I know this has been discussed before but the more I think of it the more I have to agree with other posters both here and on other forums as well.
AY lounges at HEL airport are simply the worst home base lounges any Oneworld airline is offering as of today (I must admit that I have no personal experience about Royal Jordanian or Malev home base lounges after they have joined OW, though). Finnair HEL so called premium lounge is:
1. way too small to cope with the current Asian traffic
2. offering only very basic amenities (only one shower, for example and no usable internet)
3. offering very poor food and drink selection
4. staff is (often) totally incompetent to offer full FF services (like rebooking or seat selection services, for example, which are among the basic things a FF lounge should be able to do at carriers home base as I think of it)
The other AY lounges at HEL do not even deserve to be commented, IMHO.
I would like to know what non Finnish FFs (and of course Finnish as well )think about the AY lounge situation?
Last edited by NoWindowSeat; Jan 4, 08 at 3:14 am.
Programs: CX, OZ, KE (+AY, JL), Shangri-La, Hilton
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I personally will do my best to avoid transiting longhaul at HEL until the new extension is completed in 2009. There should be a new lounge opening then, AFAIK.
Not that I mind the present Silver Wings one in Schengenland. You get basic and pretty healthy food options plus yoghurt and fresh fruits. Wine selection is poor and other booze missing but coffee and juice offerings nice. The rest type chairs are comfy for reading (good newspaper selection) and resting, never tried wifi (is there a free one?) And the best part is the view. Major minus only for the lack of showers and the prison like design of the toilets.
As for the facilities, in my opinion not only the lounges are lacking in the non-Schengen area, but also the restaurant and shops there suck. I think I saw some short interview of the person responsible for the restaurants there and think his concept is totally wrong. What they need is not upscale wine tasting places like he mentioned but a pan-Asian food court.
Also the high profile shops like Stockmann should move there from Schengen. Are the people running the airport really competent in a commercial sense?
In my opinion the funniest thing is that with a AY business class ticket on AY metal you apparently only gain access to Gateway or Gateway Fresh lounges, if you don't have status with AY. It's an easy outsourcing of less significant clients for AY, but I somehow feel it's rather unwelcoming.
The non-Schengen side would really appreciate some decent shopping: we recently hurried through border control (took the security at hall 4 to avoid queues) just to be reminded that there are no convenience stores available beyond. Just establish a single small Ärrä to the international side...
Programs: CX, OZ, KE (+AY, JL), Shangri-La, Hilton
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The "premium" longhaul lounge should be accessible with AY longhaul biz ticket.
from the AY website:
Finnair Long Haul Lounge
P, G, BC (long haul)
Finnair Plus Platinum and Gold members regardless of travel class. Business class customers on Finnair long-haul flights.
Non-Schengen terminal, transit hall, next to gate 33
The domestic lounge has the best sandwiches, otherwise it's pretty worn out. It should offer at least beer IMO.
Silver Wings is the top AY lounge with good views but food and drink offerings are poor.
On the other hand, the sole Star option (=SAS business lounge) is not much better except that it offers free wireless and better reading material.
Golden Gate had better food options when it was for top-tier members only. Now it is nothing to write home about. IIRC it's practically the same lounge as Gateway lounge nowadays. Which is though where I have found the most room usually.
Gateway Tower is small and crowded but I think it still offers spirits.
The non-Schengen lounges should really be updated and made to something special in order to encourage transit (but so should the whole AY long haul concept). Now they are quite sterile and IIRC neither is very good with food/drink either (over a year since my last visit to the non-Schengen lounges).
I personally like the SK lounge in HEL, although the experiences are mainly based on 6am visits, when the availability/selection of beer, wine or booze isn't really my concern (thus can't comment on those). At least the location next to SK and LH gates is good.
Are the people running the airport really competent in a commercial sense?
Actually they might even be:
AY & OneWorld check-in is in hall 2 with large planes leaving from non-schengen gates and 28 and above. On the other hand Star Alliance (run by SK) has check-in at hall 3 with many flight leaving at gates say 18-27.
As most passengers use the access to the air side next to the check-in, a lot of pax are squeezed through the "Boulevard" shopping area. Someone might be tempted to buy something on the pass through.
(The real reason naturally being the facts that AY wants to be located in the modern part and non-Schengen has to be separated.)
