Comfort Class on charters (A330 J-class)
This is a description of the Comfort Class (CC) service that AY offers on their A330-operated charter flights.
The A330 is a longhaul plane for scheduled flights. This season, AY operates charter flights to Las Palmas, Phuket and Krabi with A330 equipment. On these routes, AY uses only OH-LTS and OH-LTT, which have 32 lie-flat business class seats. These seats are sold as Comfort Class on the charters.
The lie-flat seats are better for sleeping but I find the older angled lie-flat seats better for lounging, reading etc. Moreover, on these two planes there is a big difference in personal space; 2A, 4A and 6A offer a huge amount of personal space for a solo traveller whereas eg 1D, 3D, 5D, 7D offer far less.
I flew AY to LPA last week. There was a €75 surcharge for CC on way (€150 return). This is how it worked:
HEL-LPA:
At HEL, there is nowadays OLCI for charters. Checked in online. There was no choice of seats, you had to take what the system offered you. I got 7L, which was okay. I don't know if I could have changed the seat by going to a check-in desk or calling the e-services desk.
At the airport, there were no dedicated CC desks. Priority luggage tags were put on luggage. I only had hand luggage on the outbound, so I didn’t go to the desk. The AA PLT card gives you access to the AY lounge at HEL even if flying on a charter flight, so I went to the lounge to wait for the flight.
The plane had flown in from BKK and was a little delayed. At gate 31X, the only one that they can use for both schengen and non-schengen flights, boarding was by seat numbers. CC was boarded first. No problem with the hand luggage even if it exceeded the 5 kg limit with quite a few kilos.
No pre-departure drinks on board. FAs placed passengers’ jackets and coats in a closet. The pillows and blankets were the lime green small ones used on charter flights (similar to Y blankets & pillows).
Meal service began about one hour after take-off with hot towels. From the drink trolley, you could choose soft drinks, beer and wine free of charge. Other drinks were charged. Paper and plastic cups. (On charter fligts in Y, they charge for all drinks, including water.) After the drinks, the meal service began.
Even if the flight departed 8:20 am, the meal was lunch, not breakfast. Very much appreciated. Everything was offered at the same time on a large tray, real china, Ultima Thule glasses and stainless steel cutlery. Quality resembled a good European J meal: cold-smoked salmon for starters, pork medallions in choron sauce with garlic potatoes for main course and a cake for dessert. Non-heated bread rolls were offered, too. Quite a good meal, actually, and far better than I had expected.
Stand arrival at LPA about 15 min behind scheduled arrival time. CC didn’t get to deplane first, they let passengers off the plane at LPA regardless of class. The priority tagged luggage arrived on the belt among the first bags.
LPA-HEL:
No possibility to check in online. Dedicated CC desk at the airport. We were a party of three on two different reservations. We made a point in arriving at check-in relatively late to avoid the bussed-in charter crowds, and at 1 hour 15 min before take-off we got the three last seats, all in different rows. Obviously, they hadn’t preselected seats for anyone. Not very nice. I got 1D which has to be one of the worst J seats on the plane. No priority tags on luggage.
Departure was from a stand so we were bussed to the aircraft. No preboarding/bussing for CC.
Inflight service similar to the outbound flight. The catering came from HEL; modified mini-size toast skagen for starters, chicken breast with risotto for main course (one of the tastiest airplane chickens I’ve ever had, didn’t resemble rubber at all!) and cake for dessert.
The only minus was the arrival at HEL. We arived about 10 min before scheduled arrival time and it seemed that no one was there to meet the plane. The arrival gate was 36 (31X was occupied by an Air Finland plane) and when the ground crew arrived, there was a lot of confusion about how to let us out of the plane. The purser had informed us before arrival that baggage claim would exceptionally be from hall 2B (non-schengen). This was then changed to 2A (schengen) and then back again to 2B. Finally, after a 25 min wait on board, they decided to let everyone deplane not by jetbridge but by stairs at the very back of the plane. This meant that CC deplaned last. We were then bussed to the non-schengen arrivals hall 2B, where the bags arrived after a relatively short wait. However, the plane landed 21:56 and we exited the terminal 22:50, which isn’t very efficient considering that HEL is a small airport.
All in all, I would say that CC is very good value for money. For only €75 on a six-hour flight you get a comfortable seat with a large amount of personal space and legroom compared to Y and especially to the cramped charter 757 that AY uses, plus a very nice meal and you get to bypass some of the lines. For this price, I would recommend CC strongly. It is a real pity that LPA will be a 757-destination again next winter.