So have made it back to a desk and can comment on the return.
HKG-HEL
I have BA gold card so lounges in HKG are normally fantastic and this was no exception. It has been gone into at length here so no need to re-cover the ground.
J looked to be full for this flight serviced by what seemed to be a totally HKG based crew. Just before take off the CSD came to the gent in front (1L) and asked him if he minded swapping for a middle seat in the mini j cabin as he needed the bassinet position. I offered to swap as well. I have a ten month old that we travel with and know that a second pair of hands can greatly help. I was a little surprised this didn't happen earlier, check in or at the gate. It could have been awkward if the guy had of refused but he was very cool about it, he looked like a seasoned traveller that knew to roll with the punches, realistically what could be done?
I have decided that the AY J seat on the A350 is the most uncomfortable new J seat about. My coccyx is in bits two days, the padding on the seat and the seat itself is so hard.
I do think the middle seat has more room around the feet. If I was to fly this again I would pick a middle seat.
IFE was fine, same strange mix as before.
Service was good, no issues on that flight. I hope this makes sense, it was a typical Asian service on a business class flight, nothing outstanding but polite and quick, I liked it. Asked if I wanted to be woken for breakfast, which I passed on. Food came quickly and was okay. Drinks served quickly and nice wines.
Transfer in HEL was a joy to behold. I am used to T5 LHR usually from Dublin and it can be a pain. This was amazing. It helped I was in the first few off the plane and first through security, I do not know what it would have been like further back the plane but all the security stations seemed to be on.
Lounge in HEL by the exit for gate 36. Arrived here at around 5.45am and had to wait for it to open at 6am. I am sure the HKG flight is probably one of the first few in but I did think it should have been opened. At 6am on the dot it opened and I was directed to the premium end. Lounge was well designed and had a nice area with comfortable seats (more so than the plane) over-looking the tarmac. Grabbed a quick shower and waited 45 minutes or so before boarding for the Norra operated flight back to DUB.
While in the lounge there was a little incident. Seats are in groups of two separated by a thin curtain. When I arrived a lady was in one seat and i choose the bay next to her and seat furthest away. At some point her, what I presume, husband arrived back and she went off somewhere. Now I am not the innocent party and I understand that but this guy was just rude. He looked like a seasoned traveller but while the earlier guy was relaxed about things this guy struck me as one of those entitled types, the was a long conversation played out about how they didnt want charged by some hotel for extra time they stayed blah blah blah. Anyway I played a video (tour of Andrew 'beef' Johnston house by the European tour). I played it low and covered the speaker on my iphone, it was much lower than the tv down the stairs. No excuse really, I always travel with my qc25's but I couldnt be bothered getting them out of my bag. Anyway this, gentleman lets say, pulled back the curtain and abruptly said "do you have headphones?" I said pardon to give him the opportunity to rephrase himself but he just repeated it. He was rude how he went about it so I just said no and watched on for he 15 seconds or so it had left to play. Again I shouldn't have watched the video the way I did but if he had of phrased it slightly differently I would have apologised and got the head phones out. I did make a point of getting the headphones out as I left but I doubt he saw that.
That aside the lounge looked like a nice place and one I would happliy visit again.
Walk to gate 36 was all of two minutes and boarding via bus had started for the e190 flight back to Dublin. They didnt ram the bus full of people and put on a second bus. Boarding was fairly quick and in charge of our little j section, which 3 seats out of four taken, was the same lady from Thursday nights flight out. Flight passed quickly and service was good.
All in all it was my first time using Finnair. Short haul J was excellent, transfer in HEL was amazing and the lounge was good. The huge negative that would put me off it was the comfort of that J seat on the A350. By the way side by side I think you feel better coming off a 787 than the A350 but both still streets ahead of 777.