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Old Jun 2, 2012, 4:05 am
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WilcoRoger
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: HEL
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Originally Posted by helahela
To be brutally honest - I'm done with AY/BA. I would still prefer them given an option, but to be brutally honest:
a) they don't have a decent enough coverage in Eastern Europe.
b) the service compared to Turkish Airlines is just not even close to being acceptable
c) i don't like the guessing game and if i'm hungry, I'll just pay SK some money for it...
d) the morning flight TLL-HEL and the midnight return HEL-TLL is just always fully booked 4 weeks+ ahead, which makes it not usable.

Looks like - SAS gold in a couple of months and good-bye Oneworld Sapphire.
a) ex-HEL you have WAW, BUD and PRG (?) with a seasonal LJU or ZAG thrown in. I think OTP was slashed as was KBP. OW pax to the Balkans really miss MA. The only real option is LH (sometimes SK as well), because OS slashed it's direct HEL-VIE service (VIE used to be my second airport, transiting to many, many destinations)

b) flew Turkish only a few times, were good. Very good for M-East connections (I wouldn't venture as far as flying intercontinentl with them, due to the location of IST, mainly) But who knows?

c) I don't really get this obsession with food on s/h. I don't eat on trains or buses, why should I eat on a 1-2 hour flight? Especially when the food quality is what it is on most airlines. Usually I just say when flying Y and seeing those horrendous sandwiches "just a coffee please"

d) Estonian is back on the HEL-TLL route ^ And of course you can't beat Copterline for fun and fast pre-flight security. Only thing is that HEL is 15 mins away, while HEN* is at least an hour in the morning.

* yes, the Hernesaari barrack has its own IATA code

As for SK - the grass is always greener on the other side But they have 100% earning on all booking classes on own metal, so a big ^ If you're not aiming specifically for AY Gold, than it's quite possible to have both SK EBG AND OW Sapphire (BAEC comes to mind, but AB can be worth a deeper look)
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