This year’s DXB season started yesterday (for me; flights started earlier this week). OH-LTN is assigned to DXB, the only A330 still featuring the old configuration. Large J cabin and no PE sold.

I was in Y, in row 21. It’s been a long time since I’ve flown a longhaul flight in Y, but it was surprisingly bearable. The seat reclined quite a lot and was decently padded, legroom was ample. No pillow, of course, as pax like to bring their own (haha), but there was a blanket.

My expectations about the meal were as low as possible, yet AY managed to disappoint. ”We’re celebrating our 100th anniversary and are super proud to be Nordic and let it show” translated as a minuscule portion of some Indian vegetarian goo and a suspsicious cardboard ramekin of quinoa. The ”dessert” was a small chocolate wafer.


AY Y lunch HEL-DXB

AY Y lunch HEL-DXB (to avoid misunderstandings, this is what the food looked like before it was eaten)

Wifi worked after the first reboot, FAs were friendly, I received my Lumo snack and drink. The prearrival meal consisted of an AY branded Alku toffee. Yay.

The worst part, which left a sour taste in my mouth as I hate being lied to, was the captain’s announcement before take off. He apologized for our delay and explained that this was due to the aircraft coming in late to HEL from the previous flight, which in turn was due to some technical problems that had to be fixed at the outstation, and the turnaround time there was not long enough to complete this job in time.

It all sounds good, but the captain forgot that in today’s world, pax can find out a whole lot of information online. This is what really happened: OH-LTN landed 50 min ahead of schedule from DXB on 02NOV. It was supposed to stay in HEL until my departure to DXB on 03NOV at 13:35. But unexpectedly it got sent to DEL in the evening of 02NOV, from where it was scheduled to return 03NOV at 14:10, but arrived about 40 min early. As far as I can tell, OH-LTN experienced no delays and no technical problems, like the captain claimed.

After an impressive turnaround of 90 minutes at HEL, we departed for DXB 90 min behind schedule and landed some 80 min behind schedule, which is not the end of the world, but I would appreciate the truth, or, if that’s too much to ask, then just a simple sorry with no false explanations.