FlyingFinn76 From Finland, joined Jun 2009, 1488 posts, RR: 45 Posted (1 year 4 months 6 days ago) and read 8040 times:
Introduction
This trip got started by the desire to fly the recently introduced WizzAir’s NYO-LCJ route. Lodz had been on my “to visit” list for quite some time now, and this finally seemed to be a good chance to do so. The ticket, including paying extra for an exit row seat cost a grand total of 199 SEK, or a bit over 20 EUR.
To get to Sweden, Norwegian’s noon service to ARN fit the bill perfectly, left enough time to take the bus down to Skavsta and was available for 30 EUR so a no-brainer really.
The Lodz airport doesn’t exactly have a big repertoire of flights, so for the next day my best choice was flying out of Warsaw instead, a short train journey away. LOT had some darn cheap fares on many routes - in the end I booked a morning flight to Heathrow for less than 50 EUR, mainly because it would be operated on one of their 737s - I’ve flown on LO E170, E145 and EuroLot ATRs, but never on the Boeings so that would be a nice change.
From Heathrow I decided to book another flight from my “to fly” list, the afternoon BA service to ARN operated by a 767. The cost, at 55 Sterling was acceptable as well.
Finally, to complete the itinerary, the notorious last flight of the day on SK to HEL was booked for 49 EUR.
Here’s what the itinerary ended up looking like:
...or that’s at least what I thought! This where the long introduction gets interesting, so please bear with me - I promise your persistence will pay off!
Some months after booking I was contacted by a Swiss A.net member, Mark (or SRforever). He had a very tempting and interesting offer: due to his work at some Swiss tour operator he had access to staff travel benefits and would be travelling to KTT in the Finnish Lapland in January. What’s more interesting is that he would be returning on the KTT-ZRH flight, operated by a Hello (a Swiss charter airline) with one of their very-soon-to-be-retired MD-90s. And the most incredible part: he had a companion ticket to give away - and offered it to me (on the condition that I write a report about the trip - well would I ever leave a report unwritten?!). The catch: the flight would be on 15th of January, the very same day I was supposed to do the HEL-ARN/NYO-LCJ part of my original itinerary.
Well, I had to think about this for a while - on the other had I wasn’t too keen on changing my plans, but on the other hand the prospect of flying another quite obscure international route ex-Finland sounded very good, as did some a.net comradeship and of course a new carrier and another MD-90 operator. So in the end I told Mark I’d be taking the flight and set to work trying to salvage what could be salvaged out of my original itinerary.
The work started by booking a positioning flight up to KTT. As Mark was flying up there the previous afternoon with KF from HEL I decided to book the same flight so we could spend some more time together and perhaps have a dinner and some drinks together at Levi. As a bonus it would be another 717, always nice. Cost was 87 EUR.
Then I figured out that the best way to resume my original itinerary would be at LHR. It would still allow me to log that BA 767 which I so desired and getting to London from Zürich shouldn’t be too hard. Feeling a small sting I decided to write off 100 EUR worth of tickets (the DY, W6 and LO ones), quite happy that I’d limited the financial damages to such a relatively small amount.
To get to London there were two reasonable options: either the early bird BA flight direct to LHR which was a bit pricey and left quite early or a nice mid-morning departure on Ezy to LGW which was much more affordable at 41 EUR. I was a bit worried about making the Gatwick to Heathrow connection as I only had around two hours and three quarters to do it, but looking at the National Express timetables it looked like it would work out.
So here’s what the revised itinerary ended up looking like:
Finally I fixed up an a.net meeting with Infodesk/Hannah at ZRH - she would be picking us up at the airport and was good to go!
A couple of weeks before departure Mark informed me that the flight had been pushed back by 1h40mins - bugger as it meant our scheduled arrival time at ZRH was at 22.00 - cutting down our quality a.net meeting time there, but what can you do...
Just for the miles I also decided to apply for an Optiontown upgrade on the KF flight - the cost was 36 EUR, a bit steep but I think it is still worth it for eight times of the miles I’d earn with my original fare. The upgrade cleared without any problems a couple of days before departure.
Friday 14.1.2011
I sneak early out of the office once again, drive home, finish packing and catch the airport bus around an hour before scheduled departure. Quite a quick ride to HEL T1, the priority security queue which I could use with my premium boarding pass has more people in line than the regular ones so in the name of efficiency I join the great unwashed. Next stop is the T1 cafe to meet Mark (well, I actually met him already the previous night the first time!) and some plane watching and chatting.
I tell him that I have a bad feeling that we might end up flying Lima Mike again (not bad for him, bad for me as I’ve flown it twice already!) as I saw Lima Joliet pushing back from the bus and the OLCI showed either BLM or BLJ assigned for the flight. Sure enough, soon we see a 717 landing and it soon taxis past us:
It heads for the far apron, and since we have a bus gate today I’m pretty sure I’ll end up flying her the third time, bugger.
Boarding is called around 20 minutes before departure. Judging from the load in the bus this will be a half empty (or half full if you’re an optimist!) flight. As expected we pull in front of OH-BLM. We are the two last pax to board, staying outside for some photo shoots:
Meaningless fact about this flight: it actually turned out to be my 200th domestic flight. Not that I noticed it in advance, only when showing Mark my flugstatistik.de page .
