3544quebec

To be fair, if they had provided you with the spoon as well, the refueling would have taken twice as long

ffay005

I don't think I will unless something extraordinary comes up. There is no one thing that is especially subpar, it's just that the product in general leaves a lot to be desired, especially compared to what it used to be. But it's probably not a surprise to AY HQ. For 1400 EUR, this is almost okay. Had I paid 3000 EUR, I would be mad.

That’s probably true, although it’s not the spoon I missed, I would have wanted a second knife and fork. First smoked salmon and then veal with the same utensils doesn't sound like business class. But it very much sounds like kindergarten class, so what am I complaining about?

By the way, could anyone come up with a cheaper appetizer than throwing a cauliflower head in a blender and serving a spoonful of it on a small plate?

miamiflyer8

At that price it's fine I guess, seems like AY is shifting their business model to TAP Portugal style. Affordable J fares with mediocre service and catering.

ffay005

The mindset of this crew is just incredible. I walked back to the rear galley because I wanted to see how many pax there were in economy. Reaching the galley, the following conversation took place:

Me: Hi, do you remember how many passengers we have in economy today?
FA1: Why?
Me: Well, because it takes too long for me to count them all.
FA1: …
Me: (Laughing) I’m just curious.
FA1: I don't remember.
FA2: There’s 175.

After this, FA1 still looked at me as if I had at least two heads. Seriously? ”Why?”

NB: Neither FA was part of the HK based crew. There’s at least one on board, and she’s as friendly and competent as they come. But the newly hired contract staff is another bunch.

ffay005

It's funny you should mention TAP because I just flew them on two six-hour flights (TMS; A321LR in J) and was about to compare TAP and AY here, but then decided against it. TAP food was about on par with AY, service was friendly but passive and non-proactive. When you asked for something, you got it and you didn't feel like a burden to the crew.

The problem is that AY doesn't always come cheap. As a matter of fact, they are selling some incredibly expensive J tickets right now, and for those prices, this is certainly not acceptable while TAP clearly has a concept of a watered-down J at a watered-down price, which is fair enough.

However, at least as far as the crew is concerned, I believe this is ARN-related. The HK based FAs who served me on ARN-LAX were both great. Here's to hoping that true AY FAs will work on ARN flights in the future and the ARN-hired contract staff find themselves new jobs that suit them better.

ffay005

I haven't managed to sleep at all and just realised that no midflight snacks have been offered at all. I requested and got a tomato-mozzarella minisandwich, a pastrami minisandwich and a fruit salad. All were good.

ffay005

We got breakfast. As there were no menus and the pie on my tray was unrecognizable, I asked the FA what it was (as you can imagine, there was no proactive explanation in lieu of the menu). I was told it was a quiche with bacon and cheese. I then went on and tasted it. I swear to God, Allah and anyone else interested that there was no cheese and no ham in it, more like spinach and eggs.

I sent it back and was obnoxious enough to tell the FA that if he doesn't know what he is serving, he should say so instead of making something up that doesn't hold true. Kudos to him, though, he proactviely brought a paper box with some sort of hash brown and breakfast sausage and said it was a crew meal and asked if I wanted that instead. I declined, but it was a nice touch (and he did it before my remark, and not because of it).

I'm glad this flight is over soon.

ffay005

ARN passport queue 11 minutes. Not bad.

To say something positive for a change, I forgot to mention that I was also issued a BP for ARN-HEL at LAX. Without asking. (Separate tickets and bag through-checked.)

FCO36

Hello,

I am booked on AY 29 to JFK next month connecting from HEL on AY (in J if that matters). Connection time is 1h50 which I presume is reasonable and doable. My question is about checked bags making the connection. I've read all the horror stories about the situation at ARN but could not find anything on that topic.

Any advices or help will be very much appreciated before I'm trying to find an alternative routing.

Thanks!

supersympa

Hello fellow FT members,

I am trying to book a direct flight ARN to LAX for the familly.
( I will be myself already in the US for work and I want them to avoid transfers as they are not as geek as me....)

According to Finnair timetable schedule below, there is a AY003 direct from ARN to LAX....
https://www.finnair.com/en/timetables

Departure Sun 23 Oct 2022
Stockholm–Los Angeles

Total duration 10 h 50 minDeparture Sun 11:30 Stockholm Arlanda (ARN), Stockholm
Terminal 5
AY003
Operated by Finnair
Airbus A350-900
10 h 50 min
Arrival Sun 13:20 Los Angeles International (LAX), Los Angeles
Terminal B

but when I try to book it, it does not show anywhere on BA website, Finnair or ITAs....
is the flight already fully booked or is there a glitch?

Thank you for your answers.

OH-LGG

AY has zeroed all Sunday departures ARN-LAX between 04SEP22-23OCT22.

supersympa

ok, thanks

not enough pax?

ffay005

Don't worry. I flew LAX-ARN-HEL today with a 3-hour layover. Passport control took 11 minutes, bag was checked straight through and made it to HEL just nicely, actually it appeared very fast on the carousel, about 20 minutes after touchdown.

1 h 50 min will be more than enough. HEL-ARN-JFK, you will not go landside at ARN. Only queue for passport control. There is plenty of time both for you and your bag.

I went landside at ARN today on my layover to have some sushi at Skycity. There was something like a 1-minute wait at the goons to re-enter the terminal as well as security, where fast track took less than 10 minutes. This was around noon. Even the regular security queue didn't look bad at that time.

Turboprince

Not sure I quite understand - If I arrive with BA from LHR and connect to AY’s LAX or JFK service… I need to fully exit and then do security and passport again prior to making it to the AY gate?

I thought if you arrive non-Schengen in ARN T5 and depart non-Schengen from ARN T5 then you won’t have to go through any passport/immigration or security checks??

What am I missing here?

FCO36

Thank you so much! that's reassuring!