Are we still posting here? Is the pandemic over (yet)?

Anyway, I had a chance to finally take the new black card out for a spin outside the Schengen zone, thus enabling me to try out the NOSE Business lounge as well as the Platinum Wing. Some impressions from this trip detailed below:

XXX-HEL (A72)
-L/F very high, around 90%
-priority boarding enforced
-seat block working
-no Platinum greeting or talk
-"salads" advertised over the announcement as available for purchase, but in reality Finnish alcohol laws prevented them from actually being served at the early morning hour
-thus, only tea as the Platinum drink
-deplaning a free-for-all, short walk to the terminal

A loooong layover
-sampled first the NOSE Business lounge right after a morning departure wave (it seemed) as majority of tables had used dishes from breakfast on them, but no staff around to pick them up and clean up the tables
-had the first "salad" of the day around 1000 once the NOSE lounge bar service started and a few more while waiting for the PW to open
-once the PW opened, I headed straight to the sauna which was nice and warm, grabbing a beer (or two) with me from the bar on my way
-some nice after-sauna cocktail from the excellent (FT famous) Cuban barman and a pleasant chat as well
-sampled the new July a la carte menu (even the staff were still getting used to the new items, many tables still had the old June menu on them)
-relaxed for a while with another excellent cocktail, waiting for boarding time
-food was ok-ish, much better than at the Schengen-side "canteen" but not as impressive as I had thought

HEL-LHR, A350, J
-at the gate boarding groups 1-3 were ushered to their own holding pen and the rest to a different one, which both eventually poured into the same jetbridge
-priority boarding was however enforced as the doors to the jetbridge opened first to the priority side and remained closed for the others
-a "not warm, not cold" welcome at door 2L and directed to my seat (but not a platinum greeting as such)
-I was able to hand my jacket to the passing F/A to be put to the closet for the flight (from the look on her face and her comment,she seemed to rather surprised that somebody would want to give their jacket away as there are "perfectly good coathooks at the seat, sir")
-no PDB and no platinum talk, however the crew was attentive and one F/A brought my food out before anyone else as I had commented that I'd probably like to just take a nap (she however convinced me to have "at least a bite to eat" and promised to bring the food out quickly)
-service started after take off with the hot towels and a drinks round, followed by the meal service (salmon starter, beef stew with potatoes, onions and beans as well as a chocolate muffin for dessert)
-drink refills seemed to be frequent, but by this time I was already snoozing away, having had my tray also cleared before anyone else's
-upon arrival, "the hoardes" were kept back by the F/As so that J-class could deboard via 2L before the others
-a quick march to UK immigration where the EU passports are still allowed to join the UK passport lines and at least in theory use the E-gates as well (in my case I had to go talk to an officer but was through in all in all in less than five minutes)
-as I was HBO, it was easy and quick to then jump on the tube and whisk away to central London

And the return:

LHR-HEL, A350, J
-arrived veeeryy early at LHR in order to be prepared for the worst chaos at security as well as to have time to do some lounge hopping
-priority/fast track security was maybe 10 minutes total but the regular line seemed to be a rather hectic zoo
-started my salad journey at QF where I'd just missed the breakfast a la carte service
-then onto the fabulous CX (proper) First Class lounge for an extended a la carte lunch (I think I had six different dishes from their menu in total, plus plenty of salads...)
-popped over to the BA G/F for "afternoon tea" but was rather disappointed in the hectic atmosphere and a lack of "proper" table service (you had to order via an app and the "faceless" waiters whisked your order to your table without saying a word).
-back to CX for afternoon tea, round 2 and soon it was boarding time already
-only one large holding pen at the gate area from which all passengers funneled in to one jetbridge
-made my way to the front of the line once it seemed that priority boarding started (announcements were impossible to hear) and was let on the plane among the first people
-a standard greeting at 2L once again and some friendly chat with the FA stationed near my seat (maybe this was a platinum talk, but no specific/explicit reference to the status was made)
-rest of the service very similar to the outbound (no PDB, service started with a hot towel, followed by a round of drinks, then the food (vendance starter, beef lasagne and a chocolate cookie for dessert) and drink refills and later tea/coffee)
-upon arrival a quick deboarding via 2L with the hoardes being held back once again

HEL-XXX, A72
-uneventful standard domestic hop except that the L/F was an even 100%
-priority boarding strictly enforced (people being turned away from the gate and told to wait for their group number being called)
-naturally no seat block with such L/F
-managed to finally get a salad as the Platinum drink on a domestic flight
-some type of "welcome" was mumbled when asking for my drink order (still not a proper greeting/talk in my books)
-deplaning a free-for-all

A350 is a nice thing to have for a 2,5 hour flight to London, especially while seated in the pointy end. Curious why AMS gets only a cold meal even though the flight time is similar. The PW and especially the PW version of the manned bar is really nice. The food offering however pales in comparison with CX First at LHR. Also, CX only has a manned bar at the business class side of their lounge at LHR T3. The staff would, however, bring you any drink you ordered (although rather slowly) no matter where you were sitting in the First section of the lounge. For once, I felt that I did not get the short end of the stick with the CX lounge being also the "official" lounge printed on the boarding pass. I understand that AMS is not a OW hub but the Aspire lounge there is really rather tame in comparison to even the BA G/F at LHR T3, not to mention the CX F-lounge (section).

All in all, it was nice to stretch the legs of the black card out a bit. With the ticket prices being what they are at the moment, requalifying does not seem likely for me. Thus, I've got to enjoy this while I can.

Cheers,

Tseta