Well, the first thing I notice is that the cabin divider is set after row two and I’m in row three, supposedly in Premium. So I ask the two cabin crew standing in the front galley “Is the divider on the wrong row?” - they confirm this and tell me that will be fixed shortly, which they actually do. Sheesh, the exact same thing happend on my last flight of the previous year, detailed here: Wrapping Up The Year: HEL-RIX-TMP-RVN/KTT-HEL (by FlyingFinn76 Dec 18 2010 in Trip Reports)
Actually, come to think of it I have a strong feeling of deja-vu as this is my first flight of the year, and it is the very same flight (but albeit the opposite direction) as the last year’s ultimate one, same plane, same seat (I’m not making this up!) and even the exact same service. Well, I think the sandwich was a bit more fresh this time, but I’m getting ahead of the story now!
Load is 9 pax in the five (once the divider gets moved!) rows of Premium, not too bad actually on a mainly leisure route. Economy looks to be around half full. This time there’s a Finnish cockpit crew, many Spanish crews are still flying for KF because they are lacking some qualified crews of their own. Flight time is announced as 1h15mins with push back a minute ahead of schedule, well done for Blue1 (last year their on-time record was abysmal - below 50%, so this is a definitive improvement!).
City Airline MD-87 operating for KF:
AY A340 landing on 22L as we are taxiing to 22R:
Tailing a CityHopper E-jet:
Snow removal in action - there’s been plenty of the white stuff to remove this winter:
It takes a while to taxi to the runway, take off is 15 minutes after push back.
Vantaa looking very snowy:
The frozen Päijänne lake, which provides us in the Capital Region with all our drinking water:
As I mentioned, the service is a carbon copy of last year’s flight - coffee or tea, water and cheese or ham sandwich. The wine has to be paid for:
The cheese sandwich is actually quite good, very fresh and with some nice tasting cream cheese as filling.
I love these dusk photos so much:
Directly over OUL:
The captain makes a short speech, welcoming us to “this short flight to Kittilä”. Apparently it is minus twenty degrees up there, but nice and clear weather otherwise. Arrival should be at our scheduled arrival time, 15.40.
Routing is basically HEL-JYV-OUL-KEM-RVN-KTT. Our descent starts near Rovaniemi, providing some lovely (if a bit dark) views of the frozen and desolate arctic landscapes aroud us:
The town of Kittilä, just south of the airport:
Landing is on runway 34 after a flight time of 1h12mins. Turning around on the other end, the slopes at Levi are visible:
Very pretty views of the sun going down over the western horizon:
Bye, hope I get a different reg the next time:
Deboarding is quick, and soon we catch a bus to the resort of Levi.
Levi
I tried to make a picture of the thermometer, it reads -20 Celcius:
I’m staying at the Sokos Hotel Levi, quite a new and a very good property of this ubiquitous Finnish hotel chain:
Mark is staying somewhere else. We hook up for a dinner later - it being Lapland it has to be reindeer, and this “Poronkäristys” (or sauteed reindeer) is about as classic as it can get:
Lots of beers and bad karaoke follows, up to the wee hours of the morning. It gets below minus thirty during the night, a bit of a shock really.
Saturday 15.1.2011
Next morning I sleep late, thankfully they granted me a 14.00 checkout. We agree to meet for a reindeer pizza in order to try to fix ourselves up, it sort of works:
Afterwards we do a bit of walking around and then take the free shuttle bus to a nearby slope area, called “The Gondola” - the main reason for coming here is a series of ice sculptures they call “Icium” - apparently around 60 Chinese worked on these. There’s a definitive Chinese theme here:
At 15 EUR per person the entrance price is quite steep - I thought the whole point of this globalization thing was to bring costs down?
Mark heading up the Great Wall of China, also doubling as an icy slide:
Helsinki Cathedral:
Helsinki Central Railway Station:
I think those two horses are unfinished:
The ambulance chopper “Aslak” makes an unexpected appearance from her base at Sodankylä. I saw the flashing lights of an ambulance below the slope but assumed it was just some sort of skiing injury, but apparently it is something more serious:
Funnily enough the chopper stays there for quite a while and by the looks of things it eventually leaves without picking up the patient - hope this is not sign that things went super bad with him!
After a while we retreat to the nearby cafe for some warmth, and soon enough our prebooked shared van shows up and whisks us to the airport well in advance of our flight.
Kittilä Airport
At the airport there are moderate queues for two check in counters, no signs yet on the monitors but the passengers are definitely not Finns and Mark spots some bag tags from his company so those apparently are our queues. I’m a bit surprised about the lack of skis - when Finns (well most of us at least, myself excluded ) go to Lapland they will bring huge packs of skis - quite a nice extra revenue stream for many airlines actually!
Soon enough they even get the monitors working - although like Mark puts it - I don’t think they ever got the schedule thing completely understood, it’s just displaying the flight delayed, albeit still 20 minutes before the new rescheduled departure time - weird:
Anyway soon enough we get to the counter. Mark had prebooked us seats on the exit row 24 - something which you’d normally have to pay quite a hefty fee to do - and is less than amused to hear that my seat 24A is fine, but his 24E has been given to somebody else. I offer him my seat after hearing that the load is only 77 pax so there should be plenty of space to spread out anyway, and the agent offers him 23E which has even better legroom as there’s no seat in front if it - grudgingly he accepts.
Airside we check out the photo exhibition about the airport history and then settle for a couple of cold ones and more chat.
