aster

Silver level cardholders flying in any class of travel on AY will still go to the old lounge, right?

What about paid-business travellers flying on AY with no OW status? Old lounge or new?

remymartin

Old and old, afaik.

SPBanker

According to the information we now have, the old one. Which of course should have less pax now.

teemuflyer

I'm excited about the new lounge, and by coincidence, might be arriving in HEL on July 1st and flying back home later in July, so looking forward to trying it out.

I'm not as keen on the look though. Finnish design seems very incremental from the Alvar Aalto days when you only see it 2-3 times a year over decades.

But I do hope the food and beverage options are upgraded to fit the moniker of a "Premium" lounge.

And just a question to all, who actually has time to do a Sauna at the airport, unless you have a long layover for a connection? I'm assuming this lounge will not qualify as an Arrivals Lounge, so mostly handling departing pax.

aster

Thanks guys. Interesting approach, which is very different from SQ. In SIN they'll keep apart *G travellers flying in econ from those with paid-for-biz (regardless of any status).

So basically the division is between what class of travel you're flying in, and not status.

remymartin

The concept name was OH-LGG lounge, but they apparently renamed it. Seriously though, it might be best suited for locals and pax whose flights are delayed

OH-LGG

Hahaaa.

Normal procedures for departing from HEL are that they announce "Passenger LGG, gate is closing, please hurry up, this is absolute final call".

So, as a local resident, I dont have time to spend in HEL lounges. I have 5 km to Airport so If I need sauna prior my flight, I use my own.

intuition

I think Finnair have developed a LGG-tracker, to know if he is on his way or not. This way he doesn't need to check in.

About the sauna (and the previous spa): Yes the trouble is that AY focus on short connections, so you rarely have time to use it. Personally, I sometimes booked a longer connection when arriving home from Japan, to use the old spa. It was always a good use of a sunday afternoon.

LoungeEnthusiast

I think this is quite a logical move from AY; business class lounges are normally nothing to write home about everywhere, and since AY does not have first class (nor first class lounges), this is the way to offer loyal customers something more... And this also serves well towards partner airlines' loyal customers. I think there are good reasons to separate golds and plats (and saphires and emeralds) from paid business pax who do not travel with OW airlines frequently.

LoungeEnthusiast

I was wondering about the same... But I do think that Plats can use this lounge as an arrivals lounge in the same manner as they reportedly have been able to use the old one.

JnsV

Will I be able to use this lounge if arriving from non-Shengen and transiting to a Shengen flight? I am flying BUD-HEL-SIN and v.v. in the summer and my layover is much longer on the inbound leg.

remymartin

They'll play the "but sir, the other lounge is much closer" card. Just tell them you prefer this one.

aster

Not sure I like this approach compared to the SQ one. So basically someone who flies a lot of econ and achieved status this way can get into the best lounge, but someone who wants to pay for business class on AY (even the most expensive fare out there) has no chance of getting into the better lounge simply because they aren't "regulars?"

intuition

I guess the logic is that status as frequent flyer somehow have been earned through many tickets, so that the total revenue or profit per person is higher for the FF despite him being on a deep discount ticket today.

But I can agree to some extent that the logic to give the J flyer the "worse" lounge is strange. The limpering logic is even more apparent at AY outstations, where business pax get invited to the worst dungeons of the airport and the status holders can go to first class lounge on a 100€ ticket.

One solution would be that status would count as "one credit" and each step of the fare class as one. Econ ticket (ie one credit) alone does not earn lounge access but:

Business ticket (2 credits) equals econ ticket + status (1+1 credit) and earns you business class lunge.

First ticket (3 credits) equals business ticket + status (2+1 credit) and earns you first class lounge and in AY's case the HEL Premium lounge.


Not likely to happen, as some of it is built into plat level, but if you started an alliance from scratch I guess this would be a better solution (to motivate FF to keep buying more expensive tickets).

The system of today; it is exactly like someone asked me at the Helsinki-do when I said I flew business on the CPH-HEL-route; why would you ever do such a thing when you hold plat card?!? There is virtually no extra benefits.

intuition

BTW, I guess they are doing this to relieve the "via" lounge. I really hope they have the statistics done right - so the number of Gold + plat + emerald + sapphire are less than the statusless J flyers. Because the premium lounge will be quite small and will not be very premium if flooded.
Hehe, maybe the statusless J flyer will be the winners this time