There are changes to booking a bicycle on Finnair operated and marketed flights as of 3.12.2019: When you book a bicycle for a customer on Finnair marketed and operated flights, the system will automatically check whether there is quota available for the specific flight and aircraft type and confirm the SSR if there is quota available. The maximum quota for BIKE cannot be exceeded due to restrictions in cargo hold space. The requirements to get an auto-confirmation:

• Customer has a Finnair operated and marketed flight
• There is quota available for the specific flight(s)
• The BIKE SSR is added in a correct format to the PNR, example: SR BIKE AY NN1-BIKE DIMS 150X30X50CMS 15KGS

Please note! If the customer has connecting flights with other airlines, the SSR is not automatically confirmed and the operating carrier of the connecting flight needs to be contacted separately to confirm bicycle on their flight segments.

Please be advised that the current SSR OTHS messages for ticketing time limits in individual PNRs will be replaced by OPW and OPC elements (for Amadeus agents) and SSR ADTK (for non-Amadeus agents) starting December 9, 2019 (this applies for PNRs created from this day onwards and PNRs created prior to this date but modified on this day or later). This allows Finnair to accurately calculate and apply ticketing time limits and notify agents in real-time.

Travel agencies benefit from this by receiving reliable information about ticketing time limits at booking time and can provide accurate ticketing time limit to the customer instantly. In case of rebooking a new time limit will be updated to the PNR.

Current SSR OTHS is added to a PNR with up to 4 hours’ delay from EOT/booking creation and only then queued to booking office for attention. The new OPC element (for Amadeus agents) and SSR ADTK (for non-Amadeus agents) will be processed immediately after EOT/booking creation and queued to booking office for attention.

In case ticket is not issued before the time limit expiry, segments are cancelled and PNR is queued to booking office for attention.

For Amadeus agents, there are two elements in the new procedure:

• OPW – warning for time limit to remind about the approaching ticketing time limit (used only when the fare booked carries a flexible time limit)
• OPC – cancellation time limit or last day to issue ticket. If no ticket issued before the given date and time, unticketed segments will be cancelled

For all other GDS users, the time limit will be shown as:

• SSR ADTK element

During the transition to the new Time Limit Notification format SSR OTHS and OPC/SSR ADTK could be visible in a PNR in different lines. Only OPC/SSR ADTK will be the value to consider for the ticketing time limit deadline.

Both OPW and OPC are segment associated. If a ticket is issued, the OPW / OPC elements are removed from the booking.

Please note – All unticketed PNRs created prior to December 9, 2019 which have not been modified on December 9 nor December 10, will be processed for the new Time Limit Notification format on December 11, 2019. On this day, all unticketed PNRs will be queued to booking office for attention. Travel agent partners are asked to review the PNRs and acknowledge the new time limit and Time Limit format in each PNR. Please note that in some cases the new time limit might differ from the time limit in the old format.

Example of the elements:

• An OPW element will be created after EOT to notify accurate TTL

OPW-31DEC:1435/1C7/AY REQUIRES TICKET ON OR BEFORE 03JAN:1435 HEL TIME ZONE/TKT/S3-4                          ​

• An OPC element will process cancellation when the ticketing time limit is reached and if no ticket is issued

OPC-03JAN:1435/1C8/AY CANCELLATION DUE TO NO TICKET HEL TIME ZONE​/TKT/S3-4/P1-2 

All other GDS users will be notified about the ticketing time limits as SSR ADTK element:

SSR ADTK ZZ TO AY BY 11JAN 1759 HEL TIME ZONE OTHERWISE WILL BE XLD

(ZZ = indicator for the GDS through which the booking was created)

Finnair content has been fully removed from Sabre and Abacus GDSs as of Tuesday 26th November. The distribution agreement has not been reached with Sabre and Abacus GDS.

Finnair has been negotiating with Sabre, one of the largest Global Distribution Systems (GDS) based in the US, on an agreement to replace the current Full Content Agreement (FCA) and to allow moving to our desired state of pricing and distribution freedom in direct channels and content differentiation in indirect channels. As we have not yet reached an agreement, Sabre has removed Finnair content (flight inventory, flight prices etc.) from Sabre and Abacus GDSs as of Tuesday 26th November, excluding the European markets for now. Apart from the exclusion markets this means that travel agents cannot book anymore Finnair flights or ancillary products from Sabre or Abacus GDSs.

We are sorry about the inconvenience this is causing to travel agents and are working to find a solution with Sabre. Meanwhile, Finnair continues to distribute via all the other GDSs e.g. Amadeus, Travelport, Travelsky. Also, Finnair content is available via selected aggregator platforms such as Travelfusion and PKfare and via direct NDC connections.

