Finnair Plus - How does FinnAir business class compares to Delta or other carriers?

Never flew Finnair - any comments?

Which "other carriers"? What sort of journey length, intra-Europe, Long-haul, day or night flight?

BD

I think it's safe to say AY has a fairly good C-class product, the Embraers being the weak point.
I know Skytrax shares opinions, but it gives AY's C-class four stars out of five and 4* generally.

Which "other carriers"? What sort of journey length, intra-Europe, Long-haul, day or night flight?

BD

USA-Europe, A330, night flight - so many q's - I thought Business class is all the same!

I think it's safe to say AY has a fairly good C-class product, the Embraers being the weak point.
I know Skytrax shares opinions, but it gives AY's C-class four stars out of five and 4* generally.

What is AY??

What is AY??

AY=Finnair

USA-Europe, A330, night flight - so many q's - I thought Business class is all the same!

Finnair (AY) have fresh new A333 on the JFK-HEL route, angled lie-flat seats in the C-class, some info and pics here:
http://www.finnairgroup.com/mediaen/mediaen_9_1_3.html.

Of course their narrow body intra-European C-class product is something different, I have understood best on A319, A320/321 ok , avoid E170/190.

For an example, a panorama view to AY A321 business class here:
http://www.finnair.fi//filecontent/common/fleet/a321/a321_business.htm

Finnair (AY) have fresh new A333 on the JFK-HEL route, angled lie-flat seats in the C-class, some info and pics here:
http://www.finnairgroup.com/mediaen/mediaen_9_1_3.html.

Of course their narrow body intra-European C-class product is something different, I have understood best on A319, A320/321 ok , avoid E170/190.

For an example, a panorama view to AY A321 business class here:
http://www.finnair.fi//filecontent/common/fleet/a321/a321_business.htm

I booked flight 6 departing at 17:40 out of JFK and it says that aircraft is A330-300... JFK-HEL, and leg HEL-TLL is ATR72

I booked flight 6 departing at 17:40 out of JFK and it says that aircraft is A330-300... JFK-HEL, and leg HEL-TLL is ATR72

Yes no more MD-11 on HEL-JFK, only A333. The HEL-TLL is operated by FinnComm, a quick 20min hop. I wish you good flights!

AY=FinnairIn case someone is wondering why Finnair=AY, I suppose it is because of the first and last letters of Finnairs original name Aero Oy (Aero Inc.)

Thanks for that info. I wondered that myself since it's one of the few airline codes that's not intuitive.

Regarding AY's C-class service, I just flew them intra-Europe in J and can add a couple of comments. I traveled LHR-HEL-VNO on a 319 and 190 respectively. I agree that the 190 sucks, even up front! The 319 had drop down screens getting a feed from a landing gear camera so that a view of the runway was visible during takeoff and landing. Pretty cool. Then a movie, or some such, was shown but w/o sound. Only subtitles. There were no headphone jacks in any of the seats!

Regarding the drink and meal service, here's where I think they could do a little better. No pre-dep. drinks were served, and there was plenty of time to do so. Eveyone was boarded 20 min. before departure and we sat at the gate until departure time! Then, once in the air, the trolley with drinks and food for Y went by, but still no drink orders taken or offered! It was at least 30 min. before our FA appeared with the drink trolley. Business class was about half full.

On the plus side, the hot lunch was very good and subsequent service by the FA was just fine. BTW, the lunch was a salmon fillet with a light cream sauce, some linguini, and roasted bell peppers. A green salad accompanied, and dessert was some sort of a mousse pie topped with chocolate. One of the wine options was a nice Alsatian Pinot Gris. All in all, pretty good for airline food.

No pre-dep. drinks were served, and there was plenty of time to do so.Pre-departure drinks are an anomaly on intra-Europe flights. I've never had those on any airline I've flown on.

Though getting drinks only after 30 minutes in-flight is bad service.

On the plus side, the hot lunch was very good and subsequent service by the FA was just fine. BTW, the lunch was a salmon fillet with a light cream sauce, some linguini, and roasted bell peppers. A green salad accompanied, and dessert was some sort of a mousse pie topped with chocolate. One of the wine options was a nice Alsatian Pinot Gris. All in all, pretty good for airline food.

IMHO the food on Finnair is their strongest feature - at least in C - had some of my best meals on a plane on AY

USA-Europe, A330, night flight - so many q's - I thought Business class is all the same!

I've only flown AY Business on the E190 and A340 - and they couldn't be more different!

The Long Haul product certainly matches the likes of BA in some respects (food and wine are good for Business Class) though the not-so-flat beds on the A340 are more like the QF product than the lie-flat BA bed - personally, this doesn't bother me so much as the ying-yang in Business on BA but does influence many. AVOD is quite limted, but as this is a night flight, again there should be enough to drive you to sleep!!

Others have probably answered most of your questions - except, maybe, Lounge facilities at JFK.

Enjoy your trip!

BD

Pre-departure drinks are an anomaly on intra-Europe flights. I've never had those on any airline I've flown on.

Though getting drinks only after 30 minutes in-flight is bad service.

I wondered if pre-dep. drinks were an anomaly on intra-Europe flights, although I thought I remembered getting on in J on BA last year LHR-CDG.
Oh well, not a biggie.

What is though was the in-flight drink service. I know the FA was busy getting the lunches ready but I thought she at least could've taken drink orders first.

I've only flown AY Business on the E190 and A340 - and they couldn't be more different!

The Long Haul product certainly matches the likes of BA in some respects (food and wine are good for Business Class) though the not-so-flat beds on the A340 are more like the QF product than the lie-flat BA bed - personally, this doesn't bother me so much as the ying-yang in Business on BA but does influence many. AVOD is quite limted, but as this is a night flight, again there should be enough to drive you to sleep!!

Others have probably answered most of your questions - except, maybe, Lounge facilities at JFK.

Enjoy your trip!

BD

I agree. But, is it just me or BA cabin crews are significantly friendlier than AY's crews? The latter tend to be rather cold and indifferent.

On topic but off topic...

Flying Finnair J for the first time coming up but bought the ticket through AA.com. Is there a way to select my seats online with Finnair? Or do I need to call and pay a fee to select them?

Or do I need to call and pay a fee to select them?No need to pay a fee for most European airlines :) Though some (like BA) do not allow seat allocation unless you're an elite member or on a full-fare ticket. Calling AY should work fine. I assume they have a US reservations line.

On topic but off topic...

Flying Finnair J for the first time coming up but bought the ticket through AA.com. Is there a way to select my seats online with Finnair? Or do I need to call and pay a fee to select them?


You have to call Finnair. They will happily assign you a seat. There are no fees to pay.

Pre-departure drinks are an anomaly on intra-Europe flights. I've never had those on any airline I've flown on.



Air France does them.

Thanks for that info. I wondered that myself since it's one of the few airline codes that's not intuitive.


IMHO it is one of the most intuitive of all. Aero Oy = AY.

IMHO it is one of the most intuitive of all. Aero Oy = AY.

So clearly more obvious than AA, BA, NZ or AF...

FI is used by Icelandair but FA was available at least a decade ago. It was used by Finnaviation, a subsidiary of AY. But AY, Aero is to show respect to the 85 years' tradition of flying.