Travel question: What can I expect when claiming compensation for flight delay?

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Today’s reader is impressed with the swiftness of the Finnish carrier’s service (Getty)

Q Would you like to hear a positive story about a flight delay? I recently flew with a friend from Heathrow to Shanghai on Finnair via Helsinki. Our flight from Heathrow was delayed by three hours due to a mechanical problem, and arrived in Helsinki after the connection to Shanghai had left. We were immediately rerouted to Osaka in Japan, also on Finnair. We were also given tickets on China Southern from Osaka to Shanghai, with a three-hour stopover in Osaka airport. We finally arrived in Shanghai some six hours late.

On my return to the UK I filled out a form on the Finnair website, claiming €600 each. Within four hours the airline’s customer services had replied, with a very apologetic email, offering either €600 per person in cash or €800 in Finnair vouchers. I opted for the former as we are (unfortunately) unlikely to be travelling with Finnair in the near future. It reached my bank account two days later. Amazing service, agreed?

Paul G

A I wish I received more reports like yours. The initial delay and the weary extra stopover in Osaka must have been frustrating (assuaged, I trust, by the provision of refreshments by the airline), but I’m impressed by the speed with which Finnair complied with European air passengers’ rights rules. In cases where a technical fault is responsible for a delay, the carrier is obliged to pay €600 for long-haul trips where the traveller arrives four hours or more behind schedule.

Finnair has also behaved well with the correct use of the voucher option. The airline offered you the choice of the cash you are due, or a voucher worth one-third more. It contrasts with what some airlines have done in the past, providing €600 in vouchers first and only reluctantly paying cash to people who insist on their rights. (That is just one of many transgressions of the regulations that seem to go unpunished by the regulators.)

Allow me to suggest how, at the risk of sounding uncharitable, Finnair could have done even better – if, along with that China Southern ticket, you had been urged to avail of the free wifi at Osaka’s beautiful airport to file a claim immediately so the money was in your account by the time you got home.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder