intuition

All the after-flight surveys in the good old days had these 2 separate questions:
What class did you fly (Business or Tourist)?
What was the purpose of the trip (Business or Tourist)?

So they surely have some numbers of this.

OH-LGG

4th A333 with new cabin coming this week from HKG.

Finaviator

Flew HEL-LAX in business with the A359 "old" seats and back home from DFW last Sunday with the new business seats and my what a difference... The new seats are so much better and the sleeping comfort was a huge improvement. I'm 190cm and sat in 3D on both flights. Also the dark blue colour of the upholstery and the birch "wood" was much more pleasing to the eye than the bland white/grey of the old cabin. Did not find any problems having no seat recline on the new seat. Also the memory foam pillows were comfortable and the privacy was great. Jatkoon!

AY1337

Gotta say, I was pretty annoyed with having booked the new experience (ORD) and having a last minute equipment change to A359. Given that I paid actual money for an actual J seat, I don't think I got what I was sold.

intuition

I guess I am the last one.. But today I am flying the new cabin on A359.

I am sure the seat is good for sleeping and my worries about too small pitch is gone.
Sitting is another matter. I can't find a way to sit upright comfortably. Now, I've been sitting in the lounge all day, so that surely affects me, but I got antsy already before pushback. Seat is too short, no support for thighs and I keep sliding into a slouching position with even less leg support. If I move to one side I'm sitting on the seatbelt buckle, if I move to the other, I get strangled by the belt
The one decent position is leaning my upper body slightly to the side and resting my head in my hand, supported by the elbow on the table.
Tried the pillows and I can't make that work. I probably need 4 pillows, one for shoulder support, one for neck support, one on the table side as armrest and one under me for leg support.
Like I said, I am probably cranky due to extended lounge sitting, and perhaps one can learn how to use the pillows but something is not right when one has to research and learn how to sit comfortably.

Slouching positions are better, like putting feet up on the divan. This stops me from sliding down, but still no upper back or head support. And it isn't a natural sitting position for me.


I totally understand that some has said PE is probably better for a day flight.

choosethedrew

I recently flew the new J seat HEL - JFK - HEL.

In short, I loved it.

When I first sat down, like others I thought it really lacked under thigh support. I felt like I was going to slide forward out of the seat. I suppose with traditional reclining seats they tilt the squab and then as it goes flat the angle disappears.

However after sitting in the seat for a while, with the firm cushion in the small of my back, it was super comfy and slouchy. I really appreciated the extra width and ability to lounge floppily before going to sleep, I loved the way I could shift about and not have my position prescribed. The lack of reclining mechanism wasn’t simply not missed, it was appreciated.

As for sleeping, it was truly great, I must have set my record for uninterrupted sleep and I have taken Qantas J LHR-PER!

All in all, what with the beautiful airport in HEL, the lounges, the food and the seat, I was in seventh heaven. But then I am used to BA, so very easy to please

Although I did commit the fatal and rookie error of sitting in the wrong seat!! I plonked myself in 1A but I was of course on the other side in 1K, which I selected to see Greenland HEL - JFK. The rightful owner of 1A fumed as he approached my seat but when he got 1K he was fine. I put that down to the beautiful bar in the lounge…

NoWindowSeat

This is very much a first world problems post, hardly worth a comment anywhere else than possibly here on FT, which has always been about the pointy end at all costs and avoiding the steerage like a plague. Anyway, I had my first LH non-J flight through last night since 2004, AY in PE HEL-SIN. I really needed/wanted to travel on certain dates, J was ridiculously expensive (5-6 months out) and of course, as we all know, upgrades are next to impossible to/from SIN, even more so now post Covid. BA/QR were either sold out or again crazy expensive so PE it was. Didn’t look outside the OW world.

I know tens of millions passengers survive even longer flights on worse airlines every week even further down the aisle so hardly an achievement to say I lived through the experience to see another day, I hope.

BS aside, my observations and experiences about AY’s new PE cabin & service as AY Plat:

Positives:

-boarding was well organized, priority lane/area worked well, no need to fight for overhead space for carryons

-PE looks nice and the seat is relatively comfortable, but cannot really compare to anything other than BA WT+ from ages ago

-21J was a good choice, nice legroom

-SIN based crew was very good and attentive, the purser came personally to introduce himself and offered PDB champagne from J in proper glass (only time I saw real glass on the flight)

-food was actually quite ok in taste (salmon and gnocchi) but portions were crazy small for the length of the flight

-seat is good for sitting and lounging and I even slept surprisingly well..for 5-6 hrs in total. The front row in PE is good as very little traffic on the aisle. J stays in their ivory tower and us in steerage have no business going that way either

-the neck pillow was ok, amenity kit the same as in J, as we know



Negatives:

-the toilet situation is appalling in the high J config 359 for PE pax, big negative

-the seat feels cheap, leg rest button needs too much force to operate, the table had already loose cover plate



Summary:

-you get what you pay for, crying babies can found in F as well so nothing particular to AY PE but the odds are different and I got the short stick this time around

-it feels very exposed, naturally, compared to J

-all in all it was better & more comfortable than I feared, the legroom alone makes it bearable and it’s wide enough not to feel totally cramped

-would I do it again, it depends, but I must say I wouldn’t be tol afraid anymore on the 2nd try. I’ll happily pay quite a big delta to fly J, which is of course how it’s all designed to be

ffay005

What about a shortish, say 8 hour, daytime flight? If oneway PE was 500 EUR and J 1250 EUR, which one would you pick?

miamiflyer8

I’ll answer as well, me being statusless these days and buying whatever is the most reasonable J fare is for a 3hrs+ journey I’d still go for J. I like the privacy and being able to nap a couple of hours as well as not being crammed which I want to avoid at all costs being 195cm and 110kg. Add in the F&B too plus lounge and other priority services makes it worthwhile for me.

NoWindowSeat

In the above case, paying from my own pocket, it would be a close a call. 750€ would be a lot oneway, 50k points in a heartbeat for sure.

Sorry that I cannot give a definite answer, 400-500€ oneway it would be a no-brainer but your 750ow/1500rtn is too close to my financial breaking point to call it, particularly for a shorter daytime flight. To/from Asia I’d go for J.

LoungeEnthusiast

Really liked the new J last week on HEL-LAX. It feels spacious and sleeping was much easier than in the old config. The screen is of a good size and functions well. We were really lucky since they changed the aircraft during previous night - normally they don’t fly new J to LAX, as you know…

Booked the trip in May during the triple points campaign and choose the outbound flight that had immediate upgrade availability for two (inbound DFW-HEL didn’t clear from the waitlist - admittedly, the flight was very full).

Jainzar

Now after some flights, +1 gave her verdict.

J is good for sleeping, but for sitting even Y is better than J. Pillow or not, J seats create simply back pain.

This means saving money on dayflights is fully acceptable.

NoWindowSeat

Very good if more people feel like this = better chances for upgrades, I would never take Y over the new J, it’s not _that_ bad for sitting/lounging..and privacy being excellent.

kauppias

With the new product I will choose J for night and PE for day flight, I dont like lounging in the new style seat, though with the mess it is now AY is NOT my carrier of choice for cash bookings to anywhere 😞

intuition

Kind of agree with both.
Sure, if U is available J is preferrable over Y. But in a situation where you need to pay monies for either ticket, it is more complicated on a flight where you expect to sit up for many hours.