When I Travel The World

I booked a few weekend TP runs for August / September next year

used Expedia to obtain the 4 flights with the A350 each time on HEL-LHR

Paid 234

Ricky Lewis

I searched on momondo.co.uk and managed to book on Omega Travel for Ł187 over the bank holiday weekend in august next year. Booking has come through to my BA exec account and seats selected. Amazing price!

Also - both flights on a350

vand_hk

starting at EDI, an extra Ł100GBP but 40TP extra, and just what I need for Gold..

Thanks!

vand_hk

Did they ticket those as J and then Y? I noticed when I was looking on Momondo most of the advertised fares had the HEL > TLL legs as O (5 TP, not 20)

bvaler

I have done this line many times for work. A few things to keep in mind.
There is a high probability that you will miss the Helsinki connection from TLL, esp if you do not have access to the digital EU gates. The walk from the gate from landing in TLL to Hel-LHR is about 15-20mins, 10 mins running. All Hel gates are bus gates right now due to construction. I did the connection yesterday, the HEL-TLL flight lands around 12:25 and has to turn around by 12:50. If you are late for any reason, you will not make the connection.

The Nordic whatever plane is one of the worst I have ever been on. There is literally no such thing as bulkhead, let alone business. the plane loads from the back, bins are small. It is a prop plane. It is so bad, I swear everytime I am taking the boat from Helsinki to Tallinn.

Tallinn lounge is nice though, very big. Decent snack options, even a smoking balcony outside.

On HEL-LHR, try to get the newer plane. The pitch in business on the older planes is worse than BA. Space is exit row is actually much better. Not sure what control you have over this, they often swap planes out.

Radison Blu (both of them) are nice and have cheap upgrade options, did business room the other night for 20 extra. Christmas market is nice but closes early, you can still get mulled wine late though. Uber is easy to use in the city. It is strangely difficult to find convenience stores though, so god forbid you lose your contact solution.

vand_hk

thanks for the insight .. sounds like i'll be getting some exercise on the return leg

helahela

Having done this route over years probably more often than majority of the people I would like to disagree with some of it.

Having arrived on a few delayed flights from Heathrow, they do wait until the very last minute for the delayed passengers. Especially on the night flight. Yes ... I have been running a few times, but out of a 100+ flights I have missed my Tallinn connection once.

The Norra flight is not much of a gift, I agree with that, but for the sake of 20 minutes that the flight is.. and I am 1.89 and 120 kg .. I can survive it. The last flights have been either on brand new or recently refitted planes and they have nice leather seats and the flight is survivable.

When choosing the hotel Radisson Blu Sky Hotel beats Radisson Olümpia hands down. Olümpia was built for the 1980 Olympic games and has notoriously small rooms(even when upgraded), whilst the Sky hotel has just gone through renovation and is remarkably nice. Also - convenience store - from sky hotel the Stockmann is less than 3 minutes of a walk .. just next door to Swissotel that you cant miss. There is a pharmacy too on the 5th floor.

umbyboy

I tried this but it Finnair doesn't show at all in the results for flights in February. How did you book it?

euromountain

Any information available on how long this fare is available to book? I’m interested in doing this trip but ideally around end of December 2017. Google flights lets me only select until early November. Advice appreciated. Otherwise I guess I need to be a bit more patient and check the fare again next year. The backup plan would be book this now for spring and before the fare is gone. Thanks!

megaloman

It has no expiry date, but it can be pulled out at any time.

mmxbreaks

Depends which time of day. Most of the flights I'm finding are A321, not A350.

The latter is six times the price from what I can find so far...

mmxbreaks

Figured it out. Yay.

The A350 is the 10:15 LHR - HEL and the 08:00 HEL - LHR. Too early for me on the way back!

All the other planes on that route are Airbus A320 or thereabouts. The HEL to TLL connection is a dinky propeller plane in all cases.

thefuzzylogic

Has anyone here tried to turn around at TLL from the 17:00 arrival to the 17:25 departure? Is it the same aircraft and if so can you just remain in the gate area? Or must one go landside and re-enter?

If the latter, I imagine a back-to-back would be impossible, wouldn't it?

Jaenks

Same aircraft,you remain in the gate area if you have boarding pass(AY allows to check-in 36 hours before the departure).Easy as can be.

Aussie_flyer

The moaning about a perfectly reasonable ATR72 on a 20 min trip is incredible. Should they fly a B787 on that sector?

Thanks for the idea for this trip OP.