AY vs BA Y...
 

AY = Finnair, BA = British Airways (of course), Y = economy - just for clarity!

Just done JFK-HEL on AY (A330-300)
Clearly as gold you get some benefits, but not expecting much in Y. However, default seat was the bulkhead - silly amount of room - BA would have put another row in! To add to that, despite a full flight, I had THE empty seat next to me. So much, much more room than BA.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a514996f07.jpg


A warm greeting as a gold member - genuine too. Food was okay (to poor) - relatively little. Salad was minute, 'chicken' was fatty and tasteless, mash was like crumble (!). Cheese for biscuits was thinner than the wrapper it came in. On the plus side, the wine was poured individually from a proper bottle, and we were offered a small bottle of sparkling wine. (The red wine was somewhat chilled though).

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...228035f0e9.jpg


Breakfast was a bigger offering than BA - but no better... .

IFE was a little poor - no real problem for me. BUT as gold you do get 1hr of FREE internet on board - although I couldn't get that to work... :-(

so, roominess and welcome good. Food not so.

I did HEL-BKK/SIN-HEL recently and was very impressed with AY. I was moved out of an exit row and into a block of 4 for myself going out and was met in the airbridge and given an immigration fast track voucher. Coming home on the 350 I had the unlimited legroom seat by door 3R and like you had the only free seat on the aircraft next to me. Thats as BA silver.

The food on both flights was OK, the blueberry juice is superb and I paid just under £400 for JER-MAN-HEL-BKK//SIN-LHR

...that blueberry juice....