The check in agent said the inbound should be arriving way before 18.00, but in the end it lands at 18.15. Quite hard to make a decent picture due to the reflections:
It is indeed the expected MD-90 (Hello now has some A320s in service already so there was always the risk of an equipment change), and HB-JIE as reported by the ZRH airport website when I checked it from the hotel. So definitely a new registration for me, and luckily a new frame too. This bird was previously with SAS, but luckily I never flew it with them.
Ahh, the irony - OH-LVI, the only Finnair A319 still missing from my log:
Boarding is called half an hour later:
“Boeing MD-90” - there’s just something wrong with that:
The only proper way to board a Mad Dog (too bad they didn’t use the tail stairs on our 717 ride):
Not surprisingly I’m the first pax who dares to board from the back, after me some more take the plunge.
Inside I comment to the smiling FA welcoming me onboard “Why does nobody ever use the back stairs?” - she shakes her head and mutters something. A very nice crew on today’s flight, all females and very friendly. I think they are mostly from the French part of Switzerland - the sweetest of them answers “Me neither!” after I decline the offered Swiss German newspaper with “I wouldn’t understand it”.
Quite okay dark blue leather seats. Despite 24 being an exit row the leg room is not the greatest, but works for me, especially with the empty seat next to me - the AB side has two seats, the other one three.
Well, hello to you too:
Flight time today is announced as quite speedy 3h20mins. Departure is five minutes ahead of schedule, but we have to wait for ten or so minutes until another AY Airbus lands and backtracks along the runway - no taxiways here.
Then it is our turn to taxi all the way down the runway, turn around and shoot to the skies from runway 16.
It is a clear night, as cold, freezing nights tend to be so there are great views of the lit up communities down there. It is easy to follow our flight path down to RVN, then KEM, across the Gulf of Bothnia to LLA, then down the Swedish coast. After LLA the captain makes an announcement, only in German and French as all the announcements onboard, describing our route as I followed it, and then further UME-ARN-TXL-LEJ-ZRH.
Service starts with a wet wipe:
Followed by a hot meal. There’s a choice between sausage and vegetable pasta - sausage in a plane sounds just too weird to me so I go for the pasta. The friendly young FA warns me that “Honestly, sir, the sausage looks SO much better and we still have plenty of those?” - “I think I’ll take my chances with the pasta, thank you.”. I think she was right - the pasta is quite plain:
The appetizer salad with beetroot is not for me, can’t really stand the damn thing at least raw like this. Two kinds of warm bread are offered from a basket. The best part of the meal is the dessert - a piece of very sweet apricot tart washed down with coffee - yummy!
Alcohol prices are very affordable - only 4 CHF for a beer. Too bad it turns out to be Appenzeller, despite the nice can the taste isn’t good at all:
Cabin view during a later drinks run:
I take a nap, watch some stuff on my Ipod, read a bit and go chat with Mark for a while and surprisingly fast we are already descending towards Zürich. Nice views of lit up towns around us, but no good for photos with all that darkness and everything:
Landing is on runway 28 nice 36 minutes ahead of schedule, after a flight time of 3h20mins. Hannah texted me earlier that it will be a bus arrival, and indeed we taxi quite a while to an apron parking position near the runway 34 threshold.
Swiss-registered Air Berlin after us:
Seat view during deboarding:
The only proper way to deboard a Mad Dog:
Zürich
Hannah is waiting us in the entrance to the luggage hall, she has access due to her job at the airport. We greet, exchange the usual pleasantries and head to the car, and to the interesting Runway 14 bar for some drinks, chat and a nice view of the Il-14 plane around which the whole restaurant has been themed:
Far too soon it is time to head off, so first we drop Mark at his house not too far from the airport and then try to locate my hotel for the night, the Ibis Zürich Airport. We finally find it somewhere in the middle of a not very inviting looking industrial area, not that close to the airport if you ask me (if I forgot to say so - thanks for the ride, Hannah!). We agree for a short meet the next morning and I head to the hotel, but of course instead of doing the sensible thing and hitting the sack right away I spend an hour at the lobby bar with the free wifi connection and an interesting Swedish guy living in Berlin to talk to...
The hotel is quite good for an Ibis, looks like it’s been recently renovated. The public areas are very stylish, the rooms decent if barren like all Ibis rooms are:
Sunday 16.1.2011
I had planned on taking an earlier shuttle to the airport, but preferring some extra shuteye I grab one an hour later. Still not feeling too good, I share the van with two Danish guys. Outside it is extremely foggy, my first idea is that “I really hope that the airport can cope with this and my flight is not delayed!” - that’s what you get with tight connections!
At the airport I pay a short visit to the info desk where Hannah gets her a.net handle from. Soon enough I decide to head to the E gates and the lounge instead, feeling the need to get some substance under my belt. The check-in hall is quite empty:
A good number of flights here - no bad delays posted:
A mecca for all you Swiss fans:
Very foggy, indeed:
Not really up to any shopping (besides my hand luggage is already bulging), I just hit the funky train to the midfield terminal, enjoy the corny stereotypical Swiss sounds in the train and try my best to beat the masses to the security check point. Well, I half way succeed, but it still takes a while to get through, not exactly helped by the young Orthodox Jew couple in front of me who have tons of hand luggage and all of them full of stuff that has to be screened separately, not that they make any effort to come forward with those so it’s a lot of shuffling back and forth through the X-ray machine for their luggage...
