OH-LGG

AIRPORT INFORMATION

LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (LAX) IS THE MAIN AIRPORT IN THE AREA.

• Finnair flight: check-in in the International Terminal
• Check-in opens 2,5 hours before departure
• Check-in closes an hour before departure

https://www.finnair.com/fi/gb/destin...ca/los-angeles

Post Scriptum

Thanks, I was too blind with multiple false google hits, dunno why it was so difficult.

mhle

I have now flown AY1/2 twice, both times with domestic connections after AY1 and before AY2. A brief summary of lounge options and other experiences at LAX.

After my first AY1, the immigration was a chaos and took about 1 hour (flight was on time). The second time I literally walked through the immigration without any waiting (flight was about 1 hour delayed). Both times the transfer security has been completely empty and there was no waiting time.

After the transfer security, one ends up in Terminal 4 and the AA Flagship lounge is almost the first thing one sees. Flagship lounge is an excellent option if connecting after AY1. My domestic flights departed both times from American Eagle Regional terminal, which requires transfer with a separate shuttle bus from Terminal 4 (takes about 5-15 minutes of waiting time and 5 minutes of travel time). First time I skipped the Flagship lounge and waited in the Admirals Club in the regional terminal. This Club in the regional terminal is very small and limited. The option of waiting in the Flagship lounge and minimizing the time in regional terminal seems to be the best approach.

Before flying back on AY2, two good options are Qantas First lounge in the international terminal and AA Flagship lounge in Terminal 4. The walking time from AA Flaship lounge to Qantas lounge is about 10 minutes and time from Qantar lounge to the gate the Finnair has used both times (the last gate of the international terminal) about 5 minutes. Qantas First lounge wins clearly regarding the food (a la carte dining with several very nice options) and several champange brands to select from. However, beer selection was somewhat limited. The staff is very nice and the lounge is very quiet until about 19:00 when it is time to start leaving the lounge. The AA Flagship lounge is more busy before AY2. Food offerings are OK (buffet style), but not even close to what Qantas has. Champagne is available as self serve and beer selection is impressive, with several local craft beers.

My preferred option if connecting from domestic flight to AY2 is to first have a beer (or a glass of champagne) in the Flagship lounge and then walk to Qantas First lounge for pre-flight dinner. After the 3-course dinner, there is no need to eat on AY2 and one can focus on sleeping throughout the flight.

Post Scriptum

Also some comments on AY1/2. S-fare campaign tickets yielded surprisingly good points, 11200 r/t incl. Plat bonuses. Ay1 is patologically late, possibly partially because of aircraft rotation but CC also mentioned the passenger interviews slowing down the boarding on AY1. Just looking stats, almost one hour delays are more than common, add strong headwinds to the mix and would not be surprised of 2h+ delays just waiting to happen. At LAX Qantas First enforces strict guesting rules (unlike e.g. CX F and BA F lounge at LHR) and only one guest is allowed in. The joint OW J lounge is still okay, reasonable food options and quite spacey prior AY2 departure, also QF first was a ghost town around 5pm so dinner service was fast. Although, as I don't have experience on the real first class terminal dining options, I was not overtly impressed by the food but the champagne was really good and made AY's onboard bubbly taste like cheap sparkling wine. Interesting to see how the platinum wing dining will pan out, in case they will ever open the lounge

Lefly

How are service and food on AY1?
Also, semi-OT, anyone can tell if the J mini cabin is served after the J main cabin, or at the same time?
I left until too late to call AY to pick better seats than row 11 (BA codeshare = no online seat selection available), now J is basically full* with no options for 4 seats together... and so we're stuck in row 11.

Thanks!

*We're flying in July. I checked the seat maps for the flight after and before and they are basically already full as well. Did AY make some promotion for flying J to LAX?

flyingeph12

It isn't always the case, but generally in my experience meal orders are taken in order of status. As a Plat, I often get asked my meal preferences before others (except if there are Lumos on board, of course! ). I actually tend to prefer the mini cabin, in fact.

sakari1707

On AY2 last week rows 1-5 were served from front galley and rows 6-12 from midgalley.
I was in 5A, but they did recognize my OWE status and got served amongst the first ones. Service was a bit slow, all food and drinks hand delivered from the galley, but all in all I think very good service, food mostly ok, maybe catering from HEL is better?
Y was oversold and many pax upgraded, thus front C cabing full and minicabin had maybe 4-5 empty seats. For breakfast they didn't put the bright lights on, instead served breakast trays as people woke up.... very good.

Boarding was only from door 1L, so pre-champagne was served only after boarding was completed and made it very rushed and not very pleasant experience.

Post Scriptum

Orders taken first yes, food serving, not. On both legs order part went well (rows 1 and 5 respectively) but I was at most in the middle regarding to delivery of the order. Let alone on AY1 AY IT lost my preordered food so no reindeer for me...

ffay005

This must be very rare. Usually, if only one door, it's 2L.

miamiflyer8

I recall reading some time ago that specific to LAX 1L is used, SK boards Y and Y+ first and J last. They sell it by saying that the cabin won't be too hectic during boarding...

Lefly

Well, I do really hope this route is better than JFK-HEL... or I will definitely scratch AY from my long haul option list (at least going west).

FlyingFinn

"Better" is a highly subjective qualifier. Care to elaborate?

JFK-HEL is a rather short red eye flight and that brings with it plenty of issues. Most of the time I think the crew are doing their best to accommodate everyone, but people have different needs and ideas of what the service should be and the short flight time just doesn't stretch well for that.

flyingeph12

Lefly

I flew JFK-HEL twice last summer, and both times the food was the worst I had in J, all served at once on one tray and with a frozen solid ice cream at the end. I found also breakfast to be very minimal. A shame, as the couple of short haul meals I tried were very, very good.

Now, at least for LAX the plane is an A350, a bit newer as seats and probably with a wider IFE selection too compared to the A333... but I hoped for meal offering to be, indeed, better.

P.S.
Is there a "Snack bar" available between meals?

rasheed

Yes.
https://www.finnair.com/us/gb/business-class-menus

I also see that this flight is not very timely as mentioned earlier. I am familiar with many of these turnaround long haul flights (EK/EY/QR). So either, they need to increase the ground time at LAX or change the cut-off time for those trying to board AY1. I agree that all of the US protocols (bag search, interviews, etc.) just take a lot of time. I would prefer to see the make the listed departure time earlier on AY1 to help the situation.