AY A330, 2A or 2L?
 

What is the consensus on which seat is better? They're both singles. L line more private? Thanks!

L is better for sleeping with better space for legs, A for a daytime flight with more side table space. Just my view. You can find other opinions by googling this forum.

Totally agree. 2A was great for a day flight, night flight wished I had taken L, even a little further back maybe. There was a baby cot in front of 1DH on both flights a week ago..

Hence I usually choose 4L or 6L on a redeye.

2nd to that, exactly what I do if the choice is there.

2nd, my choice as well.

I'm flying JFK-HEL-BKK (booked 2L the whole way) and returning HKG-HEL-JFK (currently booked in 2A), I figure i'll decide after I fly in 2L and change if it seems better. Obviously I will want to be sleeping since that's a lot of flying

Actually on some red-eye flights I've found 8A to be the best seat. It has both the comfort of 2A, 4A & 6A and the space of 2J, 4J and 6J. Often the mini cabin is not that full as the main one.

+1 for the 8A - throne seat without the footwell!

I was on flights where the main C cabin was at 100% load but only 3 pax + yours truly in the minicabin.

I'll be actually in 8A to NGO on Sunday and coming back.

There are three reasons why I avoid the minicabin.

1) Screaming babies in row 21

2) People roaming into the cabin looking for a lavatory

3) The possibility of having my seat assignment changed (at the last minute) to something I don't want if they choose to give the minicabin to Y pax

I'd be interested in hearing everyone's comments about #3. Has this happened on your flights? Have you been moved around because of this?

It's been a few years now, but I've witnessed the minicabin used for Y and actually also sat there as a Y pax. But what I don't know is if it's something they've planned months in advance or if it is a more or less last minute(/day/week) decision when Y is heavily overbooked and J lightly sold.

Yes, 8A is probably the best seat if you don't mind the proximity to the toilet in front of it. But be warned: when I travel with my kids I usually book seats on row 8. The kids scream pretty loud sometimes :D

I have not been moved around, but I have noticed that minicabin been blocked off from J seat selection several months out. So my guess is that they pretty early on knows if loadfactor is such that they might want to give 10 J seats away for free.
This practice may have become more rare since the upgrade offer system came into use. Havent seen it for a long time.

On some flights they block it off for everyone, and my guess is they do that when they have low loadfactor and like to fly with less staff. I once forced Finnair to seat me in the blocked off minicabin and they reluctantly did that. Me and my companion were alone which was nice, but we also got almost no service either. We got food but no drink refills and such and after meal service we didnt see any FA for the duration of the flight. A day flight, may I add.

Well, some thoughts about this.

1) Screaming babies in row 21

Currently less than previous years after introduction of Economy Comfort. I don't know if the seat cost (60 € pp) is dominant factor here or the fact, that Economy Comfort seats are prebooked by high tier customers or other people who are not willing to pay J prices but will spend 60€ on extra legroom.

2) People roaming into the cabin looking for a lavatory

This is true and really annoying and I hope cabin crews would pay more attention to it. QR had (an inspired?) rope-fence style roadblock on their A380 between the upperdeck bar and Y section just behind the bar. Not very handy for cabin crews if they have to move between the sections but there was actually not much traffic afaics.

3) The possibility of having my seat assignment changed (at the last minute) to something I don't want if they choose to give the minicabin to Y pax.

These days are past, AY will not use minicabin for Y class pax anymore. The outcome of this is that you may see dozens of upgrared Y pax on a single flight but never an Y class pax on full flat seat. Some leisurely routes, eq. BKK, HKT are vulnerable to day of ops upgrades due to low J demand during holiday seasons. The seats may be unavailable for prebooking, but that may be a glitch or a leftover from the "good" old days in Altea. There may additionaly be service related issues to keep the pax flow to minicabinas minimal due to galley configurations, FA workflow etc.

1) Since the introduction of Economy Comfort this is increasingly rare. Sometimes the screaming babies are in J.
2) This has become more rare thanks to the "Please respect the privacy of Business Class" slide that is shown on the screens many times before and after take-off.
3) Since the introduction of the bidding system this is also very rare, since on many flights J is packed - something that rarely happened before.

Maybe my thinking around the whole minicabin thing is too old but I have avoided it mainly due to the risk of being moved to front cabin to an undesirable seat if the mini cabin would be used as Y extension..maybe they dont (need) to do that anymore at all..