Finally through I make a beeline for the Panorama lounge upstairs. The last time I was here was just a few weeks after the E gates complex was opened, and I recall the place being quite nice. It still is, apart from being completely packed, seating places are hard to come by. I grab some bread and juice for breakfast:
FlyingFinn76 From Finland, joined Jun 2009, 1488 posts, RR: 45 Reply 1, posted (1 year 4 months 6 days ago) and read 8072 times:
The lounge is well stocked with drinks, not so much with food...
… or so I thought, it turns out that there’s actually something they call “Panorama Bistro” just down the corridor where they set up a buffet of various foods. They stamp your boarding pass to show that you are allowed to use it, so I of course grab some very tasty sandwiches.
Thai:
American:
Why did they have to leave this unfinished concrete here - looks so nasty and low cost (reminds me of Charleroi Airport actually):
The inbound lands early, although the gate display has been reading “go to gate” for 15 minutes or so already... After giving it some time I head to the gate. G-EZAL, my second ride on this particular plane, the previous time being LTN-EDI in April last year:
The usual gate scrum has already formed, but the queuing is not very organized at all so after boarding is called right after I get to the gate a chaos forms and I manage to get quite close to the head of the normal queue. One thing I notice is that most of the passengers have traditional boarding cards - not too many OLCI ones actually, and definitely much fewer than usually with Ezy. Are the Swiss so conservative people or what’s going on?
I’m happy to find a vacant exit row window seat, so snatch that immediately. The Danish guys from the hotel shuttle are sitting on both aisle seats on my row. The Singapore A380 is boarding from the gate behind that LX A330 but you can’t see it in this photo - that’s how foggy it is:
They keep making repeated announcements about how “this is an extremely full flight” (later Hannah told me that the load was 138 pax, giving a load factor of 88%) and how everybody should be fast and neat with their hand luggage. Boarding is surprisingly orderly, must be the Swiss efficiency at work here, and the doors are closed around five minutes before the scheduled departure time, well done. The seat next to me stays empty as well, which is also nice.
The captain announces that we will be slightly delayed, but the short flight time of 1h15mins will still have us early at Gatwick where the current weather has some showers and scattered clouds.
The Danish guy across the aisle develops a minor nosebleed, two FAs try to make a fuss about it but he keeps his cool. Finally he is handed a yellow plastic bag with a large black label saying “Body Fluid Disposal Kit” and told to put all of his bloody towels in there - never seen anything like that before!
Push back is bang on time at least according to my watch so I’m not sure what the captain was talking about.
Taxi is a bit slow, must be due to the almost non-existent visibility, but finally 9 minutes later we start our take off run from 28:
Just before rotating we shoot past Markus’ favorite plane, a Contact Air F100, probably operating yet another STR flight.
Clouds are extremely low, so in now time at all we push through them for some sunshine and views:
Basel, with EAP visible towards the left:
What’s that smoky thing:
Not many people bother with the BOB service, I certainly don’t. Instead I doze off a bit and in no time at all we are already descending, somewhere over France, around 45 minutes after take off.
Ok, looks like the Channel Coast:
White Cliffs of Dover welcoming us to Old Blighty once more:
The seat belt sign is switched on right in the middle of the Channel. UK landfall is directly over Brighton, giving a great view of the beach and the famous pier:
The windows getting foggy - no snow chaos here anymore:
Landing is on Gatwick runway 26L a nice twenty minutes early, after a flight time of just 1h6mins.
Touchdown is very hard and bumpy, followed by hard breaking to clear the runway as early as possible.
A few minutes later we stop in front of the southernmost pier at the South Terminal, the dingy one they mainly use for domestic UK and the Irish flights so I guess that’s where the plane is heading next. Bye:
Around London
Inside the jetway a pair of immigration officers are already checking all the passengers’ documents which seems quite pointless to me as we still have the main border to clear. It just slows us down and it is quite apparent who they are interested in - if you don’t look like your average white European they scrutinize your papers extra carefully. Maybe it has something to do with arriving at the domestic pier, who knows.
The real UK Border is much more civilized, although the queues for non-EU nationals look quite horrific to me. Anyway I’m glad that we arrived early, as it allows me a bit of breathing space and a much more relaxed stroll to the coach station, where I get robbed of over twenty Sterling for a ticket for the next National Express coach to Heathrow - outrageous if you ask me!
In due time the appropriately numbered 747 service shows up:
It being a Sunday the M25 traffic isn’t too bad so in 55 minutes we stop in front of Heathrow Terminal 5, exactly an hour before my flight is scheduled to departure - phew, I made it!
Quickly upstairs to this “Taj Mahal of an airport” like MOL called it to grab my boarding pass from a self service machine - I did OLCI back at KTT airport the previous night. Security is painless and some cute Icelandic blondes in the queue ahead of me are a delight to these old eyes.
This is actually my first time departing from T5, so I take a quick look around. Thanks to Mark for telling me about this establishment, must try it out one day:
Interesting to see a Vertu shop here - I wonder how they are faring nowadays:
The place is completely packed though, as Heathrow terminals tend to be. Not having much time I buy the Sunday Torygraph (I’m a Tory kind of a guy!) and retreat for a quick pint before boarding is called.
