AY J Class (New)
 

I will be taking AY next week from BKK-HKG.

Are all the MD11 equipped with the new beds?

I went on finnair.com and there appears to be some error on the seat map. The config is 2/2/2 for all rows. However based on the panaroma shots it appears there are 2 rows of 2/2/2 and then converts to 2/3/2.

Also something strange is showing on Expertflyer:

Only the 1st row is showing 2/2/2 then row 2 starts with 2/3/2?

Are there mutiple configs of the MD11?

Also jsut to confirm 1L seems to be the best seat is the house (with like 4+ windows all the yourself and even if 1 J reclines there shouldn't be any problem.

Anything I should be aware of when flying AY (food, service etc...)
I presume I will just use the CX lounge @ BKK.

Really excited as it is my first time travelling on the MD11

I haven't flown new J on AY, but I think there is still 1 MD11 left to convert. There are differences in the interior in each of the planes (AY has a real mismatched fleet). MD11s are wide enough for 2-3-2 J seating and I imagine that the online seat map is wrong (or rather, they make a subset of the seats available online, that every single plane has, and then manually assign the extra seats which differ from plane to plane).

Good luck with the BKK lounge situation, there is still a lot of construction left to do at the airport and most of the lounges are still not built. After all it has only been 2 months that the new airport is operating (the automated baggage system is also not working properly, so some chance that any bags you check will miss the flight). AY food is OK but not great but their wine selection is excellent (not so much expensive as well chosen and interesting). It isn't trying to compete with CX F wines, but is better than most airlines have in J. Service tends to be mixed (combination of IB and BA), however the greatly improved J amenities help a lot. I've had lots of chances to fly AY in the new J, but chose to fly BA/QF/AA instead.

I did BKK-HEL in J in Aug, new config, had 3E, which was middle seat, so it was 2-3-2 on the flight I was on.
Can't say anything about row 1 but row 2 was 2-3-2 as well.

I did HKG-BKK-HEL a few weeks ago. My understanding from vaious threads in the "other European" forum is that all MD11 aircraft have the new seats and that there are 2 configs. FWIW the aircraft I flew on had the layout you descirbe above. I was in 3C which was fine, but the clear winner on this aircraft is the first row middle section ( I had been offered these seats when I purchased but declined as I'm not a bulkhead fan, however, in retrospect they look fantastic). There is probably 18" extra legroom for these two seats. They use it for the newspaper racks during bording. The clear loser is the second row middle seat as it misaligns and looks to have restricted legroom.

The new seats are alright, a bit too hard for my taste, but I still got about 7 hours sleep. As far as the angled lie flat seats go, I personally find the QF and CX seats more comfy than these. Food was decent, the wine list is fantastic and the service a bit motherly.

HKG and HEL airports are fantastic compared to the dump that is the new BKK

I just checked in online and managed to get those centre seats!!!

However I noticed the following worrying info:

From Class
Bangkok BKK Business
To
Hong Kong Kai Tak HKG


Lets hope it is a system glitch. I am a little worry travelling on a MD11, but also excited at the same time.

WIll post some photos after the flight.

Slightly OT but there seems to be an AY biz RTW fare ex Australia for about half the cost of a DONE4 see
http://www.bestflights.com.au/cgi-bi...indetails=3023
no internal US flights though
Apologies if this is old news

These cost AUD 6500 -- is a DONE4 really AUD 13000 now ex-Australia? I haven't checked fares recently, but thought it was under $10K. DONE4 mileage is over double that on this fare and has much more flexible routing rules (limited to a single Asian city on the AY RTW, for example, and cannot hub out of HEL or LHR to get to another European city; essentially all of the 5 stopovers must be enroute).

All MD11's have the new J seats. They are better than the older ones, but they aren't extactly beds.

The 2nd row has a 2-3-2 combination, as have all the rows behind it.

My favourite seat is 4J, it's the last seat in the front cabin (the second cabin can be noisier because you have babies sitting in the first row of Y behind the curtain). There's ample legroom, but the advantage of sitting in the last row is that no one will grab your seatback when they get up from their seat behind you.

Service is Finnish, meaning it is warm and friendly but it might not appear like that to people who are used to being more pampered.

Perhaps when they see the big X on the runway they will realise they are landing at the wrong airport:D

Current DONE4 base price is AUD9699; +++'s on a 20 segment booking through QF could easily get it up to AUD11000

I wasn't too impressed about the CX lounge, at least the food selection.

On AY BKK-HKG I got an invitation to the J contract lounge. CX clearly was superior to that. On a similar cheapo AY T class BKK-SIN ticket I got invitation to F contract lounge, which had a better food choice. Chicken satay, corn cream soup etc.

Well Just got off the flight and they did NOT fly into KAi Tak! ahahahah.

