TheFlyingCyclist

ceej123

TheFlyingCyclist

NvT1115

onobond

Wiki updated for you

sunshinebob

How expensive is the bar , spiteful or not?

Doing a OTP to PHX with a double shuffle in HEL...

florens

NvT1115

NvT1115

NvT1115

sunshinebob

Thanks... Arriving too late both nights for lounge access unfortunatly..

Its collateral damage with the 1040 TP's.. Hey ho....

snuffi

So I was on the aforementioned very busy BA799 HEL-LHR on 10/02, and indeed CE went back to row 12. This was quite interesting because the curtain can only go back to between rows 9 and 10 – not sure if this is normal for an Airbus A320 (it was G-EUUY, an older winglet one) so they simply didn’t close it, no big deal. I was surprised BA sold this many CE tickets when that is the case, but there you go. On which aircraft can the curtain go deeper? To their credit they had 2 crew and 2 trolleys dealing with CE, so they did at least realise how many they had sold and what was needed. I was in the happy position of being in 11F, and one trolley started at the back and the other at the front so this was very good from my perspective. The only slight wrinkle was for a couple in ET who had reserved row 12 and who now found themselves in row 15. They were not happy about this so before take-off a CE passenger in 11C was moved to 11D and they moved into 11A/B. This obviously caused some confusion for the crew member serving (a different crew-member did the moving) who somehow had to remember that row 12 were in CE and got that service whereas only half of row 11 did. Didn’t quite manage it and so 11 A/B got a free drink in a real glass, perhaps call it a service recovery…..

While I am here just a short note on HEL. My outbound arrived about 45 minutes before the Almost Home lounge closed, I had a quick look in but it was in semi-shutdown mode so I didn’t bother with that. Instead I went through passport control and tried to sleep in the Kainuu quiet room, complete with bird sounds so I felt right at home. The photos I found online are rather misleading as there are precisely 2 of those sloping seat things and both were occupied. I had a nap in one corner and did not sleep well at all, so much so that I transferred to some bench seating next to a gate at some point. My plan had been to take a bus into the City arriving at 10am, but instead I managed to get into the Schengen Finnair lounge above gate 23 (ie not the non-Schengen one that is getting refurbished by gate 50) by showing my 799 boarding pass (at 7am, for a 5pm fligh....t). This was a life-saver as I was extremely tired, and I was able to have some nice breakfast and then nab one of the very nice recliners once the Asia flights had cleared out. Two hours of sleep and I felt better enough to recommence plan A and go sight-seeing. By then the breakfast food had been replaced by daytime fare so I had an early lunch before heading out. I didn’t get to the Botanic Garden until about 11.30am in the end. I’ve no regrets about being a cheapskate, but without that lounge I would definitely be having second thoughts for next time, or at least not doing it again until the Gate 50 lounges are finished. Because….. when I returned to the airport in the afternoon and tried once again to get into Finnair Schengen lounge I was sent packing, told very firmly that BA799 customers had to go to Almost Home. I said I didn’t like Almost Home and that as a OW Emerald I preferred this one; I was told to complain to BA and sent on my way. Almost Home was practically standing room only at around 3pm, and barring great chocolate biscuits has little going for it. I went and bought a jug at Ittala instead.

I have no idea whether my morning lounge access was a lucky fluke or the subsequent afternoon denial was an unlucky fluke. If access is guaranteed I’d repeat the “No hotel” option. If it isn’t I’d be tempted to get straight back onto the morning 0745 service back to Heathrow, but I’m usually not a fan of B2B tier point runs, and getting just a few hours in Helsinki made the trip for me.

DeathSlam

Considering a BA TP run this summer. I'm only gold on Hilton though, so I'd only get access to the Lounge with a room upgrade. Any ideas what the likelihood is of this at Heathrow?

alex67500

Not sure about the Heathrow one, but HEL was yes on my 1 visit, and AMS is 2/2.

Ky Markson