Yep, it looks like the expected 767, G-BNWA, obviously a new one for me not having flown a BA example before and this one has spent all her life with the company:
Feels weird to have a widebody for such a short flight:
My seat 12K is the bulkhead seat in the first row of economy, nice legroom and quite comfortable well worn leather:
Is that tiny thing supposed to be a video monitor:
Looks like somebody dropped a penny - thankfully literally and not metaphorically:
For a while I’m hoping I scored an empty seat next to me but at last minute a Swedish lady (who I mistake for a Brit as her English accent is so beautiful) takes the seat. Load looks pretty much completely full in economy, although I can’t say for the back cabin. The captain announces the flight time as “the standard 2 hours on this route” and that the cargo doors are still open but as soon as those are closed we’ll be on our way.
Rolls Royce:
Push back is five minutes late, parallel to another 767:
Notice the engine cowling open on this company 747, I think this is the delayed flight to SFO:
Bye, T5:
Heathrow being Heathrow it takes a while to taxi to runway 27R for take off, but I don’t mind as the views are great and for once there’s daylight - usually I’m departing from here so late that the light is gone already. Why is this QF Jumbo parked at T5C:
T3:
AA 757 with winglets:
BMI Regional at T1 - I saw they nowadays operate some rotations to DUB on these tiny birds:
Dedicated to my favorite Zionist, Okko:
Oh, another Contact Air Fokker:
“The Magic Red Carpet” - love it:
Dedicated to Mark, actually both of you:
Sorry big girl, looks like we get to go first:
Fits nicely with the Swiss spirit of this report:
25 minutes after push back we start our take off run, the acceleration and climb rate are extremely impressive - this short hop today is not much for this beast of a plane.
Soon after rotating we disappear into the low cloud base, not to see any ground for the rest of the flight.
There’s always some traffic over the London Terminal Control Area:
Service is a standard BA affair - a sandwich and drinks:
The turkey sandwich is very tasty, soft, fresh and as stereotypical as having cranberry as a garnish sounds it really is a combination that works!
For the rest of the flight I watch a movie and enjoy the benefits of having the galley right in front of you - there’s always a member of the crew going or coming which ensures a steady stream of wine bottles .
The sun goes down during this flight, how I like these moody shots:
Landing is with a large thud on runway 19R after a flight time of 1h55mins - the weather here looks quite miserable:
A bit later we dock to the F-pier at “Arlanda Norra” and disembark to the non-Schengen upper level. Bye, it was a pleasure:
The F-pier, the most moden part of Arlanda, sad it is so underutilized, despite Oneworld moving over from T2:
Two sisters, both heading to LHR:
Arlanda Airport
Swedish immigration is always fun as they usually end up speaking Finnish with me after seeing my nationality - today’s no exception although it is only limited to “Kiitos!” from the officer’s part. Not surprisingly I am the only one heading through transit security into the terminal, all the others seem to be staying here.
I head to the transfer desk and get checked in by a very pleasant grandmotherly Swedish lady, we end up chatting a bit about the Blue1/Golden Air operated flights to KLR and wondering why there are no flights to HEL on SK/KF between 18.00 and 22.55. She even shows me the seat map to let me have to pick my seat - I pick the first row of economy, but tell her that “Any seat is fine, I’ll be sleeping anyway!” - “Well, try not to fall asleep before the flight or at least wake up in time!”.
Having almost five hours to go until the next flight I head upstairs to the lounge. The last time I was catching this late flight home I was very disappointed to learn that the lounge had already closed around 21.00 or so. Well, to my delight the reception girl (she seems to be new, I know pretty much the whole staff here nowadays) informs me that as there’s a late flight to Thailand they’ll be staying open “at least until ten.”, which sounds very good to me.
I pass the time by having some drinks and nibbles, reading the day’s Finnish paper the lounge thankfully stocks, using the provided wifi and watching more movies.
Time passes surprisingly quickly, and around 22.00 I decide to head to the gate. Once again we have a gate at the F pier, so it’s a bit of a walk as well, good for stretching the legs. The inbound has just arrived, from AMS judging from the yellow SeeBuyFly bags the disembarking passengers are carrying.
The turnaround is very fast, and I’m surprised by the boarding announcement already at 22.25. I mention this to the sole gate agent who replies “The crew just wants to get to the hotel and sleep.” - “Oh, me too, me too!”.
Couldn’t spot the registration from the gate area, but from the jetway I see it is SE-DTH, my second flight on this particular plane.
The three rows of business class are empty, one pax in the four rows of economy extra and in economy the load is around 50%.
As soon as I plop down on my seat I’m already asleep. I just barely hear the captain announcing that due to strong tailwinds the flight time should a speedy 45 minutes - well not sure about the speedy part as that’s pretty standard on this route, tailwind or not.
I manage to note that we push back five minutes ahead of schedule, then nod off again until our rotation ten minutes later from runway 19L.
The next thing I know is landing at the usual nighttime runway 15 at HEL, somewhat ahead of schedule and stopping at the gate. It looks much more snowy here than in Sweden:
Quickly out feeling like a zombie, out to the freezing night, bus home and I collapse to the bed - pretty much standard stuff for these frequent late night arrivals of mine!
Conclusions
Well, the year got to a good start. This trip turned out to quite a different one from what I originally envisioned, but that’s what keeps life enjoyable, I guess.
The highlight of the trip was of course the Hello flight and their MD-90. A very pleasant flight, the crew was great, servicewise good as well and the low load made it comfortable.
The BA 767 ride was good, high service standards, another friendly crew - a classic BA flight in other words. Of course having a widebody on an intra-Europe flight is always something a bit special, hope to catch more of these soon.
The Blue1, SAS and easyJet flights were very standard ones, enjoyable but nothing out of the ordinary really.
