REVIEW – Finnair : Premium Lounge and Business Lounge – Helsinki Airport
November 22, 2016£2016 for 2 Business class return flights (annual BA sale)
November 24, 2016
Finnair (AY)
- Flight: AY 0995
- Class: Business
- From: Helsinki (HEL)
- To: London (LHR)
- Duration: 2hr55
- Aircraft: Airbus A350-900XWB
- Seat: 11K
- Cost: 30,000 Avios + £126.71 for LHR-HEL round trip business class
- Date: November 2015
After an action packed weekend of drinking coffee and eating half the fish in Finland, it was time for me to take me second trip on the AY A350.
This time we were told that there were technical issues in connecting the jetbridge to the plane, which meant we would be boarding this majestic best by the stairs!
I was heinously psyched.
Taking the stairs for an A319 or Embraer flight is a pretty common occurrence. Getting up close with a widebody is quite a different (and awesome) proposition
Even the wide angle of my GoPro lens couldn’t capture the whole fuselage and wing
A shaky attempt at A350 selfie. Perhaps a result of my elevated caffeine intake on this trip
Selfie attempt #2: foiled by an errant raindrop
Enormous engine
Once again I had the mini-cabin to myself!
Aurora Borealis style light show
A view of the mini-cabin from the rear
Finnair Logo on the bulkhead. I think it would have been better if there was a larger, movable divider for the middle seats. If you’re stuck next to a stranger it could get awkward with thing spilling over the shared table space
Although Row 10 has the extra counter space above, I think that 11 or 12 are preferable as they have unobstructed footwells. Row 12, whilst close to economy bassinets, also has a bit of extra counter space at head height.
Seat 12 K with the extra storage shelf at head height
A shot of a middle seat, as expected with reverse herringbone products – not too different to the window seats
My seat for this flight: 11K
The IFE on this flight was super slick and speedy with no interruptions at all. It looks like the outbound issues were indeed down to the crew being unfamiliar with the system
Ready to taxi
I love the feeling of leaving rain behind…
On this flight the cabin manager was super friendly and proactive. She asked me what I thought of the A350 and told me how excited everybody was with the new equipment. She also offered me a free wifi voucher, good for the duration of the flight. I love the interface with the phone. You could get a moving map, time remaining, gate info etc on your device, offsetting the fact that the IFE remote had no screen
I didn’t check this on the outbound but I believe that all of the internal Finnair features are usable even when you don’t have a wifi plan purchased
A quick peak into the main cabin. Definitely not as private feeling as the mini-cabin.
Unfortunately the menu on this flight was the same as the outbound. ‘Chicken thing’ again
I love these little Benjamins of champagne
Checking out The Last Samurai from the extensive selection of classic movies on the IFE
What I imagine Buck Rogers’ bathroom looks like
A delicious triple espresso to finish the meal, or should that be Finnish the meal… sorry that was awful 🙂
All too soon we made our approach to LHR
We taxied for a while and then were towed to our final position
After a while it became clear that the ground crew weren’t exactly sure what the hell to do with an A350. I’m pretty sure I even saw one of them kick the tyres
Ten minutes later the captain came on the P.A. to apologise and inform us that once again there would be no jetbridge. We would instead be exiting via the rear stairs. A rare opportunity for me to catch a glimpse of an Economy class cabin 😀
Deplaning
Finally an only semi-blurry, non-rainy selfie together with the mechanical marvel which inspired my trip!
Re-fueling already, no messing around with the turnaround times at LHR!
The winglets on the end have to be the coolest of any plane out there. This coupled with the ‘shades’ on the cockpit make this one of my favourite planes ever
Shades
Conclusion
Another great flight, if anything this one was even better than the outbound. The free wifi was a great bonus as was using the stairs twice!
I’m still not convinced that I’d want to fly this for an ultra long haul, as the seats are a little more cramped than on the CX, AA, AF etc equivalents. For a flight to the East Coast of the US this would be more than adequate.
