Originally Posted by
intuition
The limited choice within AY is a good point and for me personally that problem has been growing on me a few years now. First the japan joint venture (which only meant higher prices and longer layovers so Japan destinations on AY are now a no-go for me ) and then the "one new destination every year" promise (not sure they even delivered on that) where not one single destination has been announced to my liking. So despite the growing fleet, the AY network feels more limited to me now than ever before!
I personally have the same issue as I mentioned elsewhere here in 2016 - the network just means my trips would be way too Asia centric and more specifically Sino centric. I do get the strategy AY has chosen and it's a fine one for their business, but it's hard to do anything else in terms on longhaul expansion then - not just talking about FT'ers chasing status. For instance AY has a quite lackluster approach to North America. Well, at least the A350-900 will be doing LAX/SFO. Then we have destinations such as HAV that are operated as the fleet permits. I just see a strategy that has one strength and the rest is a mixture of some randomness. From the prospective of attaining OW FFP status, it means your status attaining choices are quite limited to destinations based on the Asian strategy of AY. If I want to do e.g. South America or Africa for my status chasing leisure trips (holiday combined with raking in status flights), then AY+ isn't just a good option. I do get credits from the OW flights, but it's not optimal without the AY bonus.
Originally Posted by
intuition
My problem with BAEC is that I don't particularly want to fly BA. The network is great, but if you can't see yourself flying BA, what would be the point?
Indeed, if one wants to avoid BA, but also IB flights count as the four status qualifying flights.
Originally Posted by
intuition
And there-in lies the problem for me, I guess. AY+ offers almost nothing for a revenue J flyer. It basically just takes all the normal J perks and hand them to the Y flyers. If you're already in J cabin, tier doesn't matter much. If there was a F cabin, a real F lounge, a dedicated top-notch CS, well then there would be a case. But the pinnacle of AY top tier treatment is a 2 minute ride in a Mercedes on the tarmac of Sjöskog flygstation. That is quite telling. I'd much rather walk down the jetbridgde to a F cabin once in a while.
You actually get to my old gripe with AY+ and status recognition for their own premium tiers. Pretty much underlines why I feel any OWE status will do the trick for me with any of my AY flights. IMO Platinum and Lumo are quite lacklusters compared to LATAM Black and Black Signature or Iberia Plus Infinita and Infinita Prime. It's just Finnish mediocrity written all over it. Like or hate my choice of wording, but like I've said in the past, AY could do immensely better with just emphasizing things such as personal approach (heck, even BA is better at that).
Restating my opinion from 2016: you could politely offer PDBs, magazines and what not. Is that SOP with AY for premium tiers? Seems like it isn't. Should it be? Well, if you want to grow from being just a HEL centric national flag carrier and actually be something (more than using Marimekko stuff on a global scale), then you need to amp up your service. I don't think AY needs a three class service to match the competition, but do something else than just cater the corporate wage slaves that have Platinum status and use their hard earned (i.e. corporate policy dictates flights in Y) freebie vouchers for the occasional J upgrades. It's all fine and dandy with those vouchers and I have no problem with them, but it doesn't stand up to the competition in the long run, if that's the real perk being Platinum. Sure, it probably works for the Finnish market until hell freezes, but there's those other markets as well and there you have competitors. I'd be interested in experiencing a year of Lumo (some wierd perversion of mine?
) as it's now executed and see does it really make any true difference for one.
BAEC Gold is nice, because you do get a dedicated level based phone number to call. Those with GGL get even better service than that. I know BA isn't superb in terms of BAEC or as a carrier, but their network is on a whole different level than AY and with the possibility of using Avios for AA and IB upgrades, there's a lot more one can do with Avios than AY's status miles (or should I say kilometres).