Finally thanks a million to both Mark and Hannah, you really made this trip a very memorable and successful one! Hope we can meet soon again! Of course special mention to Mark for the Hello flight, really appreciate it!
A week to go until the next trip of zigzagging around Europe including three new carriers for me and a fifth freedom flight with a widebody jet. The route is HEL-LHR/LCY-MAD-CDG-ATH-LHR-HEL.
FLIEGER67 From France, joined Sep 2003, 3759 posts, RR: 58 Reply 2, posted (1 year 4 months 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 7905 times:
Hi, P.,
great stuff, you know I´am waiting for that special run.
The Hello MD90, for sure something really special, it seems this will be also further a white place in my log, no chance to fly it before they change for the A320´s.
And the MD rear stair, love it, some more pics this way from me coming up soon.
Good to follow you´re A.net meetings, always a pleasure to do so.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Just before rotating we shoot past Markus’ favorite plane, a Contact Air F100, probably operating yet another STR flight.
SRforever From Switzerland, joined Dec 2006, 127 posts, RR: 2 Reply 3, posted (1 year 4 months 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 7741 times:
Hi P.
Thanks a lot for putting together once again a superb trip report. I am quite flattered to have been able to contribute a little to it's content.
It was a real pleasure to have met you and I must say I enjoyed my first visit to Finland very much.
Thanks also to Hannah, it was an equal pleasure to have met you too.
aflyingkiwi From New Zealand, joined Nov 2010, 412 posts, RR: 7 Reply 5, posted (1 year 4 months 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 7727 times:
Hi,
Another great report about your travels across Europe. The Hello MD90 flight looks like it was a blast and of course it's always nice to have some a.net company.
lychemsa From United States of America, joined Oct 2009, 686 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (1 year 4 months 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 7562 times:
Very interesting. I see these Lapland flights advertised in Geneva but they are expensive. I had no idea HELLO was a Swiss airline. One does not see them in GVA.
I thought BA no longer serve sandwiches on flights of less than 2 1/2 hours. No more on LHR/ GVA.
FlyKev From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2006, 1284 posts, RR: 7 Reply 7, posted (1 year 4 months 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 7342 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW FORUM MODERATOR
Great report - certainly a nice variety of airlines and aircraft. Service on BA780 looks to be the same as when I took it in October; and it is always good to get a widebody on a shorthaul aircraft.
Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
kev.
The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only
luxair747SP From Germany, joined May 2010, 374 posts, RR: 20 Reply 8, posted (1 year 4 months 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 6842 times:
Hi there
A very nice TR with many good pictures.
Sure the Hello MD90 is something really special as they will be retired this month.
The service with the hot meal looks good for intra european.
Thanks very much for sharing
Johannes
That's really amusing. The exact same mistake on the same route and same aircraft, talk about deja-vu!
Has KF got a new livery? The blue and white pattern is great against the snowy background. And you know, I just can't get enough of those lapland shots. The sky is simply stunning.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Mark had prebooked us seats on the exit row 24 - something which you’d normally have to pay quite a hefty fee to do - and is less than amused to hear that my seat 24A is fine, but his 24E has been given to somebody else.
I wouldn't be too happy either. They normally charge around 30chf per person for these reservation if you're on a package holiday.
Fantastic that you could use the rear stairs on the MD-90, hope I get a chance too on my flight.
I think there's something in that. There was a lot of resistance when LX introcuced their self check-in machines.
On your 2nd picture after take off from ZRH you can see the long Lägern hill, very close to where I live. Makes a very scenic walk in the spring/summer.
Palmjet From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2001, 801 posts, RR: 17 Reply 11, posted (1 year 4 months 5 days ago) and read 6152 times:
Nice report FF76 - glad you got the MD90 with Hello before they go. Great set of flights and thank you for visiting Blighty again ! We appreciate your business. I have to agree with you - £20 for a shuttle service from LGW to LHR on a bus is mighty expensive. Ouch!
Palmjet
Ozark Airlines - When Three Swallows Would Get You There
gabrielchew From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 1630 posts, RR: 11 Reply 12, posted (1 year 4 months 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 5993 times:
Another great report! It's a shame you didn;t make your original flights - at least they weren't too expensive. I'm surprised that LOT were so cheap on the o/w to LHR - I may have to give them a go one day.
The new B717s for KF have a really nice livery - I love those concentric circles!
Lucky you made that connection between LGW-LHR. I so would NEVER have trusted both U2 and National Express with such a short connection time - you're very fortunate to have made your flight!
FlyingFinn76 From Finland, joined Jun 2009, 1488 posts, RR: 45 Reply 13, posted (1 year 4 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 5891 times:
Hi guys and gals, good to see so many comments already. Always appreciated!
Quoting FLIEGER67 (Reply 2): The Hello MD90, for sure something really special, it seems this will be also further a white place in my log, no chance to fly it before they change for the A320´s.
So you're not planning on doing one of the special "Good bye" -flights, perhaps with Hannah?
Quoting SRforever (Reply 3): I am quite flattered to have been able to contribute a little to it's content.
The pleasure's all mine. Like I said, thanks a lot, mate, for making this special trip possible!
Quoting SRforever (Reply 3): BTW the poro I brought home tasted excellent
That's good to hear - like I said many people find he idea of eating reindeer quite barbaric and brutal - luckily you're not one of those.
