All in all, the comments offered in this post were fairly accurate. The AY long haul lounge seemed to have two sections, as I was directed to the "First Class" section even though FC service was not offered on the flight. The drink selection was good, the food selection was not - mainly chips, vegetables, dip, and a salad.

On board, the seats were acceptable but we all look forward to the new seats. I got a kick out of being handed, with some importance, the typical pair of slippers and, later, the eyemask for sleeping. No other amenities. Entertainment was via a personal DVD player, with a reasonable selection of movies and a small screen.

The wine was good, the food OK.

The service was fine, but unfortunately it wasn't from one of those blondes/brunettes that spotwelder fondly remembers. My guy was over 200 lbs and bald, but he weighed less than his female counterpart handling the other side. Counterbalance I guess.

I was able to sleep without much trouble and arrived without complication. It is far from the CX experience, but given the time and money savings, I would do this again.

AY's strategy of concentrating on the Asian market seems to be working, as I saw a lot of Chinese and Japanese pax in the long haul section of the airport. But some staff training seems in order, as I saw a few incidents on AY intra-European flights between AY employees and Asian customers that demonstrated insensitivity to the language difficulties faced.