Slow Service Leads to Missed Flight and Fee

June 17, 2016

in Airport Stories

Dear friends, I would like to share my experience in Helsinki less than a month ago, May 22, 2016. I had a 40 minute connection between the flights from Moscow to NYC. Because the hand luggage screeners were so slow, I missed that connection.

To add insult to injury, Finnair slapped me with a 125 euros re-booking fee. All of my pleas about slowness of the hand luggage screeners fell on deaf ears (although my argument was very loud). They were pretty straightforward – “No fee, no re-booking, I am stuck to enjoy the Helsinki airport for good.” Pure blackmail and extortion.

On top of that they offered no re-booking option. They re-booked me on the same flight leaving in 24 hours.

So beware of Finnair connections. Be prepared to have an extra 125 euros in re-booking fees in case you miss your connection through no fault of yours. Been there; sharing first hand experience.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Weyoun7 June 17, 2016 at 9:49 pm

Definitely extortion. I wouldn't be surprised if they did it completely on purpose. "Slow down security ensuring missed flights, thus ensuring more sweet profit"

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CMR July 3, 2016 at 6:07 pm

As much as it sucks, this is on you. If you are traveling internationally, you don't book flights that only give yourself 40 mins of connection time. Always give yourself over an hour, at least. You never know what customs or terminal changes or security checks you have to go through. 40 minutes can turn into nothing if a flight is slightly delayed…plus you don't give the baggage people a lot of time to get your bag off the plane and rushed onto the next one. If you don't allot enough time to make it through security, that's on you. You are never going to win an argument that's centered around security taking too long. That's usually way out of the airline's control anyways.

Lastly, are you surprised they rebooked you on a Flight the next day? This is international travel, Finnair likely only has one flight a day from Helsinki to NYC…you miss it and you wait for that plane to come back tomorrow. There aren't 5 daily flights like a domestic route. At least feel lucky they could accomodate you the next day…sometimes those flights can be full and you have to wait until another seat opens up.

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Owen Adwin July 15, 2016 at 2:13 am

If you missed your flight because you weren't informed about a changed departure time, you may be able to make a claim against the carrier.

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