SQ88

I have been a huge fan of Trip Reports here on Flyertalk for quite some time now, reading the works of SFO777, JohnRain, Stu1985 and more recently Pokfur (who I also used to follow on another similar forum before he moved here). I’ve never considered creating a FT account until a few days back, just before I was about to embark on this trip. Now I know that Finnair’s new A350 has been extensively covered by fellow FT members but I could not find many trip reports with AY’s supposed reduced service business class from Singapore and so I thought this could be a great opportunity to report on it.
So here I am, sitting in the Qantas lounge in SIN, still wondering if I should write the report. It is daunting, taking photos of everything with people everywhere. I applaud FT TR veterans for their balls of steel.

Prelude
When my dad booked the air tickets for the family months ago, he got the dates wrong and booked us a week before we were supposed to travel. That would be fine usually, except that we were due to fly in the middle of my finals exam. Hence, I had to join the rest of my family after my last paper ended a few days later which also means that I would take my first solo flight.
I was originally booked on Air France with the rest of my family and had wanted to change the dates of my ticket. But since I was booked on a rather restrictive ticket, I decided it was more economical to cancel that flight and rebook another ticket. The promotion my family was booked on had ended by the time I actually set out looking for new tickets and Air France wanted $3800 for a round trip ticket from Singapore to Munich. That was not going to work out.
I used Google Flights to search for a cheaper alternative and found that the cheapest flight from Singapore to Munich was $2800 on Thai. I looked around to see if I could find cheaper flights to nearby destinations as well and lo and behold, Finnair offered me a flight to Berlin for just $2100. I know those of you reading in US and Europe must be shaking your heads at these prices but fares exSIN are very expensive (especially compared to exUS or exBKK). I did my research by reading TRs on FT and felt that the Thai Airways hard product seemed really outdated to the brand spanking new A350s that Finnair was scheduled to fly to Singapore. No prizes for guessing which one I ended up booking

Part 1
Qantas lounge, Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1.

I checked in exactly 3 hours prior to the flight and the priority counters were empty as expected. There was a short queue that had started to form at the Economy counters which cleared really quickly as well. The check in was smooth but a little slower than usual but I was soon given a pass for the DNATA lounge at Changi. I cheekily asked the check in agent if I could visit the Qantas lounge instead and pretended to be horrified when she said no. I almost thought that OneWorld changed their lounge access policy for J pax in partner airlines.


I walked through passport control and to the left before heading up an escalator to where the BA and Qantas lounges were and met two lounge dragons who were chatting with each other. Now, I have no idea why you FTers refer to them as lounge dragons because they are perfectly pleasant most of the time and have always been pretty helpful. I would very much refer to them as lounge faries. One of them chopped my boarding pass with the WIFI password and reminded me that boarding would not be called. That was no problem since the lounge closes at 2300 at my boarding was supposed to commence at 2315.
The lounge is large with ample seating. It was almost empty when I got in and I would say is 30% full at the time of writing (2220). There are a few self-service buffet counters so that one would not have to walk too far to get anything. There is a variety of hot and cold options, including cooked to order food (even though it’s just two options) which is good for a J lounge. I found myself a cosy corner seat and took a can of coke from the fridge and two desserts from the self-service buffet.





I usually don’t go for the alcohol so I’m not sure if the selection at the lounge is good or not but here is a picture of what’s on offer tonight.

The desserts were really delicious, if a little too sweet and I started to surf Flyertalk for a bit before deciding to commit to this trip report. I visited the restrooms in the lounge before heading over to the gate for boarding. The restroom in the lounge is beautiful but seemed a little small for a lounge this sized. It was quite empty when I visited but I still decided against taking a photo in the restroom.
In Changi Airport, the security is done only at the gate. This meant that there is a need to get to the gate reasonably early before boarding was due to start. Luckily there was a priority security line at the gate this time because the main line was quite long. I went through security without having to remove my belt or shoes. I then waited about 5 minutes at the gate area before boarding started.


Do give me your honest feedback on the Trip Report. It is my first time writing one after all and I am sure that there are many opportunities for me to improve on my writing.

stu1985

Welcome to FT SQ88 and thanks for posting your report! I enjoyed reading it although I can't see the pictures (that's maybe just my browser though!).