Instructions for active reservations in Sabre and Abacus GDSs

Ticketed PNRs

Current fare rules (including penalties & refunds) apply.
Changes and other amendments including cancellations should be done via Finnair Contact Centers or via Manage Booking at finnair.com

Unticketed PNRs

Multi-GDS travel agents are encouraged to re-create PNR in other GDS -systems e.g. Amadeus, Travelport , Travelsky and issue ticket as per the fare rules. Original booking classes will be re-instated. Contact Finnair for re-instatement and cancellation of current PNR.

Alternatively

Ticket issuance is done via Finnair Contact Centers, acceptable form of payment is Credit Card only. Finnair will exempt first issue ticketing service fees. Finnair will accept past date pricing for all fare types if original ticketing time limit is followed. Otherwise current fare pricing applies.

Refunds

Refunding tickets in Sabre and Abacus GDSs has been disabled.

BSP Travel Agents can send refund requests via BSPlink Refund Application (RA). When refund cannot be handled via Sabre/Abacus, the refund handling fee with BSPlink RA will be waived. The BSPlink RA should include the remark “Refund in Sabre/Abacus disabled”. The refund payment will be settled via BSP reporting.

US market ARC Travel Agents can submit the refund application by using the refund form on finnair.com. The WEB-form refund request should include additional information “Refund in Sabre/Abacus disabled”. The refund payment will be settled through ARC-IAR reporting (with agency credit memo).

Cancelled ticketed PNRs

There is an ongoing issue with transferring the ticket numbers from Sabre/Abacus to Amadeus. Due to that already ticketed PNRs may be cancelled by Finnair's ticketing control (this also affects European agencies). The message "TKTL EXPIRED FOR AY - ITINERARY AUTOCANCELLED" is being inserted into the PNR. Please contact Finnair for the reinstatement of the flights.

Due to IAU support strike Finnair allows rerouting on oneworld flights in case the original Finnair flight is cancelled.

Finnair is not a negotiating party on this labour dispute, but still Finnair and its customers are severely affected on this due to ground handling personnel going on strike at Helsinki airport.

Please follow our Info page at finnair.com.

Instructions for involuntary reissue are found here

List of cancelled flights 25Nov can be found here

Due to the possibility of an upcoming strike Finnair allows VOLUNTARY rerouting on Finnair and Norra operated flights only. The Finnish Aviation Labour Union (IAU) has issued a support strike warning notice concerning the ground handling operations for the following time period: 25.11.2019.

Finnair is not a negotiating party on this labour dispute, but still Finnair and its customers could be severely affected on this threat due to ground handling personnel going on strike at Helsinki airport.

Please follow our Info page at finnair.com.

Amadeus Travel Agencies will now be able to access and take actions on AY Tickets issued by them even after there is Reissue performed by AY who then has control over it. 

Earlier access was not allowed for further actions but with the activation of new Rule, Travel Agents will be able to display AY Tickets issued by them and further perform Reissue/Exchange actions their end when customer has still contacted them directly. 
This function has been activated in Production dated 28th October 2019 and at the moment is available only for Amadeus Agencies but in future would be available for other GDS Agencies as well depending upon GDS readiness. 

*For EMD in any situation only display access is allowed.

Please be informed that the Ticketing Time Limit for AY TO-fares has been streamlined between markets. The new TTL’s and fare rules are in GDS now. The new TTL will be:

Finnair is adding capacity to Beijing starting 03Nov 2019 with 3 operations to Beijing’s new airport - Beijing Daxing airport in south Beijing.

As of 03Nov 2019 Finnair will operate to two airports in Beijing; Capital airport (PEK) 7 times per week and Daxing (PKX) 3 times per week.

The schedule for Daxing in local times for winter 19:

AY81 HEL-PKX D137 17:10 - 07:10 on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday

AY82 PKX-HEL D124 11:10 - 14:05 on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday

Please pay attention when booking flights to/from Beijing to avoid any mix up between the two airports and advise passengers to go to the right airport.

Happy sales!

Co-operation between AY/JP has ended

Please be advised that Finnair's partnership with JP/165/Adria Airways is terminated due to the their suspension of operations.

If passenger is holding an unused 105-ticket it can be refunded directly via GDS. In that case please remember to add OSI “FULL REFUND DUE TO JP INSOLVENCY” in the PNR.

Partial refunds will be handled via refund applications.

Passengers with 165-ticket should contact JP for futher instruction.