LH747FTL

AF CDG2D lounge or AF lounge BKK have nothing even closely resembling champagne available.

LH business loungess have some 3.99eur piss. LH SEN lounges you can request champagne if you happen to know they have it in the back.

TTL

Glass of "good champagne"...

Great trolling!

nordic

Oh, I have missed the opportunity to request a glass of champag e at SEN lounges and now I'm not SEN any more. But anyhow onboard LH European flights in C (and Y!) class only sekt is available. Some like it onboard a d some like it at lounge.

Do you request Champagne at AF lounges? I have never seen any Champagne nor sparkling wine at AF CDG? KLM has offered cava in the past but I have not visited the lounge at AMS for two years now (the infamous reduction in the earning miles in April 2009).

PS Is this really a Finnair thread and not the Which champagne BA thread?

aster

Is it just champagne that's chargeable or an entire range of "premium" alcoholic beverages?

nordic

See post #14! These beverages are free to status holders. In addition, you may buy more premium alcohol brands. See pictures in Carfield's lounge report. At least they have sparkling wine, champagne (not all of them are sold by class) and cognacs on offer.

TTL

OT: Paid a short visit to Paris and returned yesterday. And sampled several lounges. To HEL with KF RJ85 in premium economy, no spirits, no champagne, but a tasty cheese roll and youghurt. SK business lounge at HEL did not have champagne, just beer, tap wines, rose, and cheap bubbly.

A weary MD82 in business to CPH but with friendly Danish crew. Gammel Dansk and G/T with cold salad meal. No match to AY business class. Novia Apartment -lounge is for business travellers only, cozy, quiet and well stocked. The other side of the lounge (PP- and paid access) resembled zoo. FB plats flying economy would be directed there.

AF Affaires to CDG onboard A319. Very professional crew members - even though I could not hide my smile after "English" announcements were made. Cold tapas style meal. PLASTIC cutlery and PLASTIC cups - also for the champagne served from a big bottle. Top ups took place promptly. Surprisingly, no hard liquor on board, just couple of whites, couple of reds in small bottles and the champers.

Heading back from CDG to CPH in Affaires and sampled the 2D lounge. Almost empty due to holiday season for French. No champagne indeed. I think CDG is an airport where AY Plus card is handy. Other OW cards would not get you in the lounge if flying economy. My first flight onboard a A318 and a very attentive cabin crew. I do not know if they pay any special attention to shiny card holders but felt treated like royalty. The plastic trend went on.

Managed to get an earlier flight than planned from CPH to HEL, so I did not have time to visit the Scandinavian lounge. MD82 went tech and I had to wait for a later flight and became bumped from Business to Economy Extra onboard another MD82. The difference was not too big, Plastic cups for drinks instead of proper glasses, what I could observe.

The final leg was AY flight to KUO. Clean E190 and a cup of coffee. The offerings of the Silver wings lounge were quite sufficient, but apparently not if you can not survive without champagne...

timol

Haven't the rules been relaxed in the last couple of months to include plain J pax on AY flights?

I definitely did not have to show my card in mid-July, and I think there was a new sign about AY J.

NoWindowSeat

But did your BP say "BA Gold - Emerald" ?

mosburger

Apart from the nasty plastic stuff, would you say the meals and wine were worth it? I personally don't care much about champers or liquors but do enjoy fine wines and also selected cold appetizers when flying shorthaul.

How are the seats on European Affaires? The usual middle seat blocked?

Now, armed with a shining MU card, I could try AF after a long break. The awful transit experience at CDG put me off almost for good at that time but a point-to-point Euro J flight might be different.

orbitmic

Just to clarify:

- At CDG, all AF non-Schengen lounges have Champagne (either one or two brands depending on time) and the Schengen lounges (2D, 2F1) do not. The lounges are otherwise very nice in terms of food, spirits ('premium' for free! ) and wines as well as showers, massages, etc.

- ORY: only the non-Schengen lounge in terminal 3 of Orly West has Champagne, for domestic flights (such as ORY-NCE) you can only use the 'patio' lounge which only serves soft drinks and beer.

- AF onboard: shorter flights only get the 'tapas' style meal which I personally find mediocre. All AF European J flights get Champagne and wines (except breakfast flights) but no spirits. Longer European flights get a rather good cold (up to 3 hrs) or hot (from 3 hrs) tray. Seating is standard 'blocked middle seat' (replaced by a tablet). No wardrobe service and no pre-take off drink on AF European C. Wines on the longer European routes are probably the best in Europe, but on shorter European routes are average.

- AA Flagship at LHR: I personally find their drink selection - including sparkling - absolutely abysmal. I'd rate it below AY lounge, would rate AF above AY lounge, and of course for OW emerald the BA F lounge above all of the above (for OW silver, would put food above AF lounges and drinks below AF lounges).

TTL

Orbitmic was faster to answer. Just some supplementary information. The front galleys in 318 and 319 were very small, the seat rows started right after thin dividers. So not much could be stored to feed the passengers with. The seats were nowadays standard slim-line type. In 319 the middle seat was blocked with a tray and with slight recline. In 318 there was no recline.

Tea and coffee were Nescafe instant preparations, only hot water needed to be poured to the plastic cups. Foodwise I would skip European Affaires, drinkwise and servicewise it is ok. IMO, however, not on par with AY business or BA club Europe.

ojala

I would say that good sparkling wine would be much better than entry level champagne.. I don't want champagne just because it's champagne.

At HEL the best way to enjoy champagne is to vist Wine & View and pay for it. They often have pretty good stuff available, for a price though.

orbitmic

I fully agree with you - but in the specific cases, the Champagne at T5 GF is always good and sometimes outstanding (the occasional appearance of the Comtes de Champagne) and in AF lounges is always good as well both in lounges (we have had Taittinger millesime, Lanson, etc recently) and onboard (Jacquart, Ayala, etc). I also maintain that for my personal taste, the sparkling wine served in the AA Flagship lounge at LHR is vile and not in any way a 'good' sparkling wine for my taste even though such thing clearly exists and is most enjoyable when served...

orbitmic

Yes, all the A318 and part of the A319-20-21 fleet are now equipped with the new European seats which I hate and do not recline, not a pleasant experience... in theory they are predominantly used for domestic flights but many of us have experienced it on some European routes as well...

El Puerco Volante

Slightly OT, but I'm not sure why anybody would call the 19.99 eur Jacquart "good champagne" :-) I mean,if you really have to drink it,it can be done.But without any enjoyment for sure.

Personally I see the standard Moet as plain minimum drinkable champagne.Roederer can be also OK for C.

In F I'm looking for Dom,Tattinger Blanc de Blancs or Krug.In worst case high end Lanson would do,but just barely.

So yes,all airlines serve donkey p*ss in european C,in my opinion.
Just go with wine,beer or G&T ;-)

Regards,

El Puerco Volante.