It takes some time to get used to taking pics in airports, on board etc. I always try to do it on the sly!

Thanks also for your kind words!

djjaguar64

Pictures not visible.

blueferrari

ex-KUL fares can be awesome. wondering if you're willing to do a little bit positioning though.

as for image issue, maybe you should upload the images elsewhere instead of using googledrive. it's not loaded in the report.

SQ88

In the HEL lounge now and finally got the photos to load!

Wow glad to see that one of my favourite authors are reading the TR! Thanks for your support and sorry about the photos!

Sorry about that! I was not aware that I can't host images on google drive.

I have edited the photos accordingly. They can be seen now. Thank you for your valuable advice.

stu1985

Great pictures! ^

djjaguar64

Can see them now, thanks.

nequine

A good start to your report and well done you for having a go at doing one.

SQ88

Thank you for your kind comments! Those were all taken with my iPhone.

That's wonderful to know.

Thank you so much. My apologies for not updating sooner.

SQ88

This is the long overdue update.


Part 2
AY82 (SIN-HEL)
Airbus A350
Seat 2A

I walked down the beautiful jet bridge in Changi Airport, entering the plane from the front most door. Upon boarding the plane, there were two flight attendants checking our boarding passes and one of them told me where my seat was. It’s not too hard to find your seat when it’s the second window seat on the plane

I was left to unpack my laptop and camera once I got to my seat and was virtually left alone for the next 5 minutes before a male FA came over to ask if I wanted “orange juice, water” and there was a pause of maybe 5 seconds before he understood and asked “or champagne”? I must have looked a little too young to be drinking champagne because I heard him ask everyone else if they’d like champagne



Here I must note that it is my first time in a reverse herringbone seat and I like it in terms of the privacy that it offers. Window seats actually face the windows unlike the first-generation herringbone seats which were found on Virgin. However, the windows on the A350 had such a large air panel between the double glazing that it was impossible for me to take a photo through the windows without having massive amounts of reflection from the cabin. I did however, snap one or two photos of my seat.


Back to the boarding. While the champagne came quickly enough, I was soon left to my own devices again for the next fifteen minutes while boarding commenced for economy class passengers. I took the time to take photos of the flight menus in the privacy of my seat. I saw other passengers streaming into the business class cabin but the FAs did not offer them PDBs. I knew this for sure because the woman in seat 1A came in after the first round of PDBs and was not offered one. As boarding came to a close, the male FA came over to ask for my meal order. There was also a baby in seat 1L who kept crying during the boarding. Fortunately, he was then silent for most of the flight.

I know there are a lot of readers who are interested in the menu so I photographed it in its eternity.















After selecting my supper and breakfast, I headed to what was the most disgusting airplane toilet I have been to. The toilet looked clean when I walked in but cue the scary music that played in my head when I opened the toilet seat cover. I struggle to decide if I should even describe the horrors in detail but took a picture of the mess in case anybody wants a picture. There was a used seat paper thing (that lined the toilet seat so that your butt didn’t have to touch the toilet seat) which was still on the toilet seat. No matter because I’m male. There was also a wad of wet used toilet paper slightly soaking in pee clogging the toilet bowl and a strand of short curly hair (from the regions we must not talk about) on the toilet bowl. All this in the business class lavatory right at the front of the plane before we even pull back from the gate. I am quite certain I was the first to use it on this flight…

The safety video soon started after I returned from my Halloween came late experience and we pulled back once the video was completed. At this point in time (and for the whole flight) I have not heard the FAs explain the seat functions to anyone within earshot yet. Clearly even though all 3 FAs in the J cabin were Singaporean, we are not on Singapore Airlines tonight. That is not an issue to me because the seat controls were rather intuitive and I knew not to expect SIA service when I decided to book on Finnair. I was tempted however, to ask the FAs where I could store my shoe on the flight because there was no cubbyhole to be seen unlike in some other J seats. Once again, no matter because they provided me with L sized slippers which are about 2 sizes too big for me anyway. I would very much rather wear my shoe throughout the flight. Just to note, there is no massage function on Finnair’s reverse herringbone seats either, unlike on some other airlines but I am very happy with the seat especially considering what I paid for the flight.

