Crampedin13A

Although it's an early flight to connect to longhaul from LHR I find AY831 in J perfect because I can actually relax in the flat bed as opposed to being in CE or any other shorthaul biz. I find the A350 is a very quiet plane so the 3 hours pass by very quickly. Plus those extra TP are always welcome.

florens

AFAIK the LHR bound plane is always the one coming in from HKG. The turnaround time is 2h (scheduled), as it is scheduled to land a 6.00am and depart to LHR at 8.00am.

IFE Wizard

The flight last Saturday, arrived at LHR some 2 hours late. The captain gave the reason as, the aircraft was fuelled for Singapore and then had its schedule changed to the LHR run. This meant that the aircraft would have been too heavy to land at LHR so it had to be "de-fuelled" (his word).

I thought this was rather bizarre. I had images of engineers with tubes syphoning the fuel out of the aircraft into gallon cans.

bhbloke

And the A350 arrival into HEL often results in being parked up around the back of the hangars and a bus transfer, as I assume it doesn't head off East for another few hours.

florens

Or rather because not enough non-schengen gates are available (outbound wave in the late afternoon).

Oxon Flyer

FWIW, other than the Saturday noted above, timekeeping has been good recently.

hungry

I am looking forward to this trip more and more as it nears.

I have also secured enough tier points thanks to this trip to retain silver for another year. My TP collection year ends in May 2018. I think I may struggle to retain for the year after that though.

On the Finnair A350 me and the Mrs have seats 1D and 1H. Are these seats good ones for a couple travelling ?

On the way back we are on normal flight as the A350 is too early. And we have got 1A&C (I love how you don't have to wait till just before the flight with Finnair like you do with BA to get row 1 in short haul Bizzo).

Also we are staying at the PK Ilmarine Hotel. It was quite cheap but looks ok. Does anyone have any experience of this hotel?

Also how far is it by cab and how much is it expected to cost from the airport?

Thanks again all

Fly_By_Wire

1D/H are fine for a couple (in fact me and Mrs FBW are in those seats this morning). You have to lean forward a little to gaze longingly into each other's eyes though.
Otherwise I've found window and aisle to be good for conversation too. No real bad uns I don't think, 1A only has one window if that matters to you.

A cab into town is around EUR10, uber is cheaper. About 10-15 mins tops.

Enjoy the experience!!

Fitch

Uber works well in Tallinn I've found up until about midnight, when all the cars seem to vanish until breakfast time !

The receptionist at my hotel the other week at 04:30 whistled up a cab for me in the traditional way but had to try 3 different numbers. Faintly nerve-wracking when you're starting a six-sector journey on thr 06:05 TLL-HEL

rapidex

Not far off.The engineers need to obtain an empty bowser which is not always that simple.The fuel cannot be put back into the hydrant refueling system.There may be some delay as the available bowsers are often tasked with other duties,hence the delays associated with defueling.

hungry

Great thanks

duvin

There is no hydrant fueling system at HEL, just normal fueling trucks.

rapidex

I was not suggesting there was,I was describing the process and where the fuel goes,not being specific to HEL.Defueled fuel cannot be returned to hydrant systems.

RockyRobin

I thought these high TP TLL runs had stopped?

rapidex

Only for the purchase of new tickets.