Online seat selection gone??
 

Anyone else having the same issue...I can't select seats for any European flights anymore on finnair.com..system issue or have they taken it away..anyone knows..?

To answer my own speculation it's indeed a system issue, confirmed by the AY Plus service center.

Money money:

https://www.finnair.com/INT/GB/fligh...lect-your-seat

The only good thing is that the reservation is free for OWE and OWS. No reason to post anything on AY+ (except some hotels and credit cards). I would not achieve any status with AY+ and even silvers pay 50 %. I will easily earn OWS with BA in the future and I am able to maintain BA Gold status a couple of years before the Euro qualifying levels change. Unfortunately, AY flights earn less Avios points than BA flights so I have to fly more often via LHR but with better onboard service it is not too difficult a choice at least to the Americas.

I don't think this is a biggie for us non-status pax either. You can still select seats on check-in, and as I'd assume most people are not ready to pay the fee, this should only mean a wider selection if you do an online check-in.

That is except the Flybe ATR:s though (I assume they are going to apply this to those aswell), I think they should simply go with free seating there, to avoid the constant moving people towards the back show.

All business class tickets will also allow advance seat selection, aswell as econ fully flex. So together with plat, gold, emerald, sapphire quite a few people will get this "perk".
And in the front of the plane, same-ol' same-ol'...

Anyway, I am all for charging for seat selection, as it is a thing people seems to be willing to pay extra for.

The site says 2 thing that I find odd
G is AFIK EconomySaver, one of the lowest fare classes around. Must be a typo, or some re-arranging of classes are about to come?



They must have gotten the involuntarily/voluntarily mixed up, right?

Shortly: LCC :td:

I respectfully disagree.
If this is the marker for LCC, then carriers like BA are in this group too.

I also fail to understand why it is such a bad thing. If there is a crowd willing to pay for this (and another crowd that doesn't care for seats, as long as they get the cheapest tickets around), then this will benefit many travellers?

Many airlines, including AY, are not profitable businesses. They will work with cutting costs and finding new revenue. OK, so let's say they wouldn't care for getting revenue from seat selection. Then they would need to cut costs even more. I cannot see how that would benefit travellers in a better way.

It is quite easy to say that AY follows the other airlines and is no worse than the rest. But if you compare the whole service concept AY is often the lowest:

AY vs SK
No free meals, no free alcohol, no free seat reservation, both offer free coffee ad tea, AY charge for newspapers and SK offer them free (at the gate), SK Eurobonus charge very little for taxes for award flights, SK miles are valid 5 years vs AY points 3 years. SK offer cheap one way flights and cheap upgrades through optiontown when you choose the limited network of Blue1

AY vs BA
Both offer free snacks, BA offer free alcohol, no free seat reservation apart from elites, BA offer free newspapers (at the gate) at least out of LHR, both AY+ and BA Executive Club charge a lot of taxes for award flights. AY points are valid 3 years, BA points are valid forever (if you spend/earn at least 1 point/year). BA sell cheap one-way flights and extremely cheap C class tickets

AY vs LO
Both offer free coffee and tea, LO offers free alcohol and sandwiches, newspapers I do not remember. Probably not free advance seat reservation.

AY vs KLM
Both offer free coffee, tea and snacks, KL offers free alcohol, no newspapers on both carriers, lousy FF programmes although Flying Blue miles never expire if you earn a single mile at least every 20 years or if you are at least a silver member (easy just 15 ow flights). Both offer expensive C class tickets and OW tickets. Neither airline offer free seat reservations for European routes.

AY vs LH
Both offer free snacks, coffee and tea, LH offers free alcohol, free newspapers near the gate at their hubs and free newspapers, LH miles are valid forever if you are at least silver, difficult to earn gold status like AY+. Reasonable C class fares to Europe (800 € vs 1800 € for AY, some destinations like BER cheap OW Y fares). Neither airline offer free choice of seats for non-elites.

In summary:
No method of AY cost-saving is unknown for the competitors but AY's total package is usually the worst of all. The only asset of AY is the European non-stop network from Helsinki.

Hehe, well coffee and tea is free of charge on SK, starting a week or two ago. Before that, there was a period of ~5 years when you had to pay for it. :o

I think you have made an accurate listing, and there are many factors to consider for choosing preferred airline & program, I agree. And it is probably true that AY doesn't come out of that comparison very favourably, especially for a SF based flyer.

And I agree that AY should work hard to "up" themselves. I just don't agree with the LCC lable.

And still. I would not make these lists unless I loved (and hated) Finnair. But it is sad to notice that these days SAS actually offers better service to Scandinavia from Helsinki (though not to Bromma, Gothenburg, Norrköping [and Bergen during the summer season] but also from the regional airports in Finland).

But it is hard times for the airlines. No more Austrian, City Airlines. Malev, Czech Airlines (AY codeshares still there), EasyJet, Spanair from Helsinki. Swiss (incl. AY/KF codeshares) , Iberia (AY codeshare still there), Air France (AY still there), Brussels Airlines (incl. AY/KF codeshares), Skyways, Sterling are long gone. Aer Lingus appear with few flights every summer. I did not include Air Berlin, Estonian, Belavia, Ukranian, Aeroflot because no personal experience. There aren't really many choices. Let's see what happens to the winner, Norwegian.

I don't think nordic's comparison is quite fair, it seems to forget everything AY has on the plus side, and only remember the bad things.

Confirmed upgrades from low economy to biz? Lounge access and priority Security to Silvers? Priority Check-in to Silvers on other alliance carriers? Does SK have free snacks? Earnings in other programs? Possibility to pre-select seats (even against a fee) etc.

Also I'd put more emphasis on the fact the AY flights are direct, since you are clearly making the price comparison ex-HEL.

I'm not saying that the AY product would always be the best, but calling it always the worst I think is greatly exaggerated.

Every seat in the cabin is only bookable against a fee for non-status passengers? Even most American carriers do not charge for seat pre-selection apart from "premium seats" that include the first few economy cabin rows.

I would define a LCC as an airline that charge extra of basic services such as meal, luggage, check in... Ok I agree AY doesn't fit into all of those criterias but also their prices aren't too low either.

I guess it depends on your definition of meal whether AY fits any of those criteria.