On our taxi which took what seemed like twenty years (but was actually only twenty minutes in case some people think we taxied to Helsinki), I found out that the IFE works even though we were still on the ground. I did not want to extend the screen during taxi and decided to explore the WiFi on the plane instead. I knew that the actual WiFi wouldn’t work until we were above FL100 but was pleasantly surprised that the WiFi was on already. I connected to it and was directed to an immensely gorgeous and well-designed homepage which showed our flight information. I could also (easily) add information about my connecting flight and the result looks stunning!


The A350 was finally positioned for take-off on the runway. While some pilots would stop the plane before revving the engines and releasing the brakes for take-off, other pilots just turn into the runway and apply max thrust. Can someone tell me if this differed based on aircraft type, pilot preference or something else? I don’t think it’s the airport or runway because I have had a lot a lot of take-offs in SIN and it’s mostly the stop rev and go technique. The A350 took a really long time to get up to speed and sounded to me like a red-lining Toyota. I still very much prefer the 777s to Airbuses thank you. It was also a interesting moving diagonally during take-off due to the seat angles in J. I want to try BA’s J just to experience flying backwards but I digress.


Please pardon the poor tailcam photo.

I started watching a movie right after we took off which was really convenient because I could use the “time eclipsed” to tell exactly how long it was before each service was started. This might probably be a good time also to review the IFE system as a whole. The IFE is very responsive, clearly one of the best ones in the market right now. Their selection of movies and TV shows are considerably less than what I had in Delta back in September and consists of some pretty old but classic movies like Harry Potter 1-4. There are also a few of the latest movies in case some people missed them in the cinema. The lack of variety was even more glaring (at least to me) in the TV section because I am not a fan of anything available except their 2 episodes of HIMYM. Even then, it was two random standalone episodes in season 7. Finnair is still using the two pin earphone jacks (similar to SIA) and it’s just such an inconvenience especially since most of our earphones only have one jack. I almost decided not to bring my adaptor because all my flights in recent memory (except on SIA) had a single standard 3.5mm jack (HA beat that Apple!).


The headphones provided on the plane was by Bose which is better than what a lot of airlines are offering. Since I brought my own earphones, I did not try the Bose ones out. I will definitely do that on the way back to Singapore so that I can report on them. Here’s a photo of the headphones in their packaging though.


I was 3 minutes into the movie when a Finnair in-flight announcement started playing. I think AY is the only airline I’ve flown on that has an in-flight announcement. They advised us on our meal options before telling us that duty-free items purchased would not contribute to the weight or size baggage restrictions. My favourite part of the video had to be where they suggested I upgrade to an Economy Comfort seat for better legroom. I hadn’t realised that Y+ is Finnair’s name for First Class. I think I’ll upgrade myself on the return leg


Hot towels were finally passed around the cabin twenty minutes after take-off even though the seatbelt sign went off within the first 3 minutes or so. The hot towel was nicely scented and felt really good after a long day. However, the towel was threadbare – almost no different from those found on US carriers.

The actual meal service only started 45 minutes after take-off and I could see that some passengers were served before others. I suppose they are AY Plats or OWE. It was about an hour after take-off before I finally got my meal. I found out from a FT thread that the flight from Singapore was actually a reduced service J flight in the sense that no nuts, amuse bouche or appetisers are served. There was completely no mention of this on the Finnair website before or after I bought the tickets which is really quite sneaky. But thanks to FT, I knew to expect only one tray.

However, the excellent crew today surpassed all expectations of a reduced J service in all aspects. The supper meal was just an appetiser to what’s to come. I had ordered a glass of apple juice to go with my meal and that was exactly what I got. One glass with no refills even though I finished my drink before starting on my entrée. The FAs disappeared after serving the meal. The male FA walked around with a bread basket and I watched him serve bread to the passengers in row 1 and the passenger next to me in row 2. I was never offered bread and he walked past me without even glancing at me even though I was watching him serve bread the whole time (I know I should have been concentrating on my movie so I wouldn’t realise that the FA skipped me).


