Qantas boosts international capacity, wet lease Finnair aircraft

[tdimdad]

I wonder, when the AY wet lease becomes a dry lease late next year, if the aircraft will keep the AY seats, or if they be changed to the QF seats.
They are [currently] meant to keep the 2 aircraft under the dry lease for 3 years.

Hopefully they keep the AY seats. You get Economy Comfort rows at the front of Y and a rather decent PE. Though, J is awesome for some and a trouble for others.

 

[SYD]

I wonder, when the AY wet lease becomes a dry lease late next year, if the aircraft will keep the AY seats, or if they be changed to the QF seats.
They are [currently] meant to keep the 2 aircraft under the dry lease for 3 years.

It was reported somewhere (maybe a link upthread) that they’ll get a repaint but retain the interiors.

Having the additional PE will be attractive to many. For SYD-SIN, there’s always the A380 or alternate days with QF81/82 for those who don’t like the AY J seat. Wouldn’t bother me o/n but I’ve not tried it on a “day flight” when I’d probably like to recline with a wine and a movie.

 

[Melburnian1]

Apologies: I've not read the 24 pages of this thread, so hope I'm not being repetitive.

How often do the Finnair crews (flight and cabin) get to travel back to where they live in Finland? How many return SIN-SYD or BKK-SYD trips do they tend to do on each roster?

 

[Saab34]

Cabin Crew are Asian based I recall.

 

[Spacetravel]

Cabin crew are based out of SIN/ BKK

 

[CaptJCool]

Cabin crew are based out of SIN/ BKK

The thai wage rates based on QF WAGES are like A$2.16 per hour !

 

[Saab34]

Jetstar said after an ABC Investigation a few years ago, it pays its Thai based crew who operate 787 flights, after all allowances, around $700AUD week. The hourly rate is quite low, but allowances really bump up the salary.

That’s about half when comparing to local crews.

I believe Singapore based crew earn more.

Finnair crews would be on similar wages.

 

[lazblue]

Apologies: I've not read the 24 pages of this thread, so hope I'm not being repetitive.

How often do the Finnair crews (flight and cabin) get to travel back to where they live in Finland? How many return SIN-SYD or BKK-SYD trips do they tend to do on each roster?

As mentioned by others, cabin crew are based in BKK and SIN - whereas flight crew are Finnish and would operate AY’s own flights back to HEL after flying the SYD flights for QF.

 

[bjm76]

I have flown the AY product on the QF SYD-BKK flights twice now - both in Premium and Business. They are both great products and better than the QF product to my taste. Premium seats are comfortable and supportive. Business seat/bed is very comfortable and I got a good sleep. I am 6ft2 tall and the footwell seems bigger on the AY planes compared to QF and the IFE screens on AY are bigger and higher quality. Cabin crew are all Thai and were hired by AY just before the flights commenced. The cabin crew are warm and friendly, and eager to make sure the passengers are happy. Stark contrast to the QF crew I have encountered on this route before - disinterested and doing the bare minimum. I think the flight deck are all Finnish but happy to be corrected.
Overall a great experience!

 

[Spacetravel]

I have flown the AY product on the QF SYD-BKK flights twice now - both in Premium and Business. They are both great products and better than the QF product to my taste. Premium seats are comfortable and supportive. Business seat/bed is very comfortable and I got a good sleep. I am 6ft2 tall and the footwell seems bigger on the AY planes compared to QF and the IFE screens on AY are bigger and higher quality. Cabin crew are all Thai and were hired by AY just before the flights commenced. The cabin crew are warm and friendly, and eager to make sure the passengers are happy. Stark contrast to the QF crew I have encountered on this route before - disinterested and doing the bare minimum. I think the flight deck are all Finnish but happy to be corrected.
Overall a great experience!

Yeah I complained in a previous thread that for some reason on the old qf23/24 service the QF crew on this flight were always pretty poor. Even in the premium cabins. I couldn’t work out why it was this route specifically.

 

[bjm76]

Yeah I complained in a previous thread that for some reason on the old qf23/24 service the QF crew on this flight were always pretty poor. Even in the premium cabins. I couldn’t work out why it was this route specifically.

Glad I wasnt the only one to think this. I got yelled at once for asking for a hot chocolate after dinner "you could have asked earlier!" was the response when I made my request.
Maybe due to QF23/24 were always full (in my experience) - a busy flight with mainly leisure travellers is hard going for the crew?

