The cheaper AY flights normally book into I or D and are full tier point earning, but watch for problems getting credit ex BKK it is best to make sure you give your BAEC details to the agency making the booking and verify this with manage my booking. You can also use manage my booking to locate it too if you have problems. Without getting the booking ref in the system you are looking at painful problems with BA sorting out the miles and tier points.

I agree with Swanhunter in the main.

AY wine selection is great and they carry a super little vintage champagne that I liked enough to have bought on my frequent trips through HEL. The wine and menu variation is not good though with effectively a "light meal" service both ways for dinner. This hasn't changed at all in the last 8 months to my knowledge.

Seats are OK definitely better than WT+ (but then I have only ever sat in WT+ for a few minutes as an experiment). Limited support and regular problems with full recline mean sleeping isn't easy though, especially when combined with galley noise and the noisiness of the MD-11.

To and from BKK the flight timings are pretty good and not a lot worse than direct (I think with the addition of HKG and SIN it becomes a lot worse). HEL does however become Hell on the way back, waiting for the SH connection and then enduring 3 hrs + of cramped seating first thing in the morning.

I flew AY return about 6 times on this route in the last 8 months mainly due to the cost/flexibility issues (depending on who you book via the AY fares can be highly flexible and price down to £1200). You just can't get this kind of flexibility at a reasonable price with BA, and flying on business (albeit my own business) I just cannot afford not to have flexibility.

Using AY works particularly well as a trip nesting "wrapper" around a Asia-LHR-Asia itinerary, which gives much lower prices combined with full flexibility. and the average cost of 2 return tickets becomes very attractive. That said certainly out to BKK QF is now priced very reasonably on a skybed aircraft and I am switching away from AY and intending to use QF for trip nesting purposes, worth the extra £700 in my opinion and less tier and miles than AY(but experience will tell).

Faced with a choice between J on AY and J on EK, AY wins every time.