Does anyone know if Finnair helps with a room on long stopovers in Hel?
May 28, 2015, 7:56 am
#1
In Memoriam
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: L.I., N.Y., UA Gold for Life & Platinum Finnair+
Posts: 818
Does anyone know if Finnair helps with a room on long stopovers in Hel?
Will be flying Bus. class JFK-HEL_KIX rtn next April. 8.5 hrs stopover on outbound and almost 24hrs stopover on inbound. If Finnair does not help on renting a room is there a decent hotel available for under a 100USD? Bar and resto. would be nice!
May 28, 2015, 8:01 am
#2
Join Date: May 2014
Location: HEL
Programs: AY+Plat, ALL Plat, Scandic L2
Posts: 3,620
No, Finnair does not provide a hotel room - that is, unless the night stay is a consequence of an irregularity.
Finland has a high cost of living, so most hotels cost over 100.USD. Maybe the Best Western Airport Hotel Pilotti will be below that price. But you can check any OTA.
Finland has a high cost of living, so most hotels cost over 100.USD. Maybe the Best Western Airport Hotel Pilotti will be below that price. But you can check any OTA.
May 28, 2015, 10:40 am
#3
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: BSL
Programs: AA (EXP); among others :)
Posts: 2,522
No stopover program unfortunately (they really should, given that their flight timings often leave their Asian passengers with overnight layovers!)
Check out kayak/hotwire/priceline - I usually stay at the 4-star Cumulus or the neighboring Rantasipi near the airport for around 75 EUR - decent prices for Finland. Both have a very decent breakfast buffet included in the price and offer restaurants.
If you don't feel like venturing out into the city (which you should do - Helsinki is definitely worth a visit!) - select one of the half dozen hotels with a stop along the sole (free) shuttle line: http://www.finavia.fi/en/helsinki-ai...sinki-airport/.
Check out kayak/hotwire/priceline - I usually stay at the 4-star Cumulus or the neighboring Rantasipi near the airport for around 75 EUR - decent prices for Finland. Both have a very decent breakfast buffet included in the price and offer restaurants.
If you don't feel like venturing out into the city (which you should do - Helsinki is definitely worth a visit!) - select one of the half dozen hotels with a stop along the sole (free) shuttle line: http://www.finavia.fi/en/helsinki-ai...sinki-airport/.
Jun 2, 2015, 4:21 am
#5
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Switzerland
Programs: AY Plat (OWE), Bonvoy Gold, ALL Silver
Posts: 3,038
... Location is OK, but you still need to walk outside to reach the hotel (at least we had to last year coming from BKK in the month of Feb) but still better than the other Reachable-by-shuttle-bus-only hotels I guess. We also had a room facing the, erh, car park so I would not bank a room for it's views ;-)
Jun 2, 2015, 6:17 am
#6
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,464
That's stretching it a tad ... Location is OK, but you still need to walk outside to reach the hotel (at least we had to last year coming from BKK in the month of Feb) but still better than the other Reachable-by-shuttle-bus-only hotels I guess. We also had a room facing the, erh, car park so I would not bank a room for it's views ;-)
... Location is OK, but you still need to walk outside to reach the hotel (at least we had to last year coming from BKK in the month of Feb) but still better than the other Reachable-by-shuttle-bus-only hotels I guess. We also had a room facing the, erh, car park so I would not bank a room for it's views ;-)
It was more expensive, but IMO 180€ wasn't too prohibitive. Especially compared to my previous nightmare-inducing claustrophobic experience at the underground, windowless GLO within the terminal. I'll take the 3 minute walk outside any day over that.
