Finnair Plus - Transiting via HEL USA-Kiev: some observations

Just a return-and-report on my trip to KBP via HEL earlier this month. My route was SNA-ORD-HEL-KBP, on the fourth day of operation of AA 130 ORD-HEL. The plane was roughly 85% full in Economy, half full in Business. Interesting mix of passengers: some bound for Scandinavia/Nordic region, some to Baltics, some to Eastern Europe, some to Russia. The two guys seated ahead of me in Business were headed to a bachelor party in Vilnius. The woman across from me, to Stockholm. The gentleman across the aisle, to Gdansk for a conference.

I had upgraded an Economy ticket to Business with miles/cash, which put me in Business on AA, but the AY segment HEL-KBP was in Economy. Surprisingly, service on AA 130 was excellent. Staff really took an interest in passengers and catered to every need. Food was pretty good, not superb. The gentleman in front of me has flown transatlantic over 100 times and said this was the best flight he'd ever taken.

My Business class boarding pass qualified me for entry into the Finnair Lounge. Magnificent. Light, airy, beautiful, amazing breakfast buffet. There are six shower rooms, each comparable to a bathroom in a four or five star hotel: amenities, nice towels, exhaust fan to cut humidity, hair dryer, a place to hang clothes and to sit. The woman at the front desk was a little bit confused over my eligibility (AA Business boarding pass plus an AY Economy business class), probably because it was her first day back at work since AA 130 began operating and she'd never seen anyone arrive with an AA business class boarding pass. Only about six passengers used the lounge at that hour, some I recognized from AA 130. I imagine it's more crowded in the evening for Asian flights.

I stayed inside the international portion of Terminal 2 and thus never cleared immigration. Nor was there an additional security check. The AY flight to KBP departed from a Gate 37 bus gates (37a-d) which are easily accessed by lift or escalator from the second floor main gates. I had inquired earlier whether my cabin bag would be weighed by Finnair. There were no scales at Gate 37b nor did anyone pay attention to the size/weight of my bag. whether this would have been the same for someone checking in at HEL, I don't know, but it would appear that passengers arriving on flights with no cabin bag weight limit will not be placed in jeopardy when connecting at HEL. In fact, some of the passengers carried a full size cabin bag and a tote or personal item, and no one was questioned. This was a half full flight on board an Embraer 170, and my rolling bookpack easily fit in the overhead bin.

Service on board AY was gracious and polite. Over half the passengers were Finns. I was the only one on board who spoke Swedish to the attendants (just to practice) and the Ukrainians were easy to spot: they all spoke English!! For a relatively short (1:45) flight, they provided a surprisingly nice meal (remember, I was in Economy at this point): a fresh chicken sandwich, along with salad and tortellini. There was beverage service before the meal and again after the meal. No one infringed on my "right" to speak Swedish ;) in spite of recent Finnish elections.

All in all, the journey to KBP was delightful, plus the new route from HEL is three hours shorter than via Western Europe. Below are photos of AA 130 and the AY flight from JFK. AA130 uses a 767 with winglets. The two planes were parked side by side at Gates 36 and 38.



http://www.automaticwasher.org/COLLECTIONS/PASSATDOC/04@HEL-1@PASSATDOC.jpghttp://www.automaticwasher.org/COLLECTIONS/PASSATDOC/06@HEL-2@PASSATDOC.jpg

Thanks for the details and glad you enjoyed HEL!

Thanks for your report! Interesting reading, I know some people flying RIX-HEL-ORD this summer, now I can tell them they can expect smooth connections via HEL and a good ride on AA/AY.

The new lounge sound great, I've heard the design is 'too Nordic' for some but personally I've liked what I've seen. I want to try the new Spa next to the lounge this summer, something special. There are a special summer offer for the Plus members, the Spa benefit will be annouced next Monday 6 June.