Quoting shamrock321 (Reply 4): ! But bmi are not sending ERJs to DUB, our 4 daily LHR flights are all with A319 with the occasional A320 thrown in!
Actually I was looking for some schedules further ahead this spring and some flights were shown as operating with the ERJs. I think that was during the weekend, though.
Quoting aflyingkiwi (Reply 5): I actually never knew that 717's have rear stairs.
Hmm, now that you mention it I'm not certain any more. I just always assumed it was one nifty feature they didn't want to take away from the Mad Dog ancestors. I think I'll need to check on this.
Quoting lychemsa (Reply 6): I thought BA no longer serve sandwiches on flights of less than 2 1/2 hours. No more on LHR/ GVA.
Actually the scheduled flight time of LHR-ARN is exactly two and half hours so I guess it qualifies because of that. I'm mostly flying LHR-HEL with them (actually another two segments on this route coming up next week) where the official flight time is around three hours so am used to getting the sandwiches.
Quoting signol (Reply 9): A pity you lost those tickets, I take it you couldn't change the dates for a future trip?
Yeah, I could. But since they were the cheapest fares available on both DY and Ezy the change fees were about the same or more than the face value of those tickets so it simply wasn't worth it. Didn't even try with LO, somehow I think dealing with a Polish call centre would be very frustrating.
This is a new special livery for the 717s, the winner of a design competition hosted by them in Finland last year. And since the fleet is supposed to be all-717s by the end of this year (methinks) so in a sense they will be getting a new livery...
Quoting infodesk (Reply 10): And you know, I just can't get enough of those lapland shots. The sky is simply stunning.
Yep, me neither.
Quoting infodesk (Reply 10): Fantastic that you could use the rear stairs on the MD-90, hope I get a chance too on my flight.
I think that's part of the special experience, so most definitely!
Quoting infodesk (Reply 10): Minor correction if I may, Runway 34
Oh yeah, a few broken ones but nothing bad. They were again a hit in the office - no way I'm going to eat all that fat and sugar by myself! . Thanks!
Quoting Palmjet (Reply 11): Great set of flights and thank you for visiting Blighty again ! We appreciate your business.
Good to hear! . Actually come to think of if I left a total of 29.50 GBP there on this visit, so I guess it is not enough to tip the budget deficit anyway as it will be claimed by an MP as an expense anyway .
Quoting Palmjet (Reply 11): I have to agree with you - £20 for a shuttle service from LGW to LHR on a bus is mighty expensive. Ouch!
Actually it was 21.50! That's National Express for you!
Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 12): I'm surprised that LOT were so cheap on the o/w to LHR - I may have to give them a go one day.
Well, this was booked something like 5 months in advance. There were plenty of cheap fares around 50 EUR to destinations like LHR, MXP, CDG etc.
Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 12): Lucky you made that connection between LGW-LHR. I so would NEVER have trusted both U2 and National Express with such a short connection time - you're very fortunate to have made your flight!
Well I was a bit afraid of it but it was a calculated risk - it was the first flight of the day for the plane ex-LGW so no risk of accumulated delays and it was Sunday so the traffic wouldn't be bad anyway.
airbuseric From Netherlands, joined Jan 2005, 3735 posts, RR: 52 Reply 15, posted (1 year 4 months 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 5749 times:
Hi P.,
great report. Love the MD90 flight, actually these Hello ones were leased in a lot of times to cover delays for HV last summer. That would've been great to get as replacement on a usual 737! I think I'll never fly these MD90's, still a missing type here.
BA is good as always, their sandwiches are generally very good and fresh indeed.
Regards
Eric
"The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going"
Let's hope you'll soon get another one, I need these names...
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): There’s a choice between sausage and vegetable pasta - sausage in a plane sounds just too weird to me so I go for the pasta. The friendly young FA warns me that “Honestly, sir, the sausage looks SO much better and we still have plenty of those?” - “I think I’ll take my chances with the pasta, thank you.”. I think she was right - the pasta is quite plain:
DunaA320 From UK - England, joined Feb 2009, 596 posts, RR: 9 Reply 18, posted (1 year 4 months 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 5376 times:
Hi P!
Thanks for sharing this one.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): The hotel is quite good for an Ibis, looks like it’s been recently renovated. The public areas are very stylish, the rooms decent if barren like all Ibis rooms are:
Looks identical to my room at the Ibis at LTN... that I'm staying in for another 2 weeks!
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Finally he is handed a yellow plastic bag with a large black label saying “Body Fluid Disposal Kit” and told to put all of his bloody towels in there - never seen anything like that before!
I learnt about them last night on my a/c visit.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Reply 1): Inside the jetway a pair of immigration officers are already checking all the passengers’ documents which seems quite pointless to me as we still have the main border to clear.
I've heard them do this on a NCE arrival before. Perhaps just random checks?
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Reply 1): Yep, it looks like the expected 767, G-BNWA, obviously a new one for me not having flown a BA example before and this one has spent all her life with the company:
FlyingFinn76 From Finland, joined Jun 2009, 1488 posts, RR: 45 Reply 19, posted (1 year 4 months 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 5220 times:
Hi guys, thanks for the additional comments!
Quoting airbuseric (Reply 15): BA is good as always, their sandwiches are generally very good and fresh indeed.
Yep, another two BA (plus one Citiflyer) segments coming up next week so more sandwiches for me!
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 16): Let's hope you'll soon get another one, I need these names...
Two more KF 717 rides currently booked, I'm definitely hoping something different for these!
