GaryK84

In mid-March I had a personal greeting from the chief purser on AY on HEL-LHR - maybe some of them use their discretion for this. That was a particularly nice flight, service-wise.

florens

I also recently saw this on a few flights.

travelmoments

Lately I have done some Y long hauls on other OW carriers like Qatar, Iberia etc. and i have to admit that every single time I have been treated much nicer as OW Emerald than the lowly AY plat on Finnair. And not talking about just the greeting. On Iberia I had the whole row blocked for me with a pretty much full plane - and when a guy tried to sneak into my row, the purser chased him away because "I was such an important customer and I need my space to rest". And she kept bringing me the "good" wine from business class.
Very impressive. Never seen that on Finnair.

FFlash

Wow that is putamadregood!
I had once on BA a row blocked” similarly, FA saying to an invader ”these seats are blocked”😁

GeeTee77

3 flights in the past 7 days and got the greeting in all of them (on one of them the purser came twice), maybe not yet enhanced away?

r2d2

Does QR give any other benefits for AY Plats in Y than asking for your meal preference first? They do the greetings well (the FA serving you comes to introduce herself and asks your meal preference at the same time, and towards the end of the flight comes to thank you, and sometimes also the chief of cabin comes to say hi), but I haven’t noticed any real benefits.

On AY long haul I get at least the WiFi for the whole flight as Plat.

mpkz

No, and on QR in DOH you have to go to the "Business Class Lounge" instead of the nicer lounges if you are a plat traveling in economy (normally, I know this was changed because of lounge closures during COVID). These lounges make AY Schengen look good.

I used to be plat on QR and shifted to AY for a reason. Lots of people here have a "grass is greener on the other side" mentality based on one service element. Like people who praise AFKL for their short haul service (but ignore the fact that Flying Blue is rubbish compared to AY+)

kauppias

I guess these grass is greener situations and views really depend on what one needs and wants from a airline...

FB is not perfect but neither is ay plus for sure 😀😀😀

Holding Top tier in both I have found both to be lacking in alot of areas yet I do tend to say FB has its benefits and service is ALOT better but again YMMV... 😏😁

I am plat in both (so not Lumo or Ultimate) and let's see... AY offers upgrade vouchers, AY offers points upgrades at fixed prices instead of dynamic, AY offers upgrades in advance (FB is only at check in or in rare cases ahead of time), AY offers inflight benefits (drinks + wifi, though this is mitigated a bit by KL offering free drinks in Europe anyway), AY is not earnings-based (your choice as to whether this is good or not), AY platinum whatsapp beats KL's platinum call center, AY lounges > KL lounges (but Air France does have the best), Oneworld lounges >>> Skyteam lounges (esp. given that you will not have access to Delta lounges unless flying international).. hard to see what FB would beat AY+ in.. maybe partner upgrades are easier given that quite a few airlines use FlyingBlue directly?

Where do you see FB being better?

CPH-Flyer

As a an Emerald member you did not have to go to the business class lounge, but to the first class lounge, which was certainly nicer than the AY Schengen lounge. The business class lounge (I have never been to it) is now replaced with the silver lounge which is, while not to the level of the Al Mourjan, quite decent. Let's see what happens when the gold lounge eventually opens. If you are a QR Platinum and fly J, you get access to the Al Safwa lounge in Doha. Which is not a bad benefit.
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In terms of service in Y as Emerald in QR, I have had an exit rows all to myself, and when people wanted to move over, the crew stopped them so I could keep my space. Bringing wine from business class I have only had on Cathay, but they were another great example of handling Emerald members in Y.

All frequent flyer programs have their good and bad sides, I find that having the status on the airline you fly the most usually works out the best, there always seem to be some home turf advantages.

lento

I have seen QR Golds and QR Silvers getting similar greetings and meal preference service. Haven't experienced any extra benifits for AY plats.

mpkz

The "First class lounge" in DOH is simply a less crowded version of the business class lounge. Which was still often overcrowded, but not to the point of not finding a seat (which the business class lounge was during most of the departure waves). Of course al Safwa and al Mourjan are amazing lounges but you need to pay for J (note: pay, upgraded J does not get access) to get access.

Seat blocking on QR was also very random, I've flown on almost full flights on rows with others on them while pax without status (no greeting) get full rows. Certainly not systematic. Or at least not in the past, haven't flown QR since 2019.

Anyway often the praise for QR is very much "grass is greener." QSuites product and soft product in the air are amazing, yes, but their on-the-ground service makes AY look like IT geniuses who are super friendly.

Edit: Agree with the final point though! Though often I have choice on which airline I fly most frequently, so FFP plays some part in that choice

intuition

QR is rather protective of their premium cabins and this is one sign of it. You basically need to fly revenue J to get the full perks. One can argue if that is good or bad, and people certainly have different takes on it. I do appreciate the policies though. And it is understandable as the J offer is on a higher level than on most other airlines.


On paper, yes.
Upgrade vouchers has less value if there is no chance to actually use them for upgrades.
I am not arguing that FB is better than AY+. I am just saying that heralding Finnair upgrades is slightly odd to me, they are clearly substantially less valuable and usable than ever before. There is not much difference between a program that only clears upgrades at time och checkin and AY+.

Alec84

I like to mock AY like any other guy, but they deserve some recognition: Every time I have asked the check-in agent to block the seat next to me or the seat between myself and my companion, this has happened. As AA Gold, BA Silver, BA Gold, AY Platinum - same success. To be fair, I don’t fly AY as much as most people here, but still.

mpkz

I guess YMMV with regards to how often upgrades clear. I haven't had big problems with clearing AY upgrades recently (though I have been looking at flights to SIN this summer with upgrade availability and all J availability is zeroed out, wonder if it has anything to do with them introducing Y+ upgrades)

kauppias

Well lets see,

FREE messaging wifi on all flights which wifi is offered and this is enough for me again YMMV... the free all flight on Longhaul is great, though I prefer free messages for the whole family...

The fixed price uogrades are nice sure, but ay J is just not all that in my view. As a Ultimate I get upgrades also on AF KLM thoughthey are guaranteed at booking and not at will upgrades like with ay

As far as opups I have had more on AF then on ay even as platinum.

I have had much better service on AF in J and in Y then on ay.


ay whatsapp is great EXCEPT they are NOT empowered to fix most things, they can make enquiries etc but again... now the AF KLM side I have used the TA for ULTIMATE members and the service there has been good and not them passing the buck. I DONT have much experience with the plat Lime so not Apple vs apples


Lounges yes ONE WORLD wins though the new CDG lounge is great! Beats the ay schengen lounge 100-1

These are all moot points since these are opinions and no one is right when it comes to opinions or I shoudl say EVERYONE IS RIGHT when it comes to opinions

Perhaps I will give a better picture when my LUMO status becomes official I can Compare Ultimate vs LUMO.

I personally value personal service, attentive service VERY HIGH on the scale and this is one area where ay fails way too often, gives excuses way too often, and rarely fixes anything IME...


finnair Upgrades are just too unreliable to me to herald... if they have op issues they will and can down grade you and wont compensate. If they cancel your out of luck and getting a upgrade to clear is hard enough... i have had several upgrades clear day of flight so far from optimal