I personally like the SK lounge in HEL, although the experiences are mainly based on 6am visits, when the availability/selection of beer, wine or booze isn't really my concern (thus can't comment on those). At least the location next to SK and LH gates is good.
There's no booze in the SK lounge, only wine/beer/bubbly. This is normal for their business lounges.
Programs: CX, OZ, KE (+AY, JL), Shangri-La, Hilton
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ocha
Actually they might even be:
AY & OneWorld check-in is in hall 2 with large planes leaving from non-schengen gates and 28 and above. On the other hand Star Alliance (run by SK) has check-in at hall 3 with many flight leaving at gates say 18-27.
As most passengers use the access to the air side next to the check-in, a lot of pax are squeezed through the "Boulevard" shopping area. Someone might be tempted to buy something on the pass through.
Yep, but Asian pax returning home and others (like myself) forced to get loads of presents for friends and biz partners would prefer a good variety of shops near the longhaul gates. Plus to catch last minute reading material (Monocle! etc.)
Also, as mentioned before, the single restaurant in the non-Schengen section could do a lot more sales if they would operate a food court like often found in Asia. Let;s say one counter for Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Thai food each plus some sort of separate Finnish (Lapland?) theme restaurant. At present it looks more like a bus station canteen.
Yep, but Asian pax returning home and others (like myself) forced to get loads of presents for friends and biz partners would prefer a good variety of shops near the longhaul gates. Plus to catch last minute reading material (Monocle! etc.)
--
At present it looks more like a bus station canteen.
You're absolutely right. The few times I've had the chance (or unfortune) to go through non-Schengen, I've noticed the same. Actually I feel that Finavia should have already started building a long haul terminal, with large food court, shops etc. Currently the HEL concept is in a way a modified version (v1.5) of a airport, where most transit passengers were transiting domestic to international and charter passengers dominated the shops and restaurants.
In order to stay in topic, the action items would be:
1. Update lounges, long haul
2. Add shops & restaurants (food court), long haul
3. Update short haul lounges
Location: Portland OR Double Emerald (QF and AA), DL PM/MM, Starwood Plat
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Presumably AY never viewed the airport facilities as a problem or high priority, as they have a short transfer time. Whenever I've used HEL as a hub it has been 30 min between flights -- very convenient and effective as a hub. Maybe the lack of ground facilities was deliberate to keep pax from loitering and missing their flights! Someone at AY can take credit for that plan.
AY lounges at HEL airport are simply the worst home base lounges any Oneworld airline is offering as of today (I must admit that I have no personal experience about Royal Jordanian or Malev home base lounges after they have joined OW, though).
Actually have you been the the DFW AA Admirals Club. The fact that you get shi* all for food and have to pay for drinks etc.... Also don't even have a F Class lounge in its main hub.
Actually have you been the the DFW AA Admirals Club. The fact that you get shi* all for food and have to pay for drinks etc.... Also don't even have a F Class lounge in its main hub.
Yep, not to mention AA charges their top tiers for lounge access on N.A. tickets...their way is just different so they should actually be excluded here totally when comparing FF lounges as AA lounges are actually primarily membership based...
Programs: LH/LX Sen, was SQ QPP4, BA Gold/Emerald, HHonors Gold, OK, SPG Gold, Goldpoints Silver
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Lounge average - airport overall below ...
I've been using the AY non-schengen lounge (long-haul/emerald section) several times over the last two years. I think it's average in comparison to other European lounges, including in BA in LHR/LGW and IB in MAD T4S. In my view food is much better at AY/HEL than elsewhere. I agree, the only one shower is pretty ridiculous for an airline advertising their long-haul connections. Lounge staff is average, usually friendly but unable to help with more difficult issues.
The major downside of HEL in my view is the airport operation itself. Waiting times at transit security are always (!) much longer than on a bad day at LHR, not to mention MAD ... and then the buses: They are either not there when pax disembark, unable to locate the bus gate at the terminal (it was really a tragedy, fortunately a local pax could give directions!), unheated at minus 10 degrees, driving you to the wrong plane. Unfortunately none (!) of about four or five bus transfers went as supposed. That's extremely poor.
So if I avoid HEL certainly not because of AY or their lounge, but because of the highly incompetent and always chaotic terminal operations.
)think about the AY lounge situation?
