Flythe96flag

If at least one passenger flying in J also has Sapphire or above, you may use the new Finnair Premium lounge for OWS/OWE passengers.

If that is not the case, you are all entitled to use the Almost@Home lounge which is the designated lounge for CE passengers but I believe also welcomes BA OWS/OWE passengers. (Both excellent lounges IMO, details below. )

TTL

For sure all of you can get to Almost Home (2 x J + 1 x YOWS + 1 x YOWSguested). The same equation should get you in Finnair lounge according to OW rules - not always respected from what I have been reading. Two of you might be able to sample the Premium part of the lounge using the BA Silver card. Almost home is a very good lounge, with ample offerings and pleasant surroundings. Wines and beers for free, and by asking some liquors as well. Little further away from the likely departure gate (usually 37 or 38) however. I would choose Almost home, if not in need of sauna and shower.

liamvad

I am flying BA to HEL on 21st March,and back to LHR on 22nd,will post on here how I get on,was hoping for a POUG,but so far nothing offered..... Also hoping for a Lounge invite at T3 on the Saturday...as in I am the cheap seats!!!

paul4040

There are two Finnair lounges in the non-Schengen area now. They share the same reception desk. The "old" one is the "main" lounge, which can be accessed by virtue of cabin class alone. However the "new" one (the really good one), is actually for OWE and OWS only plus one guest. Therefore the whole party will not be able to access the "new" lounge and therefore no saunas etc.

Anecdotal evidence is that BA passengers are directed to the Almost@Home lounge - but this is better than the "old" Finnair lounge which is the alternative.

db7

The 11.20 ex LHR arrives at HEL during the busy period for LH flights so is nearly always a bus gate. Unless connecting to LH the bus save a lot of walking as it delivers you to the Passport gates and it is only a short walk to baggage reclaim and the exit. The walk from gate 37/38 talks quite a while. The late evening arrivals at HEL normally get a gate. Travel LHR-HEL at least once a month in J and try to avoid the 11.20. Prefer AY in J, find cabin crew standards more consistent than BA. Beware that AY often fly their new high density 321 (with winglets) on the LHR-HEL route. Luckily have not had to try Y on the route. Interestingly AY crews do a turn round at LHR whereas BA crews normally overnight at HEL.

Hannibal Lecter

Heard a rumour that A350 crew training flights start in September on HEL-LHR

Jetstreamer

Then I stand corrected on my earlier comment and would fly AY

flatlander

I just got back from a long weekend in HEL. Predictions from people I know that it would be a frozen, boring wasteland were untrue. Although many things are closed on Sundays, even restaurants, and finding an ATM in central Helsinki near the Esplanadi area is hard. Food, when we found it, was excellent and the central area pretty to walk around in the sunshine. Wasn't warm though.

We flew BA both ways, BA798 out (departure 19:00) and BA799 back (departure 17:05), in Euro Traveller. From Terminal 3, of course.

LHR-HEL:
Check-in was very quiet, Fast Track actually Fast, so despite checking in about 1h40m before the flight we still had 45 minutes or so in the lounge, followed by a walk to gate 27 (not a bus gate). The T3 F lounge continues to be a nice place, we had dinner there. No time to lounge hop. The flight was uneventful, and only about 2/3 full so two of us had 3 seats to use, as did many other people. Some people slept across 3 seats. Inflight food was a "doorstop" BLT sandwich heavy on the bacon, not bad as a small snack but you'd want to eat something else beforehand or you'd get hungry. The crew did one drinks run and announced that passengers should use the call bell or come to the galley for any more drinks. At HEL, we arrived at a distant gate in the high 30s but no bus, so a walk through the length of HEL T2 through the passport check, which was quick. Bags came out within a few minutes of us arriving at the baggage claim, and we walked to the airport Hilton to stay the night.

We moved to a city centre hotel the next morning. It would be possible to take the Finnair-branded bus to the centre if one wanted to stay there from the start. The Hilton is reasonably priced and very comfortable, so it's a good option.

HEL-LHR:
The Finnair-branded bus served us well as transportation to the airport. We had intended to arrive there well before departure, 3 hours to so, to try the Fly-Inn restaurant in the airport. We left the centre later than intended, but this did not change the outcome for us, as we would not have had time to use the restaurant anyway.

The BA checkin at HEL is open 0540 to 0705 and 1500 to 16:25. It actually opened a few minutes early, and we had checked our bags by about 15:10. Then to security, which was mobbed with people. There is an upstairs security point which was signed as less busy (shorter wait time), but it still wasn't fast. The signage varied between 7 and 13 minutes wait time. We got out of the security checkpoint at about 17:40, due to the volume of passengers and limited amount of screening channels open. The staff themselves seemed to be working efficiently (no LHR T5 style slow-motion!). There is no fast track. Later on I noticed what looked like a security checkpoint further on in the terminal which seemed less busy, that might be worth checking out for a future visit.

Then walking some distance down the terminal, to around gate 30 where the Schengen exit passport check is. If you can use the e-gates, fine, if not, look to the side for the "visa not required" desk and the "EU passports" desk as long as you don't need a visa. Long lines of people who looked like they were from places that do need a visa for the Schengen area at the other desks. Since my EU passport chip is broken and I was travelling with a US passport holder, we needed a desk.

Then further down to the Finnair lounge at gate 36. Our flight left from 37C, and as one might suspect, the suffix letter indicated a bus gate. At least this was evident from the start, as the gate is signed "37C" on all the indicator boards.