Var saa god. ;)

My understanding is that, normally, only Finnair's highest tier passengers get free spa access. That is to say, the average person who qualifies for the lounge (flying Business class on long haul) doesn't get free spa admittance. In my situation, I really appreciated being able to shower, but I didn't have time for spa treatments during a two hour layover. The lounge, its breakfast bar, and the showers were plenty.

I have a cousin who works in Hong Kong and who has to visit Europe on business 3-4 times a year. Normally he flies Cathay Pacific nonstop to his destination, but I've encouraged him to try Finnair next time and indulge himself in the lounge and spa, particularly if his European destination doesn't have nonstop Cathay flights to HKG. He can still put the miles into his Cathay FF account.

What I liked most about HEL was that everything worked properly (granted, it's a smaller airport, I think this feat is harder to do as you grow in size---though MUC seems to be a decent job of it), everything was placed logically, and I as a frequent visitor to Sweden I am used to Nordic design and like it. About the only glitch was the woman at the counter who'd never been presented an AA business class boarding pass before (it was only day number four of the flight's operation). I had printed out the OW access policy and showed it to her, in particular the section that says pax connecting from/to OW long haul business class get lounge access, even if the connecting domestic or intra-European segment is in Economy (which covers those who upgrade with miles/cash on AA, where the upgrade does not extend to AY connecting flights within Finland or Europe).

I also appreciated that the breakfast bar was devoid of maemmi, lutfisk and surstroemming. ;)

PS the cabin bag weight paranoia stemmed from a 2005 flight ARN-CGN on GermanWings, which departed ARN terminal 2 and for which check in and ground handling was performed by Finnair. My bag WAS weighed at check-in in ARN, it was overweight, and I had to transfer a few items into my coat to bring the bag down to GermanWings or Finnair rules. This was of course not a connection from another carrier with a higher cabin limit, it was a point to point ticket within Europe. Anyway, I was glad that none of the HEL gates appear to have luggage scales. :) One time, on an SNA-IAH-CDG-KBP trip, the CDG-KBP was operated by Ukraine International and the gate at CDG 2B did have scales and my bag was overweight. Because I was in business, there was no charge to check it, but had I been in Economy, I would have paid aboutg $260 in excess bag charges.

PS#2: during the AY beverage service, I was asked (in English) if I'd like a soft drink, water, tea or coffee and answered "Ja till finnska kaffe---baesta i hela varlden!" and the attendant's face lit up! The implication being that Finnish coffee is superior to Swedish coffee. ;)

Var saa god. ;)
PS#2: during the AY beverage service, I was asked (in English) if I'd like a soft drink, water, tea or coffee and answered "Ja till finnska kaffe---baesta i hela varlden!" and the attendant's face lit up! The implication being that Finnish coffee is superior to Swedish coffee. ;)

Thanks for the report, glad to hear everything went well. I really hope HEL-ORD service would be year-round... But let's not go overboard with this "best coffee in the world" bit, OK? :p

The new lounge sound great, I've heard the design is 'too Nordic' for some but personally I've liked what I've seen. I want to try the new Spa next to the lounge this summer, something special. There are a special summer offer for the Plus members, the Spa benefit will be annouced next Monday 6 June.

What kind of benefit are we talking about here?

BTW, I really like Via lounge. It gets a bit crowded in the afternoon, but I've always managed to find a seat.

Lounge photoshttp://www.automaticwasher.org/COLLECTIONS/PASSATDOC/07@7@PASSATDOC.jpg

oopps

http://www.automaticwasher.org/COLLECTIONS/PASSATDOC/08@8@PASSATDOC.jpg

http://www.automaticwasher.org/COLLECTIONS/PASSATDOC/09@9@PASSATDOC.jpg

What kind of benefit are we talking about here?

The details are not out yet. They announce a new "summer benefit" for Plus members every Monday, the first was an upgrade on Euro flights for half points.

http://www.finnair.fi/finnaircom/wps/portal/finnair/kesahinnat/en_FI

Thanks for the nice report.