The Kai Tak Run way has been demolished already I think? They are planning to build a big complex there with canals etc..

Alright a quick flight check on AY91:

1) CHeckin - Area S. The poorly sign posted airport make it hard to find the counters, but my limo managed to called ahead and drop me at the correct entrance. There were a few counters opened, but I think there were only 20 J Class pax goign from BKK-HKG and there were no one lining up. Checkin took around 5 minutes and the agent wrote up a J Class CIP (contract lounge) invitation to me. I pointed out I am Emerald and she gave me a F Class invitation. I also asked for the Priority tags, Xmas tags and any AY products.


2) Lounge.
No sign post to show you where the lounge is. YOu ahve to go down 1 level to Level 3 (at the spilt between E and F Piers)

The F Class CIP lounge is actually a Priority Pass Lounge (which I have access anyway). It is also used by QF/BA/UA as well. A small selection of food, no satays but some disgusting pork balls on skewers. There is a fridge with Ice Cream (BUDS).

I moved to the CX lounge after that and they told me a F Class lounge are under construction next door. There are some dim sums, pastries, sandwiches, the usual drinks selections. Decor is the Wing style with white marble. Plenty of desktop computers

I jsut walked past the construction site of the BA/QF lounge. Apparently it cost them 39,321,178.356 THB for the fitout.

Boarding

The security are now located at the beginning of each piers. Which imo is better than the stupid system in Don Muang (getting screen twice)

You have to go down a ramp to Level 2 for boarding. BAsically after the validate the BP you are thrown into a holding pen until boarding commences

Cabin.

On the OH-LGC, the J Class cabin are 2/2/2 on the first row and the rest is 2/3/2. 1A and 1C decided not to turn up and I was in 1D. So I helped myself to pictures. The BEST J Class seat on the plane is definitely 1D with plenty of legroom. A Magazine trolley is placed in front but there are so much room and it didn't cause any problems.

Toilets are stocked with the amenity also with sergio T perfume and a nice water mist spray. (however I cannot believe someone in BKK must've done a number 2 and the cleaners didn't even bother to plush it!!! and they just place the disposable cover on the toilet seat!)

The MD11 is really interesting. It is definitely feeling really retro (the FA light controls are manual with the turning button for dimming the cabin. Just behind the forward J Cabin is the IFE centre where a small room is boxed in with the MAS (IFE) equipment and a special armchair for the ISM

The circle window on the doors are really unique and they don't have a blind cover, instead and turning circle whereby it turns completely black

Overhead lockers are also strange (really box feel).

Overall the cabin looks fresh and I like the bright blue colour scheme.

There is a LCD on the bulkhead showing the airshow ( in 4 languages! - Thai, English, Finnish, Chinese - Traditional)

Cabin Crew:

Service is pretty good although not your typical CX/SQ type, but more European and they are not like the annoying QF surly service. They know they have limitations (eg. age of planes) but they try really hard to make ur service experience really count.


Food:

This is a major let down. The appentiser were some prawn and smoked fish salad with pomelo, too salty for my liking. THe main course was Beef Massaman Curry - really chewy and spicy. and Cream Salmon with potato.

The dessert was a lime moouse cake which was disgusting.

However the Champange was really good - Laurent Perrier!

The glass and cultery are really interesting! Especially the knife (like a butter spread) the wine glass does take tiem to get used to. They also decant their wine as well!

Espresso Coffee was available but average quality.

Other Service Amenity:

PSP was available but u need to ask for it (as I saw a bag saying FINNAIR - PSP lying in the galley so I asked)

Linen Pillows and also a Duvet were available. Must say it is really good and I used it as a mattress pad.


Seat:

During taxi, landing and standby, the seats are locked so u can't play around with it. I actually really like the seat and IMO it is better than the CX/QF SLope type of seats which I am accustomed to. In bed mode it provides ample room (Both Arm rest are retracted FULLY flushed to the seat - unlike the hopeless Skybed where around 0.5 inch comes up) However the controls are harder to use and less customise compare to QF and CX.

Also there is a safety feature whereby if ur tray table is up they won't allow u to fully recline (prob a smart thing as the table arm rest also goes fully down!

Some people said the seat is too hard, I find it jsut right. Much better than Skybeds whereby the paddings are pretty weak ( I can feel the metal bars in the seat!!)

The linen blanket is definitely the winner! as the CX J blanket is hopeless!

Overall was a plesant experience except for the catering. I really enjoyed it and will try it again if the price is right!

Also we had a really good gate on arrival (16 I recall) and I took the e-channel and had no luggage. Was basically out from gate to the airport express train in less than 10 minutes!


I took like 70 photos so if anyone is interested please let me know.

Well sure everyone loves pictures! :cool:

We want these pictures.^