Normally choosing between CX and AY is a no-brainer. But this time it's a more difficult decision. I've never taken AY longhaul, and could use advise from those that have.

I'll be traveling on a DONE3 RTW trip in September. The last portion is:
AMS-KIX-TPE-HKG-BKK-HKG-SFO.

For the AMS-KIX leg I can take AY via HEL or CX via HKG. If I take CX, the trip is 4 hours longer. Also, if I take CX, I will have 5 intra-Asia flights and will have to use about 35K miles or pay $400 since 4 is the limit without additional charge.

In your opinion, is the extra 4 hours and miles worth it?

I would stay away from AY Long Haul.
They still use those last Generation J Class seats
Also those MD11 aircrafts.

The difference is just too great.

You can get really CHEAP Y Class fares on CX between TPE and HKG also HKG-BKK. So no need to pay the 400USD. (Around 1200ish HKD)

It is just NOT worth travelling on AY - Especially on one of your LONG Haul Sectors.

AY offers a fine Asian service (this is their business plan, to grow Asian traffic) and as J is their top class it is very nice; better food and wine than F on many airlines, and better than CX (but only on these routes, not true of AY in general). The planes and seats are old, but comfortable for sitting -- not for sleeping; however the CX J seats are *awful* for sleeping, despite having great specs and ostensibly make into a flat bed at roughly 10 degrees inclination. In practice it doesn't work and you wind up using it as a seat instead of a bed (very comfortable as a seat, nicer than AY has, but AY J is better than AA F domestic seats, to put it into perspective). I love CX dearly and go far out of my way to fly them (since I rarely fly on their routes), but I would pick AY instead in your scenario.

Where would be the best place to purchase such fares? Are they available from the U.S.?

The really low fares are unpublished fares and must be purchased in TPE. Rumor has it that some chinese travel agents in the US have affiliations with Taipei agencies and are able to issue these and Fedex them to you, but I haven't personal experience of it. The published fares (such as you would find on Expedia) are much higher.

For fares ex-HKG, go to http://www.zuji.com/zuji/home/0,1462,ZUJIHK,00.html


For fares ex-TPE, go to bottom of page and click "TAIWAN". Sorry, it's in Chinese only.

OK, 1 for CX and 1 for AY. May as well try out AY, much less time and easier ticketing on this particular route. It's too bad they won't have the new seats installed by then.

Hope all the de-icing fluid hasn't rotted those old MD's to pieces. I'll repost if the experience is notable one way or the other.

Have done HEL-JFK a few times with AY, and was same seats as AA and BA pre flat beds.

The wine on Finnair won a lot of awards last, or the year before.

Helsinki is a nice small airport and has a nice First lounge for long haul J/C OW Emerald.

I am 6'6" and found the seats fine.

Take this post in isolation as I have no experience of CX.

Having flown both (AY half a dozen times, CX lots) I would be happy to go with AY for the time and cash saving. The food is fine, the wine list excellent. On board service is crisply efficient - very different in style to CX but good nonetheless. As noted, HEL is a fab airport to connect through and the long haul business lounge a pleasant place to wait.

The one big issue is the seat which is just a standard late 90's J class seat. The pitch was a little over 50'' iirc - adequate but not world beating.

At least Finnair should get better

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=347949

and that would make the choice more difficult next time. I guess that it would depend on the time of day for me. The daylight flights from Asia to Europe are much better for my transitions than the overnights in a seat not a bed type.

If you like long legged blondes, then I would go for Finnair every time. When I worked in Finland then I found that they were not all tall blonde and beautiful. Some were brunettes

Looking forward to the report.

All in all, the comments offered in this post were fairly accurate. The AY long haul lounge seemed to have two sections, as I was directed to the "First Class" section even though FC service was not offered on the flight. The drink selection was good, the food selection was not - mainly chips, vegetables, dip, and a salad.

On board, the seats were acceptable but we all look forward to the new seats. I got a kick out of being handed, with some importance, the typical pair of slippers and, later, the eyemask for sleeping. No other amenities. Entertainment was via a personal DVD player, with a reasonable selection of movies and a small screen.

The wine was good, the food OK.

The service was fine, but unfortunately it wasn't from one of those blondes/brunettes that spotwelder fondly remembers. My guy was over 200 lbs and bald, but he weighed less than his female counterpart handling the other side. Counterbalance I guess.

I was able to sleep without much trouble and arrived without complication. It is far from the CX experience, but given the time and money savings, I would do this again.

AY's strategy of concentrating on the Asian market seems to be working, as I saw a lot of Chinese and Japanese pax in the long haul section of the airport. But some staff training seems in order, as I saw a few incidents on AY intra-European flights between AY employees and Asian customers that demonstrated insensitivity to the language difficulties faced.

Ay doesn't have FC, but the non-Schengen long-haul lounge is reserved for sapphire/emerald and long-haul business travellers. But there must have been some changes that I haven't seen yet as the non-Shengen side has been extended a couple of months ago.

AY used to give an amenity kit still two years ago, but now they only distribute a few amenities and the rest (such as tootbrush and razors) are in the lavs. One thing I lpersonally like with the AY service is the duvet you get for sleeping (much better than blankets).

Business class on long-hauls is almost always reserved for the senior staff. And sadly it's not a very nice experience for the passenger.

AY has Asian FA's on their Asia long haul flights, however usually they work in the economy class section. Probably they should have a few one on the intra-European connecting flights also. The Asian staff is usually leased from a Chinese company.

Are they doing C-Checks?

Regarding the lounge @HEL, I also smiled at the agent when she asked me to go to their 'first class' side, never heard that word together with AY before, maybe it has something to do with having a consistent approach with other OW Emerald lounges, only exception being that they allow also long haul J pax in to this one...