I'm going to do almost the same in some 3 weeks. I'm going SFO-JFK-HEL-KBP and the same route return.

I've been in HEL Via Lodge for a couple of times, but I did not know that they do have 6x shower rooms over there. Good news ^ as on my inbound I'll have to stay the night at terminal.

I don't know what sort of food they offer midday and evening, but the breakfast bar had everything from eggs to yogurt to trail mix.

The shower rooms are well equipped with shampoo/skin lotion/body wash gel amenities. They are comparable to a four or five star hotel bathroom. I was the only one using the showers early in the morning. Possibly it gets busier at other times of day. There were at most six guests in the entire lounge at 9:00 on a Thursday.

In the first lounge photo above, there is a rear wall with two tv monitors. The shower rooms are in a corridor behind this wall. The check in desk is to the right, and behind the desk you can see a small portion of the lobby. To the left of the wall are the regular non-shower restrooms. The shower rooms have sinks and toilets, a bench to sit on, hair dryer, just about everything. They provide a large bath towel and a smaller hand towel. Soap is liquid. If you like bar soap, bring your own.

Some more stuff from Tries:

I'm in process to complete my SFO-JFK-HEL-KBP-HEL-JFK-SFO with a night stay at terminal in HEL.

The inbound part was exactly as the OP described it, but inbound is much more interesting as far ;)

so, arriving at KBP with two bags to fly further to HEL, the check in stuff at KBP terminal F surprisingly was not able to check my 2nd bag for free (I'm AA PLT). They told, the system does see me as OW Sapphire and at the same time the system does know that OW Sapphire can take 2 bags for free, but system is denying 2nd bag in my case. Please pay 80 EUR for 2nd bag - was their suggestion. Since I'm not a big fan of cash, and since their system did not accept any of my US and Ukraine issued credit/debit cards, I had to enjoy a lot of stress about where I can take 922 UAH in cash. It ended up at one of few ATMs located at Terminal F. I was very thankful to the stuff at KBP for giving me this great opportunity to open a case with AY afterwards, because it's not my first issue with AY doing its job in its own way.
Surprisingly, they issued a BP for JFK-SFO leg (SVO stuff doesn't do that, but KBP was able to)
As OW Sapphire, I've requested (after not being granted) an invitation to a business class lounge at KBP Terminal F. The lounge is nothing special, except it offers a lot of heavy alcoholic stuff for free, some sandwiches (both- served on request at bar) and some carbonated drinks in a fridge. Flight to HEL was fully ok with some weird, heavy on energy sandwich and a flight attendant, that offered a pillow and blanket to a passenger who decided to sleep on this 2 hours flight.
After arriving at HEL and clearing TFS, I headed to AY service desk to get my 80 EUR back. The guy had to make a call, and after confirming with a manager he told, that off course, 2nd bag in my case would have to be free. Obviously, since he doesn't have any cash, he suggested, I would have to provide AY with my bank account number for a money transfer. Since I needed some internet access to get the data, we decided, that I'll visit service desk on the next day after sleeping at terminal. The night at terminal F was a very nice and quiet time (I slept on the ground level near gates 37). In the early morning I went to the service desk, and off course, another person was serving, and off course, she had to make a call again, and this time she suggested, I should go to www.finnair.com to submit my claim, and there is no way she can do it for me. Well, since there is some paperwork to be submitted to AY, I believe, I'll have to come back to SFO, and mail a paper letter to Finnland with all scans proving my payment.
Via Lounge is as described above. Great healthy food, however not for fans of salad. Draught red and white wines is something that I always mention talking about Via Lounge :cool:

I have made a similar experience at Kiev. The local check-in staff is totally incompetent and unaware of the AY rules. They claimed to me that as a silver I did not have any right to an additional piece of luggage. I luckily convinced them to call Helsinki. ^

I have made a similar experience at Kiev. The local check-in staff is totally incompetent and unaware of the AY rules. They claimed to me that as a silver I did not have any right to an additional piece of luggage. I luckily convinced them to call Helsinki. ^

Well, in my case agent at KBP told me that she does everything possible, but damn system is denying any of her attempts.

