I see a market for unbundled business fares on longhaul flights, where the seat is a significant upgrade compared to economy (and indeed the main motivation to go in business) if those fares are priced significantly lower than normal business fares (which is not the case with Finnair).

But why on Earth would anyone pay for business light within Europe? I checked a fare for VIE-HEL (my main route with AY) two months from now. Economy light is 118, business light is 299. What I get for the fare difference is an empty seat and a meal - not really worth it. Worse yet, if I booked an empty economy seat next to me (not sure if AY does it, but most airlines do), I'd still pay only 236. Is Finnair J meal really worth 63 euros? (EDIT: I checked their website and they indeed do it and they don't charge taxes on the extra seat, meaning that the price of that meal would be even higher)

European business class is all about the ground services. Take that away and the product doesn't make any sense.

I could see a unbundled J fare being a success but I doubt a J fare with zero luggage will be successfull...

Perhaps 1 bag at 23kg and it might appeal to some for the better seat.... But not at Finnair Price point....

I miss the most the warm towel in euro-J. Imo that's worth 63�.

For sure is there a market for unbundled fares, but who do want as your customer? The one who only buy the absolute minimum for his needs? Or the one is willing to pay a certain amount to get a full product. These new fares are only a price hike for the later.

Give the fact the earning points will be harder and also X% of the orignial customers are going for the light fares and others will go with different airlines, there won t be a Platinum Lounge in HEL for very long (my guess) - and paying a hefty surcharge for normal lounge would also make the new fares less attractive.

Well this is odd - in looking into Business Light vs Business Classic, many HEL-SIN and HEL-HKG fares in the last few months of the year show Business Light as more expensive than Classic and even Flex!

edit: for some reason, uploaded image not showing, but it's a screenshot of HEL-HKG showing Light at €1639, Classic at €1190 and Flex at €1506

Happy update: Finnair has confirmed to me that Finnair Plus and Oneworld frequent flyer status perks (eg lounge access, checked luggage, seat selection, priority airport services) still apply when travelling on its new unbundled Business Light fares.

More on this at https://www.executivetraveller.com/n...led-fare-guide

As to the checked luggage, is it one or two bags? 23kg or 32kg?

One bag, 23 kg, although the heavy bag fee is waived at least for AY Plats. Maybe AY Golds, too?

Business Light is available to US also. At least from Finland, Russia and the Baltics.

OWE only.

However, the wording "The heavy bag charge can only be paid at the airport. The charge is not collected from Business Class passengers or Finnair Plus Platinum or oneworld Emerald members." is still shown on the AY site. So would this mean if a statusless BLIGHT pax pays for bags afterwards they don't pay the overweight fee? They did purchase businetic bounce after all.

I find it interesting that Mr. Manner has recently commented the following while speaking at CAPA Live:

So they introduce a business ticket designed to frustrate, while expecting people to be looking to pay extra. Their game plan with BLIGHT must be to have even more encouragement for people to pay more for their better tickets. The better tickets, of course, semi-secretly enjoyed a price bump, justified because BLIGHT exists and is supposed to be the cheap option.

I like this new EcoFlex pricing in Europe.

For the first time ever I bought today AY's Eco Flex -ticket.

Which route and what price?

It is now tens of euros over the value classic price on a half-round-trip basis. As opposed to IATA YY fare levels of insanely expensive.

TLL-BUD was my favorite today. 139,62