paxx

For my annual October trip I have booked a return Business Class ticket from London to Hong Kong (via Helsinki) rather than my usual BA or Qantas direct flights. BA and Qantas both wanted £4.5k this time, so i decided they were taking the piss and paid £1700 on Finnair.

I know it's not a flat bed but was wondering if anyone can tell me what i can expect with regards to seat comfort, food quality, service, in flight entertainment.

The plane is a A340-200 and i have managed to secure seats 04D on both flights, which hopefully means no one can disturb me and i won't get disturbed !

Appreciate any comments. ^

(i did do a search and nothing recent came up).

Ocn Vw 1K

paxx, welcome to FlyerTalk. Please follow the discussion as the thread moves to the Finnair forum for discussion. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Andaman

Hi,

My J-class experiences on AY 343, HEL-Asia:

*Seat: Not full flat but rather comfortable, I had no problems with sleeping. The cabin felt roomy and fresh.

*Meals: High quality usually, except ex-BKK. Great wines.

*Service: Finnish-Asian crews, professional and attentive, perhaps less personal service than on some others.

*IFE: AVOD with rather limited selection of films/music.

On LHR-HEL-LHR you can expect good meals in J, the seats on A32X are the same as in Y, with the middle seat blocked.

A panorama view to AY's J-cabin on 343:
http://www.finnair.fi//filecontent/c...siness_fin.htm
On some? 343 the colors have been changed to more light blue. AY also have a couple of ex-AF 343's, haven't tried those but I have heard the J-cabin is ok.

HEL non-schengen terminal has a new large, comfy lounge and an unique Spa, highly recommended.

Panorama views to the lounge:
http://media.finnair.com/spa/site/pa...a_lounge1.html
http://media.finnair.com/spa/site/pa...a_lounge2.html

The Spa:
http://media.finnair.com/spa/site/pa.../via_spa1.html
http://media.finnair.com/spa/site/pa.../via_spa2.html

nordic

In the second post of the sticky thread you will find links to many trip reports in FT and a.net. Unfortunately, there are not that many long-haul C reports.

paxx

Thanks, appreciate your comments and time !

Seems it's basically the same product as Qantas and i've saved myself a few £k.

intuition

1700? That was an attractive price!

+1 on all that Andaman said.

I can add that the hot breakfast on euro J class is suberb, in my taste anyway.

paxx

I believe it's a marketing strategy to attract customers away from BA, Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Air New Zealand. I usually pay around £2,500 to £3,000 for a direct flight on these airlines, often using some air miles to sweeten the price, but this time it was a lot moree, hence shopping around, but i won't be expecting Finn Air to offer me this price next time, but, depending how good the product/service is, if it's £2k to £2.5k then they might just get a loyal customer.

The big bonus being One World air miles !

My outbound flight is,
London 16.10
Helsinki 21.05
Helsinki 23.40
Hong Kong 14.25

Return
Hong Kong 01.05
Helsinki 06.10
Helsinki 08.00
London 09.10

intuition

... and 200% COS-bonus in J.

£2100 seems to be a normal price from LHR, still a good fare comparatively. Hopefully you like the product & service. Compared to the others you mention, it will not be as good as CX, but it will be better than BA and QF IMHO.

One tip when waiting for the homebound in HKG, use any of the CX-lounges (assuming you have status on OW). When checking in you will get a lounge invitation to G16-lounge, but the only good about this one is that it is close to where AY70 usually boards. CX the Wing is a better lounge and open until "last plane leaves".

mosburger

Does the euro J brekkie still include liver pate? I would be happy with just that on some buttered knäckebröd. plus yoghurt and a cup of tea.

As an arrival lounge would not make any sense at a transfer airport like HEL, I do think AY should start to offer take-away brekkie at least in front of the curtain. Both long-and shorthaul. Something along the lines of a ham/cheese sandwich or croissant, OJ and coffee for example.

SAN_Finn

For the price I think its a superb deal. For the seat though, BA Club world is miles ahead of the old business class (which I believe you will have on the A340) and somewhat ahead of the new one. I haven't flown Qantas business so can't comment there. New Club world is ahead on IFE also, for food and wine I would rank Finnair ahead.

Helsinki is a good point for connecting and to London you will just walk down about 10 gates since both are outside of schengen. No security on way out, I think on the way back you will go through security. Lounge in Helsinki is ok but not as good as LHR or HKG have to offer.

MrSoft

I am BA Gold but I love Finnair now and always use them on long jaunts to Asia or down to the Pacific. You will find it very clean, refined, with excellent and consistent cabin crews.

Interesting food, local menus and something different. Always seems to have stuff like Moose's balls or Elk Head soup. Smart Iitaala (sp?) tableware. Pretty fantastic long haul breakfasts, warm cinnamon rolls, yums!

The IFE is bit lame but in case "Lapland Odyssey" is still playing, please do not miss a chance to watch this brilliantly funny film :-)

Enjoy the ride.

jakas

Flew Business Class Del-Hel with AY and its was pretty ok. Decent menu. Excellent seat which go nearly flat, did sleep a bit. GQ, Time etc newpapers on offer. Indian or continental food was on offer. Nice Ittala glasses for drinks. Service is smart, I am sure the asian airlines do more smiles then Finnair but it was fine, no complaints. Priority baggage + other things which do go with Business class can be expected on AY too.

TTL

It is IITTALA !

allset2travel

Andaman,
Thanks for the links to visual.
Are there showers, free or pay? (AA Plat, flying J-fare on AY)
Thx.

intuition

In the non-schengen area there are showers in the spa. They are a pay-service except for AY plats who have free entrance. There might have been a recent change in policy to include free entrance for OW sapphires too, check this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/finna...ing-schen.html

In that thread there is also info on showers in the schengen area lounge, which you will have free entrance to.