Point redemption advice - BA or AY in Business.

[ChrisCunard]

I've got enough QF points for a LHR - SIN flight in Business.

Two options are:

BA direct on A380
AY via Helsinki - A321 and then A350

I am Platinum with QF so premium lounge access is sorted.

Which is the better use of points? Is AY's A350 worth the 3 hour A321 flight or is BA the way to go?

Any advice would be great.

 

[I love to travel]

I would find out AY taxes as BA can be very high. Neither are brilliant both are fine.

 

[Mattg]

Easy - go Finnair.

I say that for two reasons:
1. Taxes (well, fuel surcharges actually) will be significantly lower
2. Finnair has much better service than BA and a significantly better hard product on their A350 compared to BA's A380

HEL is also a very easy airport to transit.

P.S. You may wish to consider flying out of somewhere like DUB, CDG or AMS instead of LHR in order to avoid paying the UK Air Passenger Duty (around $250).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Agree hardware will be better on AY. The only thing to note is that HEL-SIN is classified as a 'midnight supper' menu (or midnight dinner or whatever). So the catering is reduced... single tray, no entree. Given the timing of the departure + premium lounge that might not be an issue.

 

[trooper]

I'm doing a SYD-HKG-LHR-CDG-HEL-HKG-SYD redemption (AA miles) and the cash component was very much the BA charges on the outbound.....
Just couldn't get AY that way.....

 

[ChrisCunard]

Thanks everyone. That's the conclusion I had come to.

The only things that were making me think BA was the 2:55 hours on AY's A321

And also the BA flight gives me an extra 40 mins to transfer to SQ in SIN.

 

[RichardMEL]

Agree with the others - AY.

AY intra-europe J is "fine" nothing special but not horrible in the few instances I've had it. Eat in lounge prior and go from there. Transit in HEL is simplicity itself and the lounge there is really decent.

350 J is pretty nice (and even with the midnight meal you can pre-order the reindeer if you like ), free (for J) inflight wifi works well and it's a pretty nice experience. It's not the best J on earth for F&B but it's hardly the worst and I slept well on the 350.

enjoy!

 

[Isochronous]

Sometimes AY is running the A350 on LHR-HEL so if you can find that for the redemption, even better and you get their flagship product all the way.

 

[teamhamsandwich]

AY, way better service plus sauna opportunities in the HEL lounge!

 

[Berlin]

AY, by far. Better and usually friendlier service, better food and imho the better hard product on the A350 as well. Plus, the super nice Flounge in Helsinki alone is almost worth the detour

 

[LittleFokker]

AY. I flew EDI-xHEL-BKK over Easter and it was a very pleasant experience. The lunch EDI-HEL was actually very nice and substantial for a short flight. The A350 HEL-BKK was also pleasant. And by pleasant I mean MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better that the BA J A380 SIN-LHR that I was subjected to last year. The seats are the 1-2-1 reverse herringbone we see on Cathay, Sri Lanka, etc. The BA J seats (especially the aisle) suck. And you can choose your seats online free with AY.

I swore that I wouldn't fly BA J again but I am eyeing off AMS-xLHR-BKK J return for $AUD2200 in December. At least the last LHR-AMS leg would be a throwaway- take that BA !

 

[PaulST]

AY put the A350 on the HEL-LHR route regularly. I'm currently researching HKG-HEL-LHR and whole route can be done in the A350 after a few hour layover in HEL.