Last edited by Flythe96flag; Jun 2, 2015 at 6:22 am
Jun 3, 2015, 9:10 am
#7
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 17
This one is a cheaper option. The Bonus Inn. Colleagues of mine have used it and said it was fine.
http://www.bonusinn.fi/index.php?lang=eng
http://www.bonusinn.fi/index.php?lang=eng
Jun 3, 2015, 4:04 pm
#8
Join Date: Jul 2007
Programs: AY Gold
Posts: 596
Jul 23, 2015, 10:00 am
#9
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: New York, New York
Programs: AA Gold, Alaska MVP; Free Agent Super Duper Diamond Treasure Chest ;)
Posts: 4,682
Glad to have run into this thread. Found a reasonable Biz fare from DEL-JFK at the end of August. Too bad they don't have a stopover program. I imagine it must effect travel decisions, having to shell out for ones own hotel for Premium cabin passengers.
Jul 24, 2015, 2:35 am
#10
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,162
The Hilton offers day rooms for transit pax for a lower rate, I did that back in 2012 for 6 hours in transit. Costs aprox 50€ for max 8h.
The AY hotel to put up transit pax is the Cumulus. Call your local sales contact and ask for a stopover accomodation if its almost 20-22h. Note that the cumulus is a decent place to sleep at, but not more.
The AY hotel to put up transit pax is the Cumulus. Call your local sales contact and ask for a stopover accomodation if its almost 20-22h. Note that the cumulus is a decent place to sleep at, but not more.
Jul 24, 2015, 8:21 am
#11
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: HEL
Programs: AY Platinum, TK Elite, BT VIP, AA, BA, SK, DL, NT, WB + hotels
Posts: 8,749
If price is a decisive factor, then one simply needs to calculate the price of the hotelroom to the grand total. Either you pay, say, 3000 USD on airline X or you pay 2300 USD on AY, whereof 120 USD is for the hotelroom and 2180 USD is the cost of the flight ticket.
Of course it might be easier for the pax if AY simply raised their J prices with 120 USD and included a hotel room. But that's not the concept they work with as the "Scandic of the skies".
Jul 25, 2015, 7:09 pm
#13
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: New York, New York
Programs: AA Gold, Alaska MVP; Free Agent Super Duper Diamond Treasure Chest ;)
Posts: 4,682
Hardly.
If price is a decisive factor, then one simply needs to calculate the price of the hotelroom to the grand total. Either you pay, say, 3000 USD on airline X or you pay 2300 USD on AY, whereof 120 USD is for the hotelroom and 2180 USD is the cost of the flight ticket.
Of course it might be easier for the pax if AY simply raised their J prices with 120 USD and included a hotel room. But that's not the concept they work with as the "Scandic of the skies".
If price is a decisive factor, then one simply needs to calculate the price of the hotelroom to the grand total. Either you pay, say, 3000 USD on airline X or you pay 2300 USD on AY, whereof 120 USD is for the hotelroom and 2180 USD is the cost of the flight ticket.
Of course it might be easier for the pax if AY simply raised their J prices with 120 USD and included a hotel room. But that's not the concept they work with as the "Scandic of the skies".
Yes, I agree if the price of flying AY in a premium cabin saves a substantial amount, given the overnight layover and cost of hotel, then it would certainly give the competition a run for its money. But if the difference is minimal, then I'd imagine some, if not most, would go with the next best option.
In my case, unless things change by the time I make a reservation, my next best option saves me time, without a substantial dent in the wallet.
Last edited by knit-in; Jul 25, 2015 at 11:19 pm
Jul 26, 2015, 12:51 am
#14
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: SYD
Programs: UA Premier Gold (*G), IHG Platinum & Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 1,456
IME it was very nice, I had a junior suite on the top floor with a sauna and a nice corner window facing the airport, which combined with wine in the exec lounge kept me entertained.
It was more expensive, but IMO 180€ wasn't too prohibitive. Especially compared to my previous nightmare-inducing claustrophobic experience at the underground, windowless GLO within the terminal. I'll take the 3 minute walk outside any day over that.
It was more expensive, but IMO 180€ wasn't too prohibitive. Especially compared to my previous nightmare-inducing claustrophobic experience at the underground, windowless GLO within the terminal. I'll take the 3 minute walk outside any day over that.