The salad was alright. The vegetables that accompanied my mains were much juicier and tastier than the salad so I finished all of them. I ordered the salmon main and it was really juicy and tasty at the start! The more I ate though, the drier it became. I eventually finished 70% of it and gave up. I’m not a fan of cheese so I left the cheese platter mostly untouched. I had a nibble of both cheeses though and was reminded of why I don’t like cheese. The dried apricot was a nice touch. I would have very much preferred the fruit plate the lady beside me had though. I was not asked what dessert I wanted. There was also a box of pralines on the tray. Some of the previous AY A350 TRs I read featured Godiva chocolates but I guess AY changed their minds.

The male FA asked if I wanted ice cream as well after he cleared my tray. How could I say no to Haagen Dazs? I asked for a glass of water to go with the ice cream which never came. At that point in time I was seriously thirsty because they never refilled my water during the food service and hence had to flag down another FA to ask for a glass of water. That glass of water was delivered. I finished the ice cream along with the movie and decided to watch two episodes of HIMYM. My empty glass sat beside my empty cup of Haagen Dazs throughout the two episodes. At that point in time I really wanted to start working on my TR and needed the space on the tray table. I took the glass and ice cream to the front galley and the male FA continued rummaging through the cupboards pretending not to have seen me. I stood there waiting because I wanted another glass of water until he was satisfied (having found nothing) and asked me what I wanted. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and returned to my seat with the new glass of water (which was not cleared until 3 hours later when I brought it back to the galley).


At no point did any FAs walk around the cabin to ask if we wanted drinks or snacks at all. Perhaps the culture at AY is the same as that on CX where they prefer to give you the maximum amount of privacy instead of walking through the cabin. That also gave me the opportunity to stretch my legs a little and walk around the cabin. I went back into the galley for a refill to see a female FA having her dinner there. I felt bad asking her for water during her break and just grabbed a bag of chips and made my way out of the galley. She was really nice though in a sense that she explained the snack choices to me even though it was during her break and I think that’s the nicest any FA on my flight had been thus far.

Turns out the female FA was much nicer than the male FA. I returned to the galley an hour later with a parched throat due to the dry air on the plane and requested for another bottle of water (since I finished the one they gave out when I was deprived of water as if we were in a desert) and found the 3 FAs chatting with one another. The male FA was facing me but completely ignored me and I stood there until the nice female FA turned around and saw me. I asked for another bottle of water and the conversation went exactly as transcribed.
Me: Can I have another bottle of water please?
Female FA: Oh we ran out of bottles but we can refill your bottle.
Me: Yeah that would be fine.
Male FA: No. He asked for a bottle.

The male FA then opened the bottom of the drinks trolley and I could see that there were at least 2 or 3 plastic cartons of 300ml bottled water inside. He took one out and said “I’ll give you my bottle”. I rejected it since it was HIS bottle of water (I don’t like to deprive crew members of their meals and drinks since it is really tough for them especially working on long haul flights like this one) but he insisted I take it. I wonder why the FAs would claim that they were out of bottled water though since there were obviously enough to go around the plane (not that they ever passed bottled water around anymore. Any ideas on that?

I wanted to make the most of my time on the flight so I had originally decided to spend the entire time awake. But the button to put the seat into sleep mode was too enticing and I found myself unable to resist it any longer. That was when I realised that the pillow provided is extremely comfortable and the blanket was even better! With that, I found myself going in and out of slumber land for the next 1.5 hours.

I woke up with the rest of the plane, just in time for the female cabin crew to start drinks service. I ordered an orange juice that made my throat worse, making me wonder why I didn’t just order plain water in the first place. The lady beside me (when I say beside me, I really mean beside me and separated by the aisle) chose to have coffee and was offered a refill when she finished it. Meanwhile, I finished my orange juice before her and was not offered a refill. My glass was not even collected even though the FA could obviously see that it was empty. By now, I was seriously starting to wonder why I was getting the special treatment. Perhaps it was because I am Asian? But the crew members are Singaporeans too… Or maybe, juice was simply too expensive for them to refill.

The breakfast service came next and the omelette option I chose the night before was served – again with no bread. Butter was served This time I did not look around to see if other passengers were served bread with their breakfast but there was no bread basket going around. The omelette was borderline edible and the sausage tasted like sausage should (which makes it the best tasting thing on the breakfast tray) and the hash brown was soggy and sad. Once again, I only had one drink to last me throughout my meal. Having seen the pattern, I now knew to ration the drink like there was a draught.


