Originally Posted by miikka
Anyone else thinking about the switch (or going to test other airlines for a flight or two)?
Well... I have been giving this a lot of thought during this fall. I will probably need to start booking my flights for next year soon, so it is about time to decide if I want to change.
I don't think that switching to any other *A FFP would make enough difference to be worth the trouble, since I would still be flying on the same aircraft with the same (lack of) service. Therefore, if I switch, I am looking into switching to a different alliance as well. Since I consider HEL my home base, I have much more options than I would have from TMP.
Since my company has a worldwide contract with AA, AAdvantage might be the most logical route - I might even be able to score some kind of status match, and the qualification levels for PLT and EXP seem to be lower than for the same levels in Finnair Plus. However, trying to learn the rules of a new FFP does not look like a trivial undertaking.
Of course Skyteam would also be possible... but then I would be always changing planes in AMS (ouch) or CDG (double-ouch) to get anywhere.
If Blue1 started flying HEL-LHR-HEL (or even TMP-LHR-TMP), I might think about using them as "the bus" as you suggested, and continuing from there on UA or SQ, depending on the direction. I had very good time on the LHR-JFK flight in UA C last October - almost as good as in SK C.
It was my first op-upgrade ever on UA.