 

[Jacques Vert]

a busy flight with mainly leisure travellers is hard going for the crew?

No excuse.

 

[Spacetravel]

Glad I wasnt the only one to think this. I got yelled at once for asking for a hot chocolate after dinner "you could have asked earlier!" was the response when I made my request.
Maybe due to QF23/24 were always full (in my experience) - a busy flight with mainly leisure travellers is hard going for the crew?

Aren’t cabin crew rotated through routes (at least with the same aircraft type)? I thought each day they arrive at the airport they could be rostered to go virtually anywhere. So the QF crew could be BKK today, HND tomorrow.

But yes I also got yelled at twice in J once because I couldn’t figure out the sash belt (my first J flight since covid) and another because I asked a meal question and the staff member snapped at me mid sentence to tell me “I’m not doing yours”. Referring to another member would be doing the meal - they could have answered the question though.

No excuse.

100%, which is why the finnair service on this route is a blessing.

Generally I actually prefer the QF product and staff over the finnair product. But that is comparing QF on other routes (HND) or 787. Finnair compared to QF on BKK is a significantly better experience. But that is only because the staff were so bad.

On a side note, I do a significant amount of travel to SIN and BKK to the point I have hardly set foot on a QFi aircraft in the last 12 months. Feels like I am a Finnair customer now
I actually try and avoid it on the SIN route but the Finnair timing is the ideal one in both directions and generally cheaper. So I regularly end up on it.

 

[N860CR]

I’ve mentioned it before but the absolute worst QF flight I had was a BKK-SYD where the crew were so hostile I’m surprised it didn’t escalate into an incident.

That said, have recently done a bit of India flying on the 330 and the flights have been excellent (although I did have to crawl up the pursers backside a bit which did lead to better service). QF crews tend to want you to grovel up to them then they’ll be your BFF. Asian crews tend to want to do the job they’re paid for.

 

[PERLHR]

I also have found generally some QF crew pretty shocking but generally I just do less flying with QF where possible. Couple of times I have been surprised but not often. I thought under the "new QF" they were supposed to get better. Doubt that has happened!

Interestingly, when I flew AY metal on the wet lease in the early days the CC were a mix of Asian and Finnish. I guess that mix has now been depleted.

 

[RealtimeY]

There are plenty of outstanding crew members but they're let down by some of their colleagues' attitudes. Once again, QF is consistently inconsistent, which is why I found it amusing that they advertised that AY crew would receive additional training to align it with the QF... based on my experience it might do some good to try it the other way around.

 

[elanshin]

There are plenty of outstanding crew members but they're let down by some of their colleagues' attitudes. Once again, QF is consistently inconsistent, which is why I found it amusing that they advertised that AY crew would receive additional training to align it with the QF... based on my experience it might do some good to try it the other way around.

It's more so to know the catering menus and the expectations. Training is actually usually good, you don't train people to bad standards, they get there usually way after training periods for various reasons.

 

[Flyfrequently]

But yes I also got yelled at twice in J once because I couldn’t figure out the sash belt

Similar experience @Spacetravel

I do fly frequently - not as much as some here on AFF, but after our EU trip last year (7 flights) coming home QF from HKG, non weight bearing with a broken foot, I asked for assistance with my sash belt.

Greeted with considerable disdain as I couldn't reach around sufficiently without causing great discomfort.
It was obvious I had an injury but little empathy shown.
Must say in the 18 flights since, have had excellent cabin service, so I just put that done to one crew member having a bad day - it happens.

 

[stm1sydney]

LOL, the best thing about being a QFF member is flying other airlines.

 

[CorporateFlyerMEL]

flew QF291 - great crew and food. The Finnair crew seem to be really happy to be doing the Syd flights. Not sold on the skylounge seat for a day flight, the inability to recline and consistently changing pillow positions, having a mattress that does not fit the seat at all and no way to move or tilt the screen are all negatives for me. I have flown it as a Finnair flight and I think the pillows are bigger than the Qantas ones, so that may work better.

I was quite shocked with departure gate 26 at Syd airport - this is like a Jetstar holding zone for 3 flights (SIN, BKK and Seoul) going all at once by bus to non air-bridge birds, was a mess with ceiling wires all exposed during some kind of renovation. There was business class signs, but no enforcement it was a free for all. I was surprised that everyone got into the right line and right bus...