Airlines are in dire straits at the moment as virtually nobody is flying. When your flight is cancelled, some airlines are offering a cash refund, some a voucher refund and others both.
My forward bookings included flights with British Airways and Finnair, which of course are now cancelled. With BA, I applied for a cash refund and received the money back exactly two weeks later. With the Nordic airline, it’s another story.
Please Take The Voucher Refund
Notification of my flight cancellation arrived on 26 March and I applied for a cash refund the following day. At the time an e-mail arrived confirming my application and apologising for the processing time of up to one month.
Considering the amount of work they must have, I am quite happy to patiently wait for the cash. However, since then I have received two e-mails attempting to convince me to take a voucher instead, the first arriving April Fools Day.
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- A politely informational message about the voucher refund option
The important note in that communication is that refunds are now delayed further to eight weeks. As an incentive, you get 10% extra back with the voucher and it arrives in half the time. Curious. Of course, I decided not to take it.
Just one week later on 7 April, I received another e-mail from Finnair. This time it was a bit more to the point and I have extra time to make a decision.
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- More to the point and a little more obvious!
It seems to me that perhaps not many people took the original offer. Shorter, more to the point and with another date, I wonder if it will be more successful.
Overall Thoughts
I’m very curious about how many people are actually taking a voucher refund. Hopefully once all of this is over there will be some statistics on this.
Interestingly, the second message sent by Finnair doesn’t mention anything about cash refunds. People do tend to read things that are short and sweet so maybe leaving that out and staying focused on the main message will get a better result.
Are you team voucher or team cash refund? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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I’ve been putting off calling them about a canceled flight. Was finally told by Chase (Expedia) that they need to authorize the refund to them to be issued to me. So frustrating. I would consider a voucher if it was 50% or 100% more. But 10%?? Hard pass.
I’m not in the game at 10% either really as I’m all in for about €375. I would be singing a different tune if I had paid for a €4,000 business class fare though, as 10% then becomes nice and chunky.
My Finnair voucher arrived today – took just over a month (and two weeks after they told me it had been issued!) To use it, you need to ring their customer service if your flight originates from a country which doesn’t use the Euro, which is the case with mine (UK), they then created a reservation for me, sent me the booking reference, and then there was a ‘pay now’ option, where I input the voucher code. Done! I’m a school teacher and have set holidays and wanted to take a pretty much identical holiday to my Easter one that… Read more »
Great information there, so thanks for that. I have a few people who have been worried they won’t get their refund from Finnair. I read somewhere that they had 100,000 refund requests to process and they usually had something like 10,000 a year… so they have quite a few more than usual to get through. Great to hear you were able to use it for a new flight as well. Helpful that your holiday windows are pretty much set! Thanks for the comment.
I believe every airline prefers customers to take the vouchers. I think you were lucky with British Airways. We had flights booked on BA around this time to South Africa, BA’s web site did read “refund/voucher” but clicking it only offered voucher. Luckily I read online that if one disables Javascript before clicking it, it will go to the refund page — and got my refund in couple of days. That trip was also to keep our status with BA — now that we cannot really fly anywhere and BA hasn’t done anything to extend the frequent flyer status like… Read more »
I agree with you, they certainly would prefer the vouchers as it preserves their cash. British Airways have reduced the tier point thresholds for people renewing in April, May and June. I’m assuming your renewal is a different date, Let’s hope things begin to return to normal sooner rather than later, though it’s looking like the second half of the year at this stage. Thanks for the comment!
Iam a former Finnish citizen. Don’t ever trust this company. Then when you want to have flights the vouchers are not valid. “Sorry computer error, try later this year or next?” Finnair had sucked their own citizens decades. CASH ONLY!
Good to know, I’m definitely going for the cash! Thanks for the comment!
It’s really about household financials at this point for me. If I could spare the cash, I’d consider it – although 10% isn’t much incentive. Upwards of 20% becomes more and more of a no-brainer. Unfortunately some people need the cash and need it quickly. Being granted a refund could change someone’s life in these difficult times. It’s quite unfortunate that the airlines can’t handle refunds as quickly as some people need it. What’s worse, some hotels are refusing refunds despite the situation (Design Hotels, despite Marriott’s outstanding COVID-19 policies and leadership). Right now I think we should all be… Read more »
Yes, you’re completely right there, the refund can make a big difference to some people, depending on their personal circumstances. I have seen some of the stories in the news about people not getting refunds at all. I can see both sides of the story really. Thanks for the comment!
If you like the airline, take voucher. Simple. No difference to you, big difference to airline.
Oh I’d happily take the voucher if I was certain I’d be booking with them again, that wouldn’t bother me at all. I don’t think Finnair are going to fail, so that wouldn’t be part of my reasoning. Good point you make though! Thanks for the comment!
[…] Finnair Desperately Want Me To Take A Voucher Refund by Travel Update. […]
A voucher refund? You will either get a refund of your money or a voucher toward a future trip. Inexperienced travellers are confused enough already with those two terms, so combining them in a headline is kinda counter-productive.
Yes, it’s a shame so many people are so unbelievably stupid that they can’t grasp a simple concept, isn’t it? I hear you on that! Thanks for the comment.