mec72

I spent two days on calls with Expedia and Finnair trying to rebook. Finnair was happy to rebook but strict about the options (i.e. routings - I was given a few options via LHR, MAN, TXL but definitely not QR via DOH!). Also strict about timing - would not let me fly a day earlier or later. The A350 was full on my day so ended up with BA. Then Finnair insisted on HEL-LHR in Y and only LHR-NYC in J which was absolutely crazy. Having read the review of the UL A340 from a few years ago which seems to be the same bird, I decided that a direct flight with a flat bed (even if it's a slightly outdated product) is still marginally better than 3 hours on an A320 and the joy of connecting through LHR, so told the Expedia agent to keep the booking as is. I woke up next morning only to get a notification from the MyFlights app that the ticket has been changed, so will need to call again to unwind this...

GetSetJetSet

Call back, they let me switch the day of my JFK-LHR-HEL without impacting my HEL-BKK flight and they put me in AY J LHR-HEL.

_ra_

I'll be enjoying the HiFly experience in early January (unless I manage to reroute). Folks that have already seen the inside of the aircraft: What would be the seat of choice in coach? Legroom is critical, everything else secondary. Would the first row be the best? Seatguru doesn't have the seatmap.

cmdsea

My understanding is that this flight still has the old UL interior and of the 3 versions of UL A343 listed on Seatguru this is the only version that matches the J cabin so I am assuming that it should be correct for Y as well.?

https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Sr...340-300_v1.php

_ra_

Thanks. So with 50ACHK already taken, it looks like I have a choice between bad and really bad

Courmisch

I flew it a couple of days ago. The coach seats are fairly normal. The IFE is somewhat functionally limited but at least it was smooth and pretty. There are no specifically extra-legroom seats. So except for the exit row, you are SOL if that's what you are after.

What really annoyed was the service though. Pilots took forever to turn off the seat belt sign for no apparent reason; attendants did not unlock some of the bathrooms, also for no reasons; the lights were dimmed needlessly late, and turned back on needlessly early, leaving even less time to sleep than Finnair's usual.

Global321

Great job. How did you manage to start that conversation?

For 800E pp. we would fly the HiFly!

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FYI - The HiFly plane flying HEL-JFK-HEL route has been 9H-SUN for at least the last 7 days.

aama

I'd go for the bulkhead. Few inches more legroom and if you take your shoes off you can put your feet on the wall as well every now and then to stretch out Flew in 20A in Nov.

DALtoAAL

Sorry, it was 800€ per 2 persons so 400€ pp! My bad! In the summer, AY was proactively offering the compensation for HiFly, but it really required a lot of work to get the compensation since we were booked on AA award tickets. The whole experience was so bad and it was made even worse by AY's attitude.

TTL

Stupid Questions in Helsingin Sanomat:

http://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000005005198.html

Very lame answers. Cheating is cheating however nicely it is explained!

Global321

FWIW -

Was flying JFK-HEL-ASIA on Finnair. Had to educate the AY agent that changing to partner airlines on the same day was an option. It required me forwarding the email AY sent me, quoting the AY website, added quotes from FT on how the HiFly experience sucks and spelling out my 1st, 2nd, 3rd choices. Got a callback later in the day and was able to switch to JFK-DOH-ASIA on Qatar. We are pretty happy.

heatsink

I wouldn't call it cheating given that they allow customers to modify the ticket for free once changes are announced. Not saying that the situation is good, but if you board that plane you know what you're getting into. Personally, it would be an easy choice to go with HEL-LHR-JFK instead.

Oh, and I was told that the crew shortage is actually only indirectly caused by the A350, and the more accurate reason is that they've decided to keep more A330's than originally intended. Not sure if this is just a rumor or true.

ff_flyer

If you are planning to reroute around Christmas and/or New year, please take into consideration a potential BA strike:

http://www.flyertalk.com/articles/ba...hr-strike.html

GetSetJetSet

Man! How were you able to swing that! When I called in, they told me only my JFK-HEL flight was eligible to change even though I was connecting to an AY J flight HEL-BKK flight. I would have much preferred JFK-HKG-BKK or JFK-DOH-BKK instead of JFK-LHR-HEL(overnight)-BKK.

Global321

Here is the process I followed:

1. I forwarded the email I got from AY to [email protected].
2. I included the verbiage from the Finnair website regarding choices.
3. I gave them our preferences for different flights (1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice)
4. I got a call back a few hours later and they accepted our 2nd choice, which was the QR flight JFK-DOH-ASIA. (Our 1st choice was to fly direct from MIA, rather than connecting in JFK.)