dodgeflyer

I am normally a BA flyer but a fare sale to Vietnam (from AMS) coupled with my partners long desire to go there led me to have my first AY flights (at least as an adult). I am an OW Emerald, my partner, sapphire.

The routing was AMS-HEL-HAN-HEL-LHR (added for an additional £100 over the AMS sale fare to avoid having to go back to AMS).

The AMS-HEL were done on what I assume to be one of the older A321s with toilet in front of row 2 (?) and overhead screens. Pre-lunch drinks with nuts in small bowls and the meat and rice concoction discussed here. Due to a complete break-down of check-in systems in AMS (so I was told, though no other airlines seemed to have it, think it was an AY issue), a large part of the checked in luggage was left behind. Thankfully, due to us through checking from LHR, it appears that it was the saving grace as our luggage were one of the few making items making it. Flight left almost two hours delayed. Their handling agents in AMS were the worst I've ever encountered (no need to match luggage to ticket, "oh, the passport must be verified"...).

HEL-HAN (AY97), we were one out of many to make the delayed flight which left almost two hours late following the arrival of several late incoming aircrafts. Cabin attendants on the more mature side, but very nice and welcoming. Amenity kit, as mentioned before, is pathetic and the products offered in the bathroom inferior. Due to this board I'd brought better eye shades. Side note: the dresses the female cabin crew wear are quite nice. The cabin consisted mainly of families and I could only assume a mix of expats and tourists. Thankfully, most went to sleep. I would assume that a few were paid upgrades as well as when I booked I had a relatively free choice but the cabin filled up steadily before departure. I wish I'd taken row 1 as the foot well is bigger than other rows.

I'd inquired on this board a while ago regarding the small C-cabin before booking, and it was indeed used as economy class. The food was typical C-fare. The red wines and port, some of the better I've had in C. Breakfast uneventful but filling.

HAN-HEL (AY98). Again the mini-C cabin was used for economy and I was by this stage quite annoyed for having paid for C as I most definitely would have had the C-seats both ways. 7 seats selected at time of check-in (and 7 seats had been selected for many weeks prior). Cabin should not have been called business class but Upgrade Class as everyone and their grandmother were upgraded. At this stage my partner was having to calm me down by saying nice things to me... . I had noticed this would likely happen (and changed my seats to row 1 to get meal selection first) by the fully open business class buckets (I9) and all economy classes going 0/1 in the days before. Cabin crew took orders by originally booked cabins as they should (but oft ignored).

Food was ATROCIOUS. The worst I've encountered ever in business class and probably on par with economy long haul for most airlines. Food catered by the only handling company in Hoi An (Noi Bai) (we'd experienced their poor food offering on a Vietnam Airlines flight). Starter consisted of what they thought passed for dim sum, salmon with rice (couldn't eat the salmon). Main course, some kind of chicken with rice (I was hungry and ate it, my partner left most of it). The purser seemed to recognize this as he came around with the bread basket several times. I skipped dessert. Cinnamon buns served mid-flight - good choice by AY. Wine list was the same as the outbound. Pre-landing snack was disgusting (and can't even remember what it was a day after). Dessert was a cheese cake of which the base was a slice of white bread. The male purser (very good) came to thank me and my partner for being loyal customers.

HEL-LHR. Flight uneventful, 1 attendant serving the cabin consisting of 6 rows with three occupied. Tablets handed out. Not sure why snacks came in a small bag rather than a little glass (think the crew member on the AMS-HEL flight poured out the snacks). Dinner some kind of pasta with a caramel-chocolate mousse for dessert (just no!). I've had better food intra-Europe.

Sorry for the long rant... but summarizing thoughts.

AY needs to cater the flight from HAN in HEL, the food simply was unacceptable. This may improve once the new terminal comes in January but not sure if it will change catering facilities. Obvious it is tourist heavy and I am sure that a large majority of the HEL-HAN passengers used an upgrade offer given the economy heavy return flight. For an airline of AY's size I understand they can't operate a fleet with several configuration, but obviously the C-section is too large for this route and makes me doubt the premium heavy A350s - good for cheap tickets). The inflight entertainment is the worst I've experienced in 5 years, with an incredibly poor selection of movies. I pity those of you who travel them often for that reason. I liked the cabin crew (but being from Norway originally may help with that) - they were quite "Nordic". Bit annoying was that magazines et al were handed out first to most of the upgraded passengers.

intuition

Thanks for posting! It is always good to get the opinions of those who rarely fly AY. (Especially when views are so agreeable with mine
Well, seriously, it is very good to hear from others as that kind of calibrates my views.


IIRC HAN-HEL food has been flunked by FT'ers before, and sadly it seems nothing has changed.


As AY revenue management is not half as smart as they think they are, the op-ups to solve oversold situation is extremely common on the routes where Y pricing is aggressive and J pricing is not adjusted to local purchase power. CKG would be another fine example. This annoys the crab out of me too, but you should not bet on recieving that op-up if you were to book Y. Preference who gets upgraded is random at best. In many cases it is the total oposite of what one would expect; Unfrequent flyers on deep discount tickets are chosen firstly, if none to be found, then perhaps a OW ruby. Last in line are AY's own frequent travellers.


AY has just recently promised to return proper amenity kits in the future, so finally their stock of barf-bags with socks is depleted! ^

dodgeflyer

I'll say overall though I did like AY but probably because of the Nordic connection. Could easily see some of the BA board members be less pleased. The few pieces of luggage I saw pop up at LHR did have a priority tag, so it would appear as if they did them by some kind of status. A few I assume father or mother had Ruby status and everyone in the booking then got the upgrade.

I don't ever book hoping for an upgrade (hence too much money spent on C as I refuse to do long haul Y) but this flight was taking the p##s. I don't mind if a cabin has a few upgraded pax, having received my best one on a $300 long-haul ticket when I just started working, but when the majority of the cabin are upgraded, I struggle not getting annoyed.

I had checked loads when I booked and it was 9s across the board but perhaps not the cheapest booking classes. The Y ticket from LHR was £7-900 (can't remember) and C was £1.8k or so. Flying from AMS was ca £1.2k in C but didn't check Y.

intuition

The fares ex-HAN were probably quite different, contributing to the imbalance between supply/demand of C seats and Y seats respectively. In my example, ex-CKG, Y fares to Europe have been in the 300€ range and C fares above 2500€. Perhaps the situation was something like that ex-HAN.