[cwoodward]

These aircraft it is reported will be used on the Sydney Singapore and Bangkok routes starting next week.
Apparently Qantas is short of appropriate aircraft to operate these routes.

It will be interesting to see how Australians react to these revolutionary seats and Finnar cabin service.

[travel4piers]

Two weeks ago I flew London-Helsinki A330 with the cocoon seats. Then Helsinki-Hong Kong A350 with cocoon seats in an obviously more modern and spacious plane, then Cathay A350 to Sydney with standard business seats.

This route used to be my alternative route London to Australia but now it is rather the long way round avoiding Russian airspace I like it for flying A350s and transiting through HK and the fact that both Finnair and Cathay really pay attention to connections and are very proactive.

A couple of observations, the A330s are ‘tight’ for the cocoon seats and the cabin didn’t feel spacious. The Finnair A330s are showing their age now.

London Helsinki was a Finish crew with the more reserved service whereas Helsinki-Hong Kong was an Asian crew so be interesting to know which set of crew the lease comes with – probably Asian based for cost as Finland is an expensive country for everything.

Last year when I flew in the then “brand-new“ cocoon seat I was very impressed; and told a friend it was the best sleep I’ve had on the plane except for Qantas A380 first class London to Sydney. I have to say, and this is entirely subjective but I didn’t enjoy the cocoon seat as much this time as I did last time. I seemed to have trouble getting comfortable in a relaxed sitting position.

It will indeed be interesting to hear what people think of them.

As a sidenote, I thought that Cathay has upped their game on the catering. Much tastier and better presented – although breakfast was still a bit difficult for someone who doesn’t eat meat.

[AlanOrton1]

I travelled in the fairly new AY J seats this time last year from JFK-ARN.
I thought they were very good. Plenty of space and easy to get comfortable for some sleep on this overnight sector.
Service on board was also excellent.
IMHO, better than the now, rather dated, CX J hard product I flew on earlier this month.

[Mark Caswell]

This was our news piece on this from earlier in the year.

Finnair to lease two A330s with new business class seats to Qantas

[MarcusGB]

There certainly is a lot of increased leasing of Aircraft at the moment, as demand outstrips capacity, and this can be seen down into Australia where i am currently, and in Asia.
The Winter timetables show huge increases in Capacity coming to most cities,with larger Aircraft, as well as additional numbers of flights.
Especially from China, down to Australian cities. These are mainly for Leisure travellers, spread across all cabins.
Brisbane (see news) is seeing some of the largest capacity increases, as well as new routes Internationally

Every flight i have taken in a hectic schedule for travel in the last months, has been Completely full, in all cabins.
These include Even KLM flights from LCY and LHR – AMS which i use regularly, there is never a spare seat, and larger 738/9s have replaced Embraers out of LHR.

With very few options KUL-SYD still, i bought a decent return in Air Asia Business class, normally of only 2 rows on a 333.
When booking i noticed one day, where their were 30 seats, and i had presumed this was one of the new 333 Neo’s.
However on boarding, it was clear it was a former Singapore Airlines plane, and the cabins and sets remained unchanged. This was a Nonus for the 10 passengers in the 30 seat cabin, which was going onwards to Auckland after Sydney.

So i hope these Leases add an extra comfort to our flights, rather than a less than expected one.

[Author]

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