Anyways... today I got my 80 Euros on my EU based bank account. Quite quickly, and very fast service. Even though, I've bought those 80 Euros at very high price at KBP, it's still nice to have a free transfer to my bank account in EU (sending money from US personal bank account to EU based account alone can easily cost some 30 Euros).
It took only 5 days ^.
I wish, US based businesses would do it that quickly (instead of usual "please allow 6-8 weeks for processing of your request") :)

I find it's helpful to print out policies for bags and lounges ahead of time, especially if there is some question as to which rules apply.

When I arrived in HEL, it was only the fourth day of operation of the ORD-HEL AA130 flight. So I anticipated that the AY employees at the lounge might not yet be familiar with connecting passengers from AA130 seeking entry. As it turned out, the employee at the lounge desk spoke limited English, and no Swedish. I had printed out the One World page on lounge access, which specify that intercontinental OW passengers in First/Business get access to OW member lounges, even if the connecting domestic or intra-European flight to or from the intercontinental segment is in Y....this covers passengers connecting to/from Y-only flights, as well as those who upgraded with cash/miles, which upgrades only the AA metal segments and not the partner segments. I had highlighted in yellow ink the sentences that applied to me, handed her the page with both boarding passes, and it worked. She confessed to me that this was her first day at work since AA 130 began, and she was only used to AY long haul passengers trying to enter.

Policies such as enhanced bag allowances for elite members, premium passengers, and in some case credit card holders (e.g Continental's mileage card holders get first bag free in domestic if card was used to purchase ticket) are probably best to print out and carry with you, in case there is confusion and the agent's English is limited, as was your case in KBP.

Unfortunately, some complex regulations aren't consistently on the websites and thus cannot be printed "just in case". BA has a policy whereby you get the baggage allowance of your most premium segment for the entire roundtrip. Therefore, if you've upgraded one way to C, or if you spent extra on Premium Economy in one direction, you get the highest applicable allowance for the entire trip, even if one direction is in Y. This appears on the BA website and can be printed.

American's policy for "unequal" class of service, for example C or J USA-LHR and thence Y from LHR-wherever, states that the class of service for the transatlantic segment determines the allowance for the journey in the direction of the segment, but does not apply to the entire roundtrip. Hence if you upgrade eastbound on AA transatlantic, with a OW partner connecting flight in Y (because the upgrade applies only to AA metal and does not upgrade the partner flight), you get the Business class allowance eastbound on all segments, even if your initial connecting flight in the US is in Y. But if your return is all-Y, you only get the Y allowance on the way home, unlike BA's round trip policy. The problem is that American's policy isn't even posted, despite being well known, so if you are say checking in at Kiev for a BA flight to LHR and then on an upgraded AA ticket transatlantic, you'd have a tough time convincing the handling company agent in Kiev that you are entitled to the business class allowance all the way home. And you'd have nothing in writing to show the agent.

I stayed inside the international portion of Terminal 2 and thus never cleared immigration. Nor was there an additional security check.

Is the lack of additional security standard practice at HEL? I have never seen this before on an international to international/domestic connection anywhere.

This alone is enough reason to connect through HEL. I hate the hustle and bustle of a security screening after a red eye to Europe.

Is the lack of additional security standard practice at HEL? I have never seen this before on an international to international/domestic connection anywhere.


In case your origin is deemed to have a reasonably trustworthy security screening operation, there is no need to go through additional security. In HEL this includes all of Schengen, the EU and US.

As you've probably noticed, there is no additional security on most Schengen/Schengen connections, even though they are international.

As it turned out, the employee at the lounge desk spoke limited English...This is highly unusual. Was she a Finn? Almost all people working in travel-related positions in Finland have excellent English.

cheers,

Henry