intuition

Are you departing on a major holiday day?

Then it might make sense to swap menu - I have had crayfish and akvaviitti in august. Chinese pax were mighty marvelled.

wkndtraveler

Well yeah, it's on Christmas eve. But there isn't any Christmassy on the menu either. Last year on December, they had pretty nice Christmas menu onboard to MIA (that is also a leisurish flight).

nordic

Some more enhancements:
- the tray for the prearrival meal is pur directly on the table (no linen)
- only one fork and two knives were given for each meal
- everything except the ice-cream was preplated like in Euro J
-one positive thing though, the nuts with the aperitive were varied and delicious.

ffay005

The SGN experience seems to be more or less on par with my MIA experience last winter. I was disappointed – I paid €3000 for the ticket and expected bisnetic class but got comfort class*.

I sort of hope they've improved the MIA service for this winter, since it's becoming a year-round destination. Not holding my breath, though. This year, I only paid €1600, though, so I'll survive with this Euro-J-style meal.

I see AY's point here, though. "Scandic in the skies" has sat down brainstorming and come to the (probably partially right) conclusion that on these leisure routes, the J pax are inexperienced enough not to know what to expect and will be awwed with the cabin and seat and will be quite impressed with whatever AY will offer them catering-wise as long as it is somehow different from Y. So why offer anything over the bare mininmum? Next level might be Y catering using china and silverware instead of plastic.

What I do think AY should do, however, is make pax aware in advance that this is a reduced J class product. Had I known it in advance, it would have been so much easier to accept.

* When AY operated LPA with A330 a couple of years back, you could buy a seat in the J cabin for some dozens of euros, and receive not only the seat but also a meal similar to Euro-J.

mosburger

Hasn't AY been offering differentiated Y and J class products for years?

- "Premium" for Japanese destinations due to the demanding customer base

- "Standard" for China. Korea and Singapore

- "Leisure/Comfort" reduced service for all other destinations

intuition

The "one-fork-concept" came about a while ago and on entire fleet, didn't it? I think at the same time as the amenity kit was turned into a barf bag.
Anyway, as a money-saving scheme the one-fork-concept completely failed. Nowadays, they hand out the one-fork kit first and later a second utensils kit. So insted of the old two-fork-two-knife-set they now dispense 2 forks, 6 knifes and some spoons. Brilliant money saving.


On the other hand, marketing have a long standing tradtion of communicating Finnair as a quality airline. That raises the expectations even on a typical leisure route. And they did move the leisure flights from a separate business segment into normal Finnair operations, and there will be "normal" business flyers even on these routes. Delivering tacky service will tarnish the brand.

They have for a long time talked about Finnair as a "boutique airline", conveying the image of intimacy and exclusive brand experience. But recently (from the time of A350 launch) communication changed to talk about Finnair as a "boutique sized airline"...
Painting a completely different picture. I didn't think so much "scandic in the sky" as "R-kioski Airways"...


I haven't noticed that.
Admittedly I haven't been able to fly AY to Japan since the introduction of Japan Joint Venture, but before that I can't recall seeing a difference between Japanese and Chinese destinations. To me there is a marked differentiation in service between day-time and night-time flights though.

Rivarix

Can you elaborate as to what are being done/offered on Japan bound flights that are not offered on say flights to/from HKG or SIN?

SPBanker

Sake. I don't know of anything else, really.

LoungeEnthusiast

I really don't think so. At least in my experience, J service has been more or less the same to e.g. JFK and ORD compared to ICN (routes I have J experience of).

Courmisch

The inability to book Value ticket is not offered on flights to/from HKG and SIN

Joint venture all about the customer. Not.

JoWa

I tried the new menu for the first time last night.
The crayfish soup was actually very good. I prefer shellfish soups spiked with a liberate amount of cognac, and no eyebrows were raised when I ordered one on the side.

Also the reindeer 3.0 was very good, perhaps not as good as the reindeer 2.0 (the one w ravioli) but ten times better than the preorder reindeer. The supplements also very good eventhough a little scarce, and it felt a little unusual to eat meat with no carbonhydrates at all with it.

Noticed some "enhancements" lately:
The nice garlic bread is now gone. The purser informed me that "When our new menu was introduced, the garlic bread was deemed not to match it..:"
What utterly rubbish, garlic bread matches shellfish soups fantasticly!

Also the superb Sirocco tea is now gone as black tea, only used as flavoured tea.
The nice ice wine is also gone, but perhaps that was a temporary offering.

And I tried two white wines and two reds in the premium lounge and on board.
All were at best very mediocre...

intuition

I think it only arrived with the last wine menu, but I agree it is bad it has gone already. Gone is also the extremely highly praised port, replaced with another brand (IIRC, I don't have the menu at hand here)

Sad to see the garlic bread go too. Admittedly I haven't eaten it for awhile, and I have a notion that fewer people in the cabin have chosen it, but that is just a notion.

nordic

On the wine list although nothing to with preorder menu.

What do you thin about the very precise descriptions of the wine, e.g. This wine goes very well with asparagus when there is nothing even remotely resembling asparagus on offer. Why not make a small note in the menu what wine is recommended with each meal. Of course one can always ask a member of crew but some times their knowledge is quite bad. E.g. on my latest flight: -Could I have a glass of Riesling. -Ehm, is it red or white wine.

intuition

How about the description "ideal for pairing with slowly cooked meat dishes" for the Rioja, and surprise surprise, there are slowly cooked meat dishes. ..
Well, I think these new descriptions are written by someone in marketing, not by a sommelier.

Excellent sugestion.

Brilliant.

intuition

Now I have the menu at hand, and here are the current offerings:
Port: Quinta do portal Porto colheita 2000 (Portugal)
Sweet white: Vidal icewine, Pillitteri 2013 (Canada)

And for the rest:
Villa Maria, Sauvignon blanc 2014, New Zealand
Vulcaia Sauvingon del veneto IGT 2014, Italy, ("Certainly suitable with asparagus")

Chateau Beau-Site, Cru Bourgeois, S:t Estephe 2010, France
Imperial Reserva 2010 Rioja, Spain