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 16): Much better than on Pegasus which sells a can of beer (0,33) for 5 Euro!
Ouch, that indeed is quite steep! It's actually even more expensive than on Ryanair, they charge "only" 4,50 for a can of beer. I flew with Pegasus in March last year and did buy a beer or two as well, but can't remember the price at all. I think I'd remembered it if it was so expensive, though.
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 16): Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter):
The route is HEL-LHR/LCY-MAD-CDG-ATH-LHR-HEL.
LAN again?
Yep, there you go. The MAD-CDG segment can be had very cheaply so why not.
Quoting DunaA320 (Reply 18): Looks identical to my room at the Ibis at LTN... that I'm staying in for another 2 weeks!
Yes, Ibises are text book examples of cookie cutter hotels. Interesting to learn that Ezy has switched to the Ibis, when I stayed a night at the LTN Holiday Inn Express last April the whole breakfast room was full of Ezy cabin crew in full duty uniforms - most definitely going through their training...
airbuseric From Netherlands, joined Jan 2005, 3735 posts, RR: 52 Reply 20, posted (1 year 4 months 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 5203 times:
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Reply 19): Quoting DunaA320 (Reply 18):
Looks identical to my room at the Ibis at LTN... that I'm staying in for another 2 weeks!
Yes, Ibises are text book examples of cookie cutter hotels.
Basically true, but also not. I had very nice examples with Ibis, even rooms with balcony, or last December, a even luxurios looking room. Maybe I was lucky to get those, but it seems there is variety possible.
"The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going"
The777Man From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 5564 posts, RR: 58 Reply 21, posted (1 year 4 months 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 4992 times:
Very nice report with nice pictures! Very nice to catch the MD-90 before it's gone from Hello. BA looks very good for a European flight and I have flown on a 763 with BA also on LHR-ARN, back in May 1996 on the first revenue flight of G-BNWZ. SK also used to fly 763s on ARN-LHR in 1996-98; flew on SE-DKZ twice LHR-ARN.
-20 C is really cold but -30 C is extremely cold! I experienced that once while outside Pitea during a winter break. Glad you had some good beer (Lapin Kulta?) to keep warm.
I just flew LAX-IAD-LAX today to drop off my son so a bit tired....
CaptainRed From Germany, joined Oct 2010, 347 posts, RR: 10 Reply 22, posted (1 year 4 months 2 days ago) and read 4868 times:
Hi FlyingFinn,
congratulations on another interesting and adventurous weekend of flying. Great pictures of Kittilä and the surrounding area. That reindeer pizza looked very good as well
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): I tried to make a picture of the thermometer, it reads -20 Celcius:
Just how can you stand these temperatures? I would love to go there as well, but that cold really is discouraging for me.
That Hello Air MD90 sure was something special, and boarding through the rear stairs certainly adds to the experience.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Too bad it turns out to be Appenzeller, despite the nice can the taste isn’t good at all:
Oh, the famous Appenzeller Quöllfrisch. Reminds me of a short flight with Swiss a few years ago where they also served this so-called beer, and I was the only one on board who had one. Later I understood why
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Reply 1): the acceleration and climb rate are extremely impressive - this short hop today is not much for this beast of a plane.
A few pounds of fuel less on board makes a big difference. Great to got a widebody on a short flight like this, and it looked like they had a good load factor.
Thanks again for this nice report and looking forward to the next one
OA260 From Ireland, joined Nov 2006, 23091 posts, RR: 60 Reply 23, posted (1 year 4 months 1 day ago) and read 4688 times:
Hey another great report and routing. Love all the snowy pics and ice sculptures. A nice mix of AC and airlines also. You certainly covered alot and my favourite airport ZRH
OA260
OLYMPIC AIR - ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΗ "Η ΕΛΛΑΔΑ ΨΗΛΑ" "GREECE FLYING HIGH"
MD11Bob From Germany, joined Mar 2010, 101 posts, RR: 1 Reply 24, posted (1 year 4 months 23 hours ago) and read 4665 times:
Hello FlyingFinn,
another superb trip report of you, a really enjoyable read. Great that you got to fly the Hello MD-90 before they are gone. I was eyeing on them when they were subbing for Germanwings here in Cologne, but I missed that opportunity and since I can´t go on the retirement flight, I guess my chances to catch them are gone. So I am glad to at least see a report of them here.
Nice pictures of the 717 and the Icium aswell, the ice sculptures look interesting. The park looks like it is worth the 15€ to me.
Robert
25 FlyingFinn76: HI folks, thanks for the additional comments! Ok, never knew that - it was before my travel days. Thanks for this bit of information. Well, Lapin Kult
26 AlwaysOnAPlane: Hey mate, nice to get around to reading your report. I saw your pics of the ice sculptures on FB and was blown away by them. Nice colours with them li
27 parton87: Hello Petteri! I´ve really waited for this report since you told me about when we meet in December. Sorry that I´ve had´t comment it earlier, I´ve
28 MSS658: Nice trip report as usual, like the ice sculptures.
29 DunaA320: Those guys you would have seen in the Holiday Inn at LTN would have been crew on recurrant training. They get to stay there along with the flight dec
30 LH4116: Good evening there, Petteri P. Here's another blast from the past, and I must say it was quite a substantial report this time, took me nearly one hour
31 FlyingFinn76: Jonas, why do you keep resurrecting these old reports? Are you bored out of your mind or something? Jonas, I think you have far too much time on your
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