed to get to the UK at relatively short notice, and couldn’t get on any direct flights (start of school and university terms/years), so ended up booking on Finnair. I checked most carefully that we had full-flat seats both ways before booking. Our flight over had no problems (and we were quite impressed given the price – I will do a proper review in due course) but we noted that the bulkhead seats had larger “cubbyholes” for the feet. So, a couple of days after arriving in the UK, I went online to change our seat allocations, to discover that the aircraft was now expected to be angled-flat seats.

So we called Finnair customer service (quite impressive – although just using the main customer service line, was only on hold for ten minutes or so). They said they needed to check into the aircraft allocations and would get back in touch. A few hours later I received an e-mail saying they could rebook us the following or preceding day, both of which had flat beds. We couldn’t do the prior day so I e-mailed asking for the later day. Didn’t get a response within a few hours so to be on the safe side I called again. Quicker answer this time. Apparently the lady I had dealt with at first had gone home, so they needed to check into it again, and said they would call back – which they did! They confirmed we could fly a day later but indicated there would be a fare difference, total about GBP500 for the both of us. We asked about waiving it, she said she would check with ticketing and call back. She did so a few minutes later and said that full-flat seats aren’t guaranteed on HK flights and the website said so (I checked later – quite correct) so unfortunately they couldn’t waive the fare difference. Well, so be it. So we paid over our 500 quid and got rebooked on the following night. This also meant we had to book another hotel night.

On checking in the following day, we specifically asked at check-in if it was definitely full-flat seats on the long-haul sector, and they confirmed it was, so we boarded our flight to Helsinki. Very short layover (only 40 minutes) so we skipped the lounge and headed straight to the gate for boarding.

Walked onto the plane, saw it was angled-flat seating, and walked straight off again.

Check-in agent was horrified, confirmed there had been an aircraft change, apologised profusely and called his supervisor. She also apologised profusely and took us to the ticketing desk to explore options. Next day’s flight was full. I needed to get back to work, so after discussion I was rebooked onto the flight via Bangkok the next day with a connection to HKG on CX – this mean using the higher fare I had already paid so no refund for me (heigh-ho), however the Memsahib’s fare difference should be refundable. Memsahib was waitlisted for the HK flight next day. Then, of course, we had to get another hotel…

Next day, I check in for BKK and leave the Memsahib in the hotel to wait and see if the HK flight became free. I am sitting in the premium lounge when the same supervisor comes to finds me, explains that there has been another aircraft change (!) and the HK flight would now be angled-flat. I thought this meant the Memsahib stuck in Helsinki for another night. But no… There had been yet ANOTHER aircraft change (!!) and the Bangkok flight was now full-flat! So could I get in touch with the Memsahib as they hadn’t been able to contact her? This I did, and told her to hotfoot it to the airport. This was about 40 minutes before flight departure!! Somehow she made it, and we had a pleasant flight home.

So there we are. Three aircraft changes in the space of two days, a lot more hassle than we expected, but excellent (save for the aircraft changes!) service recovery and really, genuinely, caring staff which made up for it quite a lot.

Oh, and of course, what I hope will be my one and only experience of stepping on an aircraft, deciding I don’t want to fly on it, and flouncing off again!!

I agree Derek, although it has left me with mixed feelings… Great customer service, but very low expectations of getting what I had booked… They’re blooming cheap, though… About 60% of the cost of direct flights

Heard about the two fat/obese First Class QF passengers who got off the Australia bound aircraft at LAX because Qantas didn’t have pyjamas that fit them?

I will do a full review soon, LP. It is half-written already!

I’ve been a supporter of the AY longhaul product since I used them for a last minute journey LHR-KIX (Osaka). It was one of the older angle lie flat seats (which I knew about when booking, but needs must on a 36hrs from request to travel to flying).

What impressed me was their sevice, and as I’ve said on here before, sometimes it is the service recovery that is more important than the (unfortunate) fact that something went wrong. Seems AY did all they can to recover it, so chapeau to them.