Great shower and comfortable bed, with the view being a bonus. No breakfast wasn't an issue as I wanted to check out the Finnair Premium Lounge anyway.
Jul 26, 2015, 2:01 am
#15
Moderator, Finnair
Join Date: May 2011
Location: MMX (CPH)
Programs: Eurobonus Diamond, QR Gold, AY+ Platinum, A3*G, Nordic Choice Lifetime Platinum, SJ Prio Black
Posts: 14,174
I believe that AY never really saw themselves as operating intercontinental-to-intercontinental connections (NA-Asia). They do primarily Intercontinental to continental-europe connections and those are extremely well optimized. You can arrive on any longhaul and connect to any shorthaul very very efficiently.
I guess, when scheduling those short connections, they didn't consider (or it just wasn't possible) optimizing longhaul-to-longhaul at the same time.
While Finnair have been flying to New York since 1969, I guess before the atlantic joint venture they were just a quaint little airline some people in NA might have heard of, but wouldn't consider flying anyway. Now, Finnair is part of this joint operations and suddenly turns up in a lot of peoples flight searches. I guess it is only natural there is a new interest in using Finnair in a new way.
Should Finnair offer a hotel for those odd (odd in view of their strategy) connections with long layovers?
Currently, Finnair NA activity is a bit higher than normal (they are surprisingly moving capacity from the asian routes to NA, despite their re-affirmed business plan of serving shortest route Asia-Europe).
But remember that it still is only JFK that is daily and year-around. All other NA destinations are seasonal and only a few flights a week.
IMHO that is a bit of the hobbyist aproach - they moved some capacity to capture some money, but it is not a strategic shift. And as such they won't gamble any money. They won't spend more to get more, ie there will be no layover hotel program.
The situation might also be quite different in the near future when new A350s comes in to the fleet. For one, they are at the limits of their current connection-strategy at HEL airport. Almost all flights arrive and depart within 2 very narrow time bands (they call banks) - one in the early morning, one in the afternoon. At these banks, HEL is runing at max capacity. So with new capacity coming in there is an inevitable change in schedules.
If Finnair adds capacity to NA adding daily flights year-around (again, in contrast to their current strategy) there is potential in NA-India and NA-Middle East, and perhaps a few other places in near and far east. Can't really se Finnair being competitive on NA-Japan though, regardless of stopover service.
I guess, when scheduling those short connections, they didn't consider (or it just wasn't possible) optimizing longhaul-to-longhaul at the same time.
While Finnair have been flying to New York since 1969, I guess before the atlantic joint venture they were just a quaint little airline some people in NA might have heard of, but wouldn't consider flying anyway. Now, Finnair is part of this joint operations and suddenly turns up in a lot of peoples flight searches. I guess it is only natural there is a new interest in using Finnair in a new way.
Should Finnair offer a hotel for those odd (odd in view of their strategy) connections with long layovers?
Currently, Finnair NA activity is a bit higher than normal (they are surprisingly moving capacity from the asian routes to NA, despite their re-affirmed business plan of serving shortest route Asia-Europe).
But remember that it still is only JFK that is daily and year-around. All other NA destinations are seasonal and only a few flights a week.
IMHO that is a bit of the hobbyist aproach - they moved some capacity to capture some money, but it is not a strategic shift. And as such they won't gamble any money. They won't spend more to get more, ie there will be no layover hotel program.
The situation might also be quite different in the near future when new A350s comes in to the fleet. For one, they are at the limits of their current connection-strategy at HEL airport. Almost all flights arrive and depart within 2 very narrow time bands (they call banks) - one in the early morning, one in the afternoon. At these banks, HEL is runing at max capacity. So with new capacity coming in there is an inevitable change in schedules.
If Finnair adds capacity to NA adding daily flights year-around (again, in contrast to their current strategy) there is potential in NA-India and NA-Middle East, and perhaps a few other places in near and far east. Can't really se Finnair being competitive on NA-Japan though, regardless of stopover service.