AY Schengen lounge at HEL
 

According to the June issue of the Blue Wings magazine the current lounges will be closed on the July 1st. A new larger lounge in the same premises will be opened in the autumn. I wonder if they will offer snacks vouchers or if we will just have to wait until the opening.

July is off season so hopefully either deal with Aspire or Tower lounge? Or am I just dreaming here..

July off season? What do You mean?

For north european business travel it is low season.

It was mentioned that the lounges would be closed, so I suppose that the former Tower lounge would also be closed. Maybe they will combine both lounges to one.

I agree that July is quiet, but if the renovation will continue in August and September, that would be a temporary problem.

Whereas SK is offering SK Silvers lounge access exactly during this low season. Very strange decision?

July + August are the busiest months in Asia-Europe-Asia traffic plus all other summer traffic and HEL will be crowded especially mornings and afternoons. Again.

So I cant see why HEL lounges would be off season?

It also sounds like nordic might have misquoted something. Surely they're not going to open a new bigger lounge to cater both Schengen and non-Schengen lounge pax?

Temporary closing - goodbye decent HEL reputation!

http://www.digipaper.fi/bluewings/122406/ Page 8.

http://s3.postimg.cc/p2foux34j/2014_05_28_2356.png

Well, the tourist groups aren't really in the lounges, are they? I have been to HEL lounges for the last 15+ years and they have always been basically empty in July..total pax number does not equal lounge occupancy..

+1. If you have do it, July is the least bad month.

Thanks. The confusing wording was "current" lounges. Guess I didn't pay enough attention to the title! :)

No wonder they're dumping point upgrade redemption during summer!!

I was in the lounge the other day and was surprised by how worn it have become. Several chairs had their fabric/skin torn. But it could be fixed with renovating, so maybe something else is going to happen.

I didn't help the look of the lounge that wednesday was one of the bigger travel days. Food spilled on the floor wasn't cleaned (you could trace peoples movements by looking at where the beef stew stain were), plates weren't cleared, table tops not cleaned. In the toilet, the trash was overflowing onto the sink. How lucky we are allowing just about anyone into the lounge these days. The system really is built around the silvers...

I was browsing businessclass.se and found out that this issue has been discussed on Finnair's twitter account. Direct quote:

"Q: what alternatives/compensation do you offer eligeble PAX when the Schengen lounge in HEL closes Jul ?

A: Finnair offers temp arrangement Plat/emer card holders via direct mail. Otherwise we deeply appologise and expedite project.".

I wonder how they can reach Emerald members by direct mail. Ofcourse they have contact details of their own Platinum members. Could someone with a Platinum card inform us on any development.

In the twitter discussions AY also thanked someone for the idea of giving a voucher for other customers and promised to forward the idea. It is hard for me to believe that they wouldn't have thought that before and made a decision.

No such message sent to me.

My take on the answer is that they will inform passengers with flights in the troubl eperiod, and whose FFcard is in booking to the email stated in the booking.