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How utterly annoying (flight change)

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How utterly annoying (flight change)

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Old Jul 27, 2009, 6:22 am
  #1  
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Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
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How utterly annoying (flight change)

Just saw that our Embraer flight got changed to an A319 and our seats got shifted. No more Emergency row seats (4 across) for the four of us And the currently allocated ones are all taken and seems like we may even have some stranger sitting right between us too.

Can one call the Finnair desk prior to the flight and get them to move us a free row and thus take up seats A, B, C and D? The flight is taking place on saturday...

Or should I just use the "upgrade" offer of 99€ and get us all into Business instead? There seems to be space there...

At least from what I've read here, an Airbus could possibly have a better Economy class meal than on an Embraer, and ditto for Business class. Speaking of which, what should one expect in Business (meal wise) on a GVA-HEL flight in an A319?

Last edited by Shinigami; Jul 27, 2009 at 6:33 am
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Old Jul 27, 2009, 6:58 am
  #2  
 
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Embraer to A319 is an upgrade. In any class.
And yes, you can always call Finnair to ask for changing the seats. I've done that quite a many times, naturally when using company phone.
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Old Jul 27, 2009, 7:14 am
  #3  
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ok, sounds good, guess that's what I'll be doing then. Don't think ~800€ is quite worth it to upgrade 4 people each way for this trip... Especially as it seems the meals are not too bad and we'd only be missing out on free champagne in the plane.

Do have two more questions tho':

1) seems that the lounges in HEL are not open on Sunday, is this so? One reason less to upgrade a return flight.
2) I'm a oneworld Emerald (BA Gold) and my girlfriend is Sapphire (BA Silver), so we should have lounge access, but can each of us guest someone else into the lounge, or does this mean that we're stuck just the two of us being able to get into a lounge?

It would seem from the following, that we can each bring one guest into the BA/oneworld lounge in GVA:

Emerald: When travelling on any of the oneworld member airlines, any customer who has earned Emerald tier status, is welcome (with one guest travelling on a flight operated and marketed by a oneworld airline) at any oneworld airlines' pre-flight lounges, including First Class, Business Class and frequent flyer lounges regardless of the class they are travelling in.

Sapphire: When travelling on any oneworld member airline, any customer with Sapphire tier status is welcome (with one guest travelling on a flight operated and marketed by a oneworld airline) at any oneworld airlines' pre-flight Business Class and frequent flyer lounges regardless of class of travel.
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Old Jul 27, 2009, 7:55 am
  #4  
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Upgrade all of your seats to biz for the 319 flight, if the 99 euro offer is still valid. And just hope you will not be shifted back to the Brazilian toy plane.

e: Mealwise, biz has the full three course meal.

Last edited by mosburger; Jul 27, 2009 at 7:58 am Reason: sp and details
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Old Jul 27, 2009, 10:37 am
  #5  
 
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OP, please check this info! I am not sure whether AY offers hot meal in business specifically HEL-GVA-HEL route. I think not on E170, as this has been my experience and recently AY flight hostess told me it's only cold meal there. Maybe there's different service on Airbus.
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Old Jul 27, 2009, 10:59 am
  #6  
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It's ok, no big deal really. Seeing the reports on airlinemeals and on this forum, it seems that even Economy passengers get a hot meal on an A319.

And according to the lounge rules, we should all 4 be able to get into a lounge both in GVA and in HEL (if the lounges are open in HEL... seems like different sites give different information when it comes to Sunday).

So it doesn't make much sense upping to Business as I won't get extra points of miles from it either (if I understood the conditions of the upgrade correctly).

I just need to find a way to seat the 4 of us in a comfortable manner. Will be calling Finnair tomorrow.
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Old Jul 30, 2009, 10:33 pm
  #7  
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Had I been in your position, travelling four pax, I would also call for seats together. Travelling alone, I'll take the upgrade.

But, for sure, I agree with ocha, the change of plane is an upgrade already!

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Old Aug 1, 2009, 12:04 pm
  #8  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
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Originally Posted by tiltslope
OP, please check this info! I am not sure whether AY offers hot meal in business specifically HEL-GVA-HEL route. I think not on E170, as this has been my experience and recently AY flight hostess told me it's only cold meal there. Maybe there's different service on Airbus.
in A320s they usually serve a hot meal even in Y if the flight is >2h and definately do in J.

Embraer is a different story; because of the very limited ovens onboard the only hot thing they serve in Y is tea and coffee, but even then J gets a warm meal (not sure about short hops like ARN, but in general).
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Old Aug 1, 2009, 6:57 pm
  #9  
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Originally Posted by mkgrip
in A320s they usually serve a hot meal even in Y if the flight is >2h and definately do in J.

Embraer is a different story; because of the very limited ovens onboard the only hot thing they serve in Y is tea and coffee, but even then J gets a warm meal (not sure about short hops like ARN, but in general).
The standard three course warm meal at least on all Embraer flights between Helsinki and various German destinations. The single oven is used exclusively for biz passengers.
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