DocS

This is really useful information - especially with the picture - thank you

DocS

Trying and failing to book a children’s meal in manage booking… Should the option be in the ‘travel extras’ section? I wonder if it is due to the original ticket being AA stock?

DocS

Managed to do this by phoning up

Purjelentaja

Just finished my lunch on HEL-SIN flight. Had quite a good late dinner in HEL business lounge, so wasn't at all hungry at 1.30 at night, but wanted to sleep. The flight was over an hour late due to waiiting connecting pax from delayed LHR flight. Before take-off dinner selections were taken and me and my better half asked if it was possible to have the dinner as lunch just before landing. It was no problem at all and they were happy to do it. Dine on demand works even though it doesn't officially exist.

Beef cheek dish was very good and tasty, a good example of not needing to use the most expensive ingredients to make delicious food, which actually is one of the corner stones of French cuisine. I was much happier with this dish compared to having for instance filet steak. My better half chose tortelini, which was ok. Both meals were served on one tray, without table cloth and bread, which prob would have been available on request as other pax were at the same time served the famous quiche as breakfast. No wines offered proactively, but of course available on request.

The Singaporean crew is excellent, proactive and very friendly. Already before take off good Plat-talk, and higher tier members clearly were their priority. In the morning when they noticed we had woken up, they were right away ready to bring us anything we wanted.

intuition

Ay132
After take-off
Fried king prawns with egg noodles, vegetables and sichuan sauce





The starters, especially the coppa ham were big portions. Prawn noodles was a disappointment, bland and dry.



Before landing

Breakfast quiche was baconlicious - it had been pimped with a generous layer of bacon to become breakfast-quiche.




When all condiments had been eaten, the lonely quiche is revealed to be the same diameter as a 100g yoghurt jar.

aster

I chose that as well and it was clearly a mistake. I didn't want beef cheeks and the third option was the tofu one - has anyone tried it recently?

The (serrano?) ham was great though and the portion was more generous than in a Spanish restaurant!

Breakfast always seems to be a complete quality meltdown of epic proportions across all classes of travel.

The next time I fly to/from SIN I will hit the do-not-disturb button and gladly skip AY brekkie altogether...

Purjelentaja

​​​​​​Menu SIN-HEL.

The portion of ham was really generous, quantity would have been enough for breakfast breads all week and there would still have been some left for Saturday evening snacks! But then, quantity of melon was inadeqiate and why feta, which is salty, to complememt ham that is also quite salty?

The main, beef brisket, was good, though unseasoned, and as salt and pepper have been enhanced away, no way to season it myself.

But why, oh why, two out of three mains had mushrooms??? The cabin crew had "pelisilmä" and served it to me without them. There must be a real mushroom lover in the team planning the dishes 😡



And again, the disfunctionality of the new plates came up,. The food looks like stuffed onto the plate, appearance is not tempting, and it is difficult to get for instance sauce from the plate. Total failure to choose then.

Another thing I have been wondering, why on earth they are doing the one tray service??? If there is enough of time (like most of flights nowadays) why not serve starters and main separetaly? Putting them all in one tray makes it feel like cafeteria lunch!

intuition

I think mushrooms are abundant becuase their protein is considered meat like in quality. If meal planners are doing some math they might reach a nutrition target by adding mushroom in meals low on meat.

r2d2

I totally agree. Must be the union demanding that after all the cuts to the benefits etc. for the cabin crew they can't work as much as before on the flights.

intuition

Finnair has an "Inflight Customer Experience manager" and she has been doing CX for Finnair for close to 8 years. While cabin crew union surely can formulate opinions on how to do the service, it won't become a part of the official routine unless Finnair whishes so too.

For the tray and other annoying stuff, I'd say this is informed choices by managemant and a part of the experience Finnair wants their customers to have in business class.

sakari1707

AY has been into mushrooms for a long time and not only those, but all kinds of other ingredients that give you gas.....
Fully agree it's annoying to get appetizers together with the main - once your finished with the appetizers your main is cold.
And I don't like the food concept at all - I'd rather have one appetizer, then main with a salad (and salt/pepper!).
Not only they do one tray concept, but also seems they hardly ever have time during meal service to check on your drinks or offer more bread.

intuition

The guy in front of me on a recent flight told the FA he only wanted the main. He was told "starters are included and comes on the tray". He still insisted he only wanted to eat the main and felt it was a waste of food to bring starters to him as they would have to throw them away untouched. After some discussion FA agreed to remove the starters from the tray before serving, but I guess the starters were thrown away in the galley instead.

Now, this food waste problem isn't the product of the tray service. The tray just made it obvious it is difficult to cater the exact right amount of food. I guess an airline "designed for you" could implement personal trays pre-loaded with exactly what each customers wanted (should they know this beforehand)

astra19e

This actually links to a question I was about to ask until I read through the forum. I'm travelling later this year and was wondering whether it's worth ordering a vegetarian meal. It looks like they always have a vegetarian main but not starter or breakfast necessarily. So I wonder if the person in front was asking not to get the starter for that reason.
When I fly BA I don't bother requesting a meal because there's always something to choose from and at worst I have to skip the canapes. It looks like with Finnair I'm better off requesting a meal.

Purserin painajainen

KIX-HEL

Starters were Pickled vegetable maki rolls, and Duck pastrami. Chose Sauteed chicken with potato gratin as main. Everything was decent and the chicken was juicy.

Cheese and chocolate cake were tasty.

And I pretty much always enjoy breakfast; scrambled eggs with bacon, hash brown, ratatouille, cold cuts, yoghurt, fresh fruit.
All in all a forgettable flight. Disinterested crew again, no plat talk, however, they did ask me my food and drink preferences before anyone else, no pre-dinner snack or drink, hasty service. As a side note, didn't remember KIX was such a sloppy place loungewise, no First class lounge, just Sakura which has no showers.

ranskis

When have you flown KIX HEL? I was waitlisted on the 05APR departure but eventually flew as originally booked on 03APR (booked early June 2023 at 80k and no YQ). Same meal but the chicken was too salty and portions quite small. The cake was too spongy and lacked texture and taste. Breakfast was surprisingly good, and I was feeling the same about the poor lounge and the lack of showers.
The best was the equipment change few days before my flight, it went from 30J to 43J, so I booked 9L immediately and ended up being alone in the second cabin, breakfast was served on demand so I could sleep 30-60 more minutes than if there had been a normal noisy service with eggs and coffee smell all around. Excellent service though, plat talk by the purser, very responsible FAs, it felt like first class.