JAL and Finnair

kuepper

Hooray, after 80 days i've today received my refund for the cancelled flights. No indication as to how it's been calculated, there was a suggestion there may have been a refund fee(!) deducted from the amount but at least I can now claim on my insurance for the replacement flights I'd had to book. Still getting nowhere with Finnair for the £350 compensation

kuepper

eskbanker said:

If both legs were cancelled and Finnair were the operating carrier, then they're obliged to compensate you for the entire end-to-end journey if notified less than 14 days in advance without offering alternative flights, as well as a full refund.

Note that:

The burden of proof concerning the questions as to whether and when the passenger has been informed of the cancellation of the flight shall rest with the operating air carrier

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/5

Well Finnair have agreed to compensate me as you've stated but they've asked me to confirm I received a refund for the unused part of the original ticket and what was the amount, saying they can then "evaluate the eligibility for reimbursement of your new ticket".  That's irrelevant isn't it and none of their business?

eskbanker

kuepper said:

eskbanker said:

If both legs were cancelled and Finnair were the operating carrier, then they're obliged to compensate you for the entire end-to-end journey if notified less than 14 days in advance without offering alternative flights, as well as a full refund.

Note that:

The burden of proof concerning the questions as to whether and when the passenger has been informed of the cancellation of the flight shall rest with the operating air carrier

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/5

Well Finnair have agreed to compensate me as you've stated but they've asked me to confirm I received a refund for the unused part of the original ticket and what was the amount, saying they can then "evaluate the eligibility for reimbursement of your new ticket".  That's irrelevant isn't it and none of their business?

Good news that Finnair have accepted liability, but as well as compensation under article 7 of the regulations, they're liable to either refund you or to pay for your replacement flight under article 8, so I'd assume that's what they're referring to?

kuepper

eskbanker said:

kuepper said:

eskbanker said:

If both legs were cancelled and Finnair were the operating carrier, then they're obliged to compensate you for the entire end-to-end journey if notified less than 14 days in advance without offering alternative flights, as well as a full refund.

Note that:

The burden of proof concerning the questions as to whether and when the passenger has been informed of the cancellation of the flight shall rest with the operating air carrier

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/5

Well Finnair have agreed to compensate me as you've stated but they've asked me to confirm I received a refund for the unused part of the original ticket and what was the amount, saying they can then "evaluate the eligibility for reimbursement of your new ticket".  That's irrelevant isn't it and none of their business?

Good news that Finnair have accepted liability, but as well as compensation under article 7 of the regulations, they're liable to either refund you or to pay for your replacement flight under article 8, so I'd assume that's what they're referring to?

I'd never realised that, so it'd be a welcome bonus if I get it, thanks

eskbanker

kuepper said:

eskbanker said:

kuepper said:

eskbanker said:

If both legs were cancelled and Finnair were the operating carrier, then they're obliged to compensate you for the entire end-to-end journey if notified less than 14 days in advance without offering alternative flights, as well as a full refund.

Note that:

The burden of proof concerning the questions as to whether and when the passenger has been informed of the cancellation of the flight shall rest with the operating air carrier

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/5

Well Finnair have agreed to compensate me as you've stated but they've asked me to confirm I received a refund for the unused part of the original ticket and what was the amount, saying they can then "evaluate the eligibility for reimbursement of your new ticket".  That's irrelevant isn't it and none of their business?

Good news that Finnair have accepted liability, but as well as compensation under article 7 of the regulations, they're liable to either refund you or to pay for your replacement flight under article 8, so I'd assume that's what they're referring to?

I'd never realised that, so it'd be a welcome bonus if I get it, thanks

You'd need to make sure that you don't overclaim, so, putting aside the fixed price compensation, you're entitled to make the journey for whatever you originally paid for it, i.e. if you paid extra to complete the journey then Finnair should be reimbursing that rather than you claiming it on your insurance (not both!).  Likewise if JAL reimbursed you for anything, this should be deducted from what Finnair pay out, which is the point they're making....

kuepper

Well all this has been a massive learning curve so let's see if they pay me anything more, incidentally it's annoying that Finnair paid me from Finland and my bank converted the euros at a rate less than the market rate so I actually got less than the amount enshrined in the regulations which is annoying.

eskbanker

kuepper said:

incidentally it's annoying that Finnair paid me from Finland and my bank converted the euros at a rate less than the market rate so I actually got less than the amount enshrined in the regulations which is annoying.