Overall it's just as long a walk inside HEL T2 as it is to the highest numbered gates in LHR T3, don't under-estimate the time.

The Finnair lounge (to a Oneworld emerald/sapphire status person) is quite reasonable. A bar with staff serving various mixed drinks, wines on a help-yourself basis (as far as I could tell, I helped myself and noone complained) and sundry small dishes. We ended up with about 20 minutes in the lounge from arriving at the airport at T-2 hours without any dawdling (... shopping) on the way. HEL was not a quick airport for us. We were able to have a reasonable, if somewhat miscellaneous, dinner at the lounge. Their tomato soup was excellent.

If you are unable or unwilling to eat in the lounge, there are some convenience shops selling sandwiches and so on - but even in those, the queue looked like 5-10 minutes for a simple purchase.

The entire airport seemed bursting at the seams with people, all facilities overloade though still functioning.

At the gate, we had a bus; one bus was crammed full as we got to the gate, so a few minutes wait for the next bus. Onboard, overhead bins were pretty full from the first bus load, if the flight was heavily loaded, I wouldn't try to be on the second bus if I were you and had a bag to stash overhead.

Inflight was much as the outbound, the same sandwich was served, the load was about 2/3 full again.

At T3 we had a walk from a gate somewhere in the 20s, the immigration had about a 30 minute queue for non-EU people, and even then our bags were not out when we reached the baggage claim. A piss-poor performance there. About 5 minutes after, bags finally began to appear, and fortunately ours were first. Possibly someone at HEL had actually loaded bags with priority tags so they came off the aircraft first, or possibly we got lucky.

Overall:
BA inflight were just as expected, perfectly competent.
LHR outbound as expected, and that's pretty reasonable in T3. HEL inbound also efficient, but the airport was almost deserted as we were one of the last 4 flights that day.
HEL outbound was overloaded with people and slow. LHR inbound was slow and inefficient.

The only win to flying Finnair in the ground experience would have been a check-in desk open earlier, as Finnair passengers were subject to the same slowness and crowding as BA passengers, and possibly faster bag delivery in LHR (but suffering the same immigration slowness). Finnair inflight experience is discussed above.

Both BA aircraft had the new interior, and it was not uncomfortable for 3 hours.

Swanhunter

I flew through on a Sunday evening last month and HEL was deserted. There were 4 of us in the lounge and the A319 had a grand total of 30 passengers!

flatlander

Good for you

To clarify my experience, we went out Friday (13th) and returned Monday (16th), and experienced HEL being very busy on the monday evening.

Next trip is over the August bank holiday, if it wasn't for the public holiday in the UK I would have been tempted to book a Thursday-Sunday trip because so much is closed in Helsinki on a Sunday, and what you say only encourages this idea.

FinnishGal

There are in fact four different security points in HEL, one in T1 and three in T2: the big and crowded one in the main check-in lounge (the one Finnair uses), very small addition to it upstairs and one after the desks of all non-oneworld airlines (this one is the closest to the non-Schengen passport check).

You can use them all as the airside is connected. Finavia app shows the queuing times and the departure gates realtime, so if you're travelling with hand luggage only, you can avoid the lines by choosing another security point.

AY lines are the longest on workdays 7:00-8:00 and maybe 15:00-17:00. The plebs are meant to use the check-in kiosks and automatic baggage drop, and especially the drop-in procedure looks chaotic sometimes, people don't know where to queue etc. With BA, even the plebs are served by people. On the other hand, with AY you can do the baggage drop for morning flights on the previous night after five o'clock.

There's shortage of non-Schengen departure gates in the afternoon. So, arriving/leaving at fourish, it's very probable you'll get the bus gate. Early mornings and late evenings not so. I think it's more aircraft than airline related, bigger longhaul planes get the jetways.

No food, no sodas, no booze on AY Y. I also felt that BA FA's are much nicer and more attentive than the grumpy Finns. But I am a grumpy Finn, so others may enjoy the AY concept more. Oh, and regarding the hand luggage, AY has a weight limit, BA does not. Don't know if it's reinforced somehow. But for me AY never ever if there's the option of BA.

The shopping times in Finland are Saturdays 9:00-18:00 and Sundays 12:00-18:00/21:00. Only liquer stores, banks etc are not allowed to be open on Sundays. The smaller shops in the design district area might not be open, but the restaurants should be. ATM's are usually located near/ inside the shopping centres rather than on the streets, so head for Kamppi or City-Center if you need to find an ATM, a grocery store or a restaurant.

DYKWIA

Thanks for that. I'm due to start back in HEL in a couple of weeks, so will be travelling weekly back to MAN. I always just used the main security desk - it generally wasn't too busy. But it's good to know there are other options.

flatlander

All very useful info, thanks!

(We didn't meet any grumpy Finns, in fact everyone we interacted with was pretty friendly and helpful, they just didn't talk pointlessly. I liked it.)

HighlandExpress

In July I'm flying GLA-LHR-HEL-OUL. BA in J was cheaper than AY in Y so that choice was easy.

I'll get to try out both the Schengen and non-Schengen AY lounges, and sample AY's domestic service on the Flybe Nordic E-190s.

I haven't flown out of T3 in years though, which lounge is best?

paul4040

This comes up a lot. Most of the best rationale for and against can be found in these two threads:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...t3-lounge.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ld-lounge.html

^^^