Finnair played their signature “Northern Lights” display after breakfast was completed and I took this opportunity to take a photo of the entire cabin. Despite the crew’s shortfalls on this flight, it is worth noting that the J cabin is 100% filled. It must be tiring serving that many people.


It was still dark when we finally landed in Helsinki. Hence, there was no opportunities for me to take photos of the landing at all. It was raining pretty hard when we came in for landing and we landed very hard on the rear wheels. However, I could hardly tell when the front wheels touched the ground.

We taxied for 5 minutes before reaching our gate and all the J passengers queued at the front door after the seatbelt signs went off. It was a minute after Y passengers started disembarking before we realised that there was only one door in operation and it was behind the J cabin. That’s the first time it happened on a flight for me and seems rather unprofessional of the crew not to inform J pax that disembarkation was only possible from a door behind the J cabin.

To sum up this flight, I thoroughly enjoyed the seat and loved the super responsive touch screen for the IFE. Kudos to Finnair for providing Bose headsets especially when some other more premium carriers (like QR and CX) are still providing generic branded headphones. There were also 4 mains to choose from for the reduced supper service which is on par with or better than the number of choices available in J on other airlines. However, the single biggest let down was the Singapore based crew that was on the flight. They really bring out the “reduced service” on this reduced service flight.

ckx2

Wow. Thanks for the TR - that sounds like so not business class worthy.

SQ88

Here's to hoping that the return flight will be better. not sure if I'll have the pleasure to have the same crew again.

SQ88

Since I did not finish the breakfast served on my flight, I was still hungry after landing at HEL. The security check area was already crowded by the time I got there and there was a 15 minute queue before it was my turn to be screened. HEL should really have a dedicated security lane for premium passengers especially if it wants to be the best airline that connects Europe with Asia. Most premium passengers transiting through HEL would have just stepped off a long flight and would be grateful for a priority line. I heard other J passengers from the same flight discussing the lack of a priority line as well.

Security was pleasant and I made it through without a blip. I then started on the long trek to the AY lounge which was past passport control. Passport control was especially fun because the agent was a really tall guy who just stared at me silently while I stared at him back. Eventually he asked why I was going to Berlin in the most uninterested tone possible before flipping through every page of my passport. He must not have found any incriminating destinations because he stamped my passport and opened the gate.




I continued towards the lounge and found it on the second floor. There was a small flight of stairs leading up to the lounge and I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the lounge because it seemed a lot smaller from downstairs. There was a short queue to enter the lounge but I had no problems going in.

The breakfast selection was sparse but adequate. I managed to fill my stomach on scrambled eggs and ham (with a generous serving of dispenser apple juice) which I later regretted. It was also while at the lounge that I realised that my photos in the first post was not showing and I managed to reupload all the photos before having to leave the lounge to catch my flight. The airport WiFi (which I used in the lounge because I forgot to note down the lounge password) was very fast and stable. Another point to note is that this lounge does not do boarding announcements so it is important that I keep track of the time (which I should be doing, regardless).




I left the lounge 10 minutes before boarding because the TV screen showed that it would take me 9 minutes to get to the gate and I walked like I was going to be late for boarding. It’s my first time boarding a flight in HEL and was unsure of the gate lice. My fears were in vain however because boarding was delayed by 10 minutes. There was a gentleman in a suit at the boarding area asking the agent what time boarding would commence and the agent kept him updated constantly on the status of the plane. I thought that he was sitting in business as well or was an AY Plat.

I continued to hover near the boarding area holding my boarding pass and was pleasantly surprised when the agent motioned me to hand him my boarding pass. What was more surprising was that he did this without calling for premium or status pax to come for boarding. He must have observed my boarding pass – from a distance, I must add – and realised that I was a J pax. Very impressive!

Carfield

Thanks for an interesting trip report! Look forward reading the rest!

Unfortunately Finnair has been serving this really small "midflight dinner" for a while on these redeye flights. When it comes to serving portion, Finnair in generally is pretty stingy and even on daytime flights, they always run out of food.

Carfield

GetSetJetSet

How does this stack up to the A330? I have JFK-HEL-BKK, HKG-HEL-JFK flights coming up, not sure what equipment I will get.