Did you make any specific reference to either the UK or the EU regulations when claiming?  If you claimed under the UK ones, they'd be required to pay you £520 but under the EU ones it's €600 - as both of these figures are specified in the relevant regulations, you could theoretically choose which suits better according to current exchange rates if your flight is eligible for both (as here), but poor exchange rates or commission aren't the airline's problem....

kuepper

eskbanker said:

kuepper said:

incidentally it's annoying that Finnair paid me from Finland and my bank converted the euros at a rate less than the market rate so I actually got less than the amount enshrined in the regulations which is annoying.

Did you make any specific reference to either the UK or the EU regulations when claiming?  If you claimed under the UK ones, they'd be required to pay you £520 but under the EU ones it's €600 - as both of these figures are specified in the relevant regulations, you could theoretically choose which suits better according to current exchange rates if your flight is eligible for both (as here), but poor exchange rates or commission aren't the airline's problem....

I quoted what you quoted here. They said" €622 (£520)" and so £520 was ~ correct on Friday but my bank use an exchange rate that's less than the market one which I didn't realise as they'd said there were no charges for international transfers. I'd argue that using an artificial exchange rate is a charge, it's just a hidden one.You'd think all airlines flying to/from UK would have a UK bank account to overcome this issue. I'm surprised it's not been mentioned before in MSE's flight compensation advice.

kuepper

kuepper said:

eskbanker said:

kuepper said:

incidentally it's annoying that Finnair paid me from Finland and my bank converted the euros at a rate less than the market rate so I actually got less than the amount enshrined in the regulations which is annoying.

Did you make any specific reference to either the UK or the EU regulations when claiming?  If you claimed under the UK ones, they'd be required to pay you £520 but under the EU ones it's €600 - as both of these figures are specified in the relevant regulations, you could theoretically choose which suits better according to current exchange rates if your flight is eligible for both (as here), but poor exchange rates or commission aren't the airline's problem....

I quoted what you quoted here. They said" €622 (£520)" and so £520 was ~ correct on Friday but my bank use an exchange rate that's less than the market one which I didn't realise as they'd said there were no charges for international transfers. I'd argue that using an artificial exchange rate is a charge, it's just a hidden one.You'd think all airlines flying to/from UK would have a UK bank account to overcome this issue. I'm surprised it's not been mentioned before in MSE's flight compensation advice.

BTW Finnair gave me the option of €933 flight credit (50% more) in lieu of the €622

eskbanker

kuepper said:

eskbanker said:

kuepper said:

incidentally it's annoying that Finnair paid me from Finland and my bank converted the euros at a rate less than the market rate so I actually got less than the amount enshrined in the regulations which is annoying.

Did you make any specific reference to either the UK or the EU regulations when claiming?  If you claimed under the UK ones, they'd be required to pay you £520 but under the EU ones it's €600 - as both of these figures are specified in the relevant regulations, you could theoretically choose which suits better according to current exchange rates if your flight is eligible for both (as here), but poor exchange rates or commission aren't the airline's problem....

I quoted what you quoted here. They said" €622 (£520)" and so £520 was ~ correct on Friday but my bank use an exchange rate that's less than the market one which I didn't realise as they'd said there were no charges for international transfers. I'd argue that using an artificial exchange rate is a charge, it's just a hidden one.You'd think all airlines flying to/from UK would have a UK bank account to overcome this issue. I'm surprised it's not been mentioned before in MSE's flight compensation advice.

Yes, not unheard of for currency exchangers to make great play of 'no commission' but if their margin comes from a disadvantageous rate then that's not much consolation, although you could potentially have used a specialist broker to mitigate that effect - however, none of that is Finnair's fault.  I suspect it's too niche a situation to warrant prominent coverage in the MSE piece.