NoWindowSeat

Like said above they open the back J cabin for advance seat reservations once they see that a particular flight has high demand for J.

You ask "do they always use it as Y?" and then later you write "I actually changed my seat to the back a few times, and as I said it was always "the real" service." so there you have your answer to that..they definitely use it for J if there's demand, otherwise they would be totally crazy, wouldn't they??

Sometimes they also fly with totally empty mid cabin, seen it many times especially on daytime flights from Asia and to JFK..on night flights they tend to open it for Y pax more easily, it seems..I have no specific data on this, however, as it's been years since I've boarded AY long haul flight w/o J boarding pass and I never select seats in the back cabin so I've only looked while visiting the loo/galley..often seen Y service offerings there on night flights..

ffay005

Personally, I would set an age limit of 10 in J.

NoWindowSeat

I disagree totally with the above.

I have taken hundreds of long haul J flights to/from every continent on the globe and only once I have really suffered from a baby being too noisy, beyond extreme, I would say...that was years ago on a Lan flight from Santiago to Auckland..the baby got really, really sick during the night flight and the captain called for a doctor many times as the screaming went on for hours, even that time I felt more sorry for the parents than worried about my sleep.

YMMV but anyway international J is not really that different, exclusive or special some people (especially those who usually fly in coach) seem to imagine, it's just a bit more personal space and enhanced catering you pay for, babies and their parents have all the rights to travel there when they pay what the airline is asking..if J/F is not enough the option to fly private is always there.

paxman

To recap a bit, due to size limitations Finnair places baby bassinets on bulkhead/first rows in Y (tourist class). Due to different seatbelts (and perhaps size limitations?) Finnair does the same in front-J (business class, front part). This is true at least for the A330 with the new full-flat seats. It is unknown whether or not they have similar seatbelts/room for bassinets in rear-J, first row - we all seem to agree that if they don't, they should. But, as far as the original question goes, the real reason Finnair doesn't always place J-babies in rear-J (to grant privacy to front-J) is because they want to keep rear-J clear as a potential Y-extension (when J is light and Y is full) or completely empty to ease service/cleaning.

As for babies in business, I think first of all babies and children are two separate issues. Babies in particular are creatures of nature, who can't help themselves when something is wrong (flying a mile high with changes in air pressure doesn't help this!). Children of only few years already can do much better, especially when seated in front of a IFE screen. Certainly a crying baby can spoil the tranquil atmosphere J often offers and that many pay for. I do understand that.

But take it reverse: Consider yourself traveling with children. It is already a lot of sweat, stress and work. Being forced to go Y because of the children, which in itself can make traveling with children all the worse due to cramped conditions, seems quite harsh too and would deny many the small piece of luxury that would make family traveling a little easier.

I'd rather suffer the occasional baby in J than suffer the occasional Y because of a baby of my own, and thus I'm willing to grant this to others as well.

intuition

There might be a policy change in this now? I found this on check-in today

http://screencast.com/t/7ZVcyZjcj

I have not seen these coulour codes before. The purple seats are labled "First row", I guess they mean bulkhead. The yellow seats do not carry a lable (in swedish version anyway) but the name of that graphic used is "cotbassinetseat.gif"

Note that the yellow seats are only in the mid-C-cabin and not in the front cabin. As mentioned in this thread earlier, babies in Y are placed just behind row 7, so there might be a change in the preallocation/reservation of babies in J.

The yellow seats are not locked, I can choose one if I like.

Laajo

Hi Ed Size, I'm flying always with cheapest tickets because of my customers travel policy (many long hauls only 50% of the tier points) and is just getting 300.000 tier points for Platinum (one year period from 2012). This year I'm getting easily over the Platinum level and was wondering does my points (going over 300.000) go to black hole.

After reading amount of long haul flight you are doing in J yearly, I seem to have no major concern anymore. The amount of my points going to black hole is nothing compared with your (above 300.000 tier points)

Happy flying.

Ed Size

I have no problem with points vanishing in the black hole, I don t use them anyway - since I m way too lazy to do any longterm planing.

I m happy if I get a longhaul C flight once in a while on BA to South America, which most of the time don t work out.