lento

During peak hours as well ?

vulle

Tried just once on my way to BKK, was warmly welcomed to Premium Lounge with a +1. I was flying in J, my friend in Y.

ffay005

A much better experience today at 8:15 pm compared to my last visit (at 1:15ish pm).

They had a warm meal (meat, sauce, potatoes, aubergine) + asparagus soup on offer from the self-serve buffet. No luxury, but good enough. Some delicious dessert items. The attendant said that lunch/dinner is served 2 pm–6 pm, but that they have the warm meal available until 10.30 pm. If this holds true, I’d say it’s unlikely they will stop the midnight menu concept on board the late departures as was discussed above.

They had run out of paper towels in the men’s room, and the attendant’s reaction was ”joo” and no sign of doing anything about it. Perhaps not her job?

Currently on board AY2051 to TSE. To my surprise, there are many kazakhs on board. If the flight suits their needs well enough, maybe the route will be continued. At least ex-Finland the prices haven’t been low (think return Y €350–€400 for a 4-hour flight) so they should be making some money on this route.

lkrt

What do you think will happen after the new extension opens in 2019? Lounge-wise, that is.

I at least hope that AY would open a new lounge in the south wing, making either the old or new lounge as Premium access rules only. Would be terrific to get some more room for Premium passengers, as it is noted that the lounge gets very crowded in the afternoon hours (while at most other times is very serene).

CPH-Flyer

My best guess is that two things will happen. 1. the airport will have more capacity and 2. AY will have the same lounge capacity.

intuition

That is what I would guess too. But there is a small hint of possible extension of current lounge.

What can be seen in the current construction permit is that the current lounge is draw exactly as it is today. Ie, there is no plan whatsoever to extend the lounge as a part of the ongoing construction.

The corridor west of the premium lounge will be a temporary path to accommodate arriving pax from south wing, separating them from departing pax and getting them to the new security screening in central plaza. When south wing have second floor fully functional this corridor will not be needed and might be incorporated in the lounge.

A larger space space west of current business lounge will be freed up, but it looks to be reserved for a new transfer service desk.

No floorspace in the central plaza is dedicated to lounges, there are however spaces marked to Ravintola, Bar and Promo.

To the south of current premium lounge there is a note saying "expansion of business / lounge" (Liiketila/loungen laajennusvara). There are absolutely no details of the area, not even an out-line. It looks like a future option, with possibility to extend lounges as far as gate 53, but only if some airline actually asks (and pays) for it.

teemuflyer

How many additional qualifying pax are expected as a result of the expansion. Is there a range that has been calculated?

I would think that if AY had detailed plans on expanding long haul capacity, and they could extrapolate the number of other OW elites qualifying, they would have a sense of the lounge "load" factor.

Given this, and the presumable desire to make the HEL long haul connection at a minimum, "acceptable" to those premium pax who have other options (ME3 come to mind), they would invest on a corresponding capacity expansion. Otherwise the word will get around, and demand will be affected. Just my two cents..

intuition

Not sure what the expansion of gates will lead to in terms of increased flights. And - there is no real expansion in number of gates until west wing is finished, so still a few years into the future.

AY's plans for expansion is to "double Asian traffic by 2020, compared to 2010 level", but I am not sure what that means in reality in terms of overall capacity increase.

intuition

... and of course there is the possibility that AY expands by opening a new wave. That would require exactly zero investment in new lounge space. And no need for the west wing gates either.

CPH-Flyer

No, it would just expand the period of over crowding of the current lounges

intuition

Hehe, yes, we'll get that 'premium feeling' all day!

FFlash

On topic but slight off, visited business ounge yesterday as we were a group flying business. I havent ever visiyed the bus side butnit had great food choice and offerings, miniburgers had excellent beef and mayo. I have never liked the food in premium side and have not visited it since spring so dont know how it is there nowadays but for me business lounge is the choice for hungry. Drinks there are sure lower quality but I am not a drink man. My friends were really happy about me upgrading them.

ffay005

Flying QR for the first time next month, in J. Will I get access to the Premium lounge as AY Plat flying QR metal and QR flight number?

Out of curiosity, what are the access rules for JL and BA flights, and what about AY metal but SU or CA flight number? Since the Premium Lounge isn't a first class lounge, I suppose the rules might not be crystal clear (something to add to the wiki, perhaps).

lkrt

Yes. Also with JL and BA.

intuition

According to OW lounge search:
Access for eligible customers traveling on any oneworld member airline.
This lounge is exclusively for oneworld Emerald card holders and their guests.


Also, I think we discussed somewhere recently that AY has included some odd codeshares in the lounge access, like SU.