Hello

A short trip report of sorts... We’ve just got back from 3 weeks travelling around Scandinavia and Vietnam and so thought it was worth penning a few thoughts. This is the first time we’ve done long haul J on an airline other than BA.

We booked the AY flights for Ł1400 each. The positioning flight to ARN was a one-way RFS on BA and the internal VN flights were Ł50 and Ł70 each in J. Excellent value.

LHR-ARN (A321 BA CE) - great crew, nice new style food. The usual experience. Nice selection of drinks, better than Vietnam Airlines short haul which only offers beer, wine or juice.

ARN-HEL (A319 AY J) - really friendly crew who worked really fast to get the service done on this very short flight. The Nordic touches really make it feel much more special than BA despite the same hard product (minus centre table). The glassware is beautiful and the Marimekko stuff is very cool. Will certainly look to use Finnair over BA to HEl if we can in future, price dependant.

HEL-SGN (A350 AY J) - standard Cirrus seat, but with a less tall foot coffin compared to others. There seems to be an added grey part on the top inside the foot coffin which eats the space. They also felt more angled and hence a tough narrower than the “same” seat on CX which we have done on short haul before. We had 2D and 2H; I would avoid 1D and 1H as they set up the snacks on the top of those seats and also you are disturbed by the loo. 1AL are much better and had a taller foot coffin (no extra grey panel on the top). We could easily chat across the two seats and although we had considered going 1A/2A or 2A/2D, I’m glad we stuck with our chosen seats as having a stranger across from you in the centre seats would be a bit weird on a 12hr flight. There’s no central divider to speak of. Having had a wander round, the rear J cabin, whilst smaller, only has a thin wall and a curtain separating it from Y and only a wing view out of the window and so the forward cabin is probably quieter. The forward cabin (only OH-LWA to H have two J cabins, later aircraft only have the forward one) has no central overhead bins and so also feels roomier. There are no personal air vents which we appreciated having on the VN 787 (window seats only). The pre-ordered chef’s special of reindeer was delicious and the wine selection was superb compared to BA (German organic Pinot Noir, St Emilion Grand Cru, a nice Sauvignon blend, USA ice wine etc). Entertainment was brilliant and makes the ancient BA systems look their age. The range of films was adequate, although if I was regaulrly flying AY I might bring an iPad with more on as there wasn’t that much to choose from. It seemed a number of the films were Asian origin to cater for those passengers, which is fair enough. Having got used to a mattress pad on BA, it is fair to say that AY would benefit from this as the fully-flat seat feels, well, like a seat rather than more of a bed with a mattress pad. The Bose headphones were superb and a massive step up from BA.

SGN-HUI (A321 VN J) - a QR-style short haul business seat. Very tatty seat, limited drinks selection and food was a small snack. It was so little extra for J that it was well worth it to avoid the huge check in queues at the SGN domestic terminal and to have lounge access. HUI airport is basically a shed and so arrival and baggage reclaim was very fast indeed.

HAN-SGN (787 VN J) - the same Cirrus seat as AY, but with a roomier foot coffin (measured with my shoes - I couldn’t put them upright on AY but could easily on VN). Service was good, although the food was disappointing as what was billed on my booking as a “dinner” flight turned out to have been catered as “snack” which was terrible. They also brought 4 randomly different brands of lager for the two of us; all very odd. I wonder if the catering hadn’t been done properly. Nice seat though, if a bit harder than other Cirruss seats, and the 787 was quiet. The olive and cream colours of the cabin are very 70s though. Full IFE although it was almost all unintelligible.

SGN-HEL (A350, AY J) - superb crew, great wines, the only downside was the catering was loaded in SGN which meant more noodles and rubbery chicken pieces. After 2 weeks of eating pho we’d hoped for something different on the aircraft!

HEL-LHR (A350, AY J) - Great service, IFE, what a difference between the usual boring old A32X. Rest as above other than no duvet and mini in-ear headphones.

All the AY crews we had we fantastic, really friendly and happy to help however they could. HEL was very easy to transit and so much more pleasant than the immense terminals at HKG. Will certainly be looking to use AY more for Asia trips.

TFC

I am pleased to hear you liked AY. There has been a lot of positive feedback on AY lately, especially for J (both short- and longhaul).

And they love giving out the little Finnish sweets too! All-round, superb. My view and trip report is likely only partially skewed as the CC have just popped over and said “here you are sir, a landing Champagne for you and your wife”. WiFi on board really is a novelty.

The arrangements for poor weather in HEL are incredible; huge de-icing areas with dozens of trucks (we were there a good 20 minutes blowing the snow off the fuselage that had cemented itself overnight - it was windy). The apron seemed to be heated in places too? I’ve never seen so many snowploughs. Makes me a lot less nervous about delays flying out of there in winter compared to LHR.

Is Karhu the non-alcoholic one? Or am I remembering the menu wrong?

Very upsetting for those involved, undoubtedly.

But in truth ..... was it really AY who “ruined Christmas” ? Usually it’s the big boss up in the sky who determines the weather.

To be fair, the BA threads are full of people criticising it for the way IRROPS are handled, which I think the criticism here is rather than the weather itself.

The AY version is smaller than CX or VN, hence coffin.