Finnair customers frustrated: backlog in refund processing, may have to wait months for ticket money

According to the Consumer Advice Team Leader, complaints often concern delays in refunds or other complaints procedures.

People have complained about Finnair to the Consumer Advice Centre in exceptionally high numbers this year, says the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority.

An exceptionally high number of contacts have concerned refunds of money, for example for cancelled flights and delays in processing complaints.

Finnair admits that it too has received “many times as much feedback” this year. According to the company, this is clearly due to the industrial action of last spring.

Finnair last canceled over a hundred flights from Helsinki-Vantaa on Monday.

The reason for the cancellation is the industrial action reported by the Aviation Union at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. IAU announced new industrial action on Friday.

Cancelled flights should be refunded within a week

According to Mikko Saastamoinen, in some cases Finnair’s processing times have been very long. He points out that legislation requires the refund of the tickets within one week.

– In individual cases, we talk about months. It would seem that there would be quite a bit of a pet.

According to the Vermilä area, congested processing times have been responded to by increasing automation and hiring more staff.

Finnair has been at the top of the complaints table before

Mikko Saastamoinen says that there are many contacts every year in relation to air traffic.

Finnair has had problems with the delays in payment refunds last year. The company has been at the forefront of the number of complaints made by customer consumer advice each year.

– The situation seemed to improve at some point in processing times, but now it seems that there are still problems, says Saastamoinen.

If the passenger claims a standard compensation or compensation for the costs incurred due to a flight delay or cancellation, the matter will not usually be resolved by consumer advice mediation. According to Saastamoinen, such cases are rarely agreed with Finnair.

– They are things that quite often end up being resolved by the Consumer Disputes Board.

This is the first time the Consumer Ombudsman takes the matter to the Market Court as a claim.

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