CeruleanBlue

Indeed, but not customs and back through departures hall so you will stay airside. 2 hours is no problem.

haapalainen

Depending on the arrival time and gate there is also a Non-Schengen to Schengen transfer route that takes one through immiration downstairs and then upstairs to security control in the main departure hall. As this particular QR flight arrives outside Finnair arrival waves it is very much possible that the main transfer security control is closed and they guide connecting (all) passengers downstairs. One can then choose to do either security control or passport control first. Anyway, one must go through both security and passport control. And of course customs too, no chance to not go through customs when entering Schengen.

ffay005

duvin

haapalainen

You do make a point here, thanks for correction. I still argue that physically one must in all circumstances walk through a customs checkpoint after passing passport control to Schengen at HEL. It is much less noticeable for example upstairs after passport control as there are rarely custom officers overseeing the corridor but even there one has the option to choose either green or red channel.

IME, travelling from USA to Finland via Germany I have several times been stopped by a customs officer for questioning at MUC and FRA even though I have only been transferring. So to be honest, I don't fully understand where one should clear customs.

Aviating

You should declare your carry on at the customs if necessary at the point you enter Europe (you see the customs for example when you go from non-Shengen to Schengen). Your customs check for the carry on is technically done when you enter Europe. For checked luggage you declare if you arrive ex-EU and you have something to declare when picking up your checked luggage (the luggage tag has a green stripe if you are traveling intra-EU). If you have checked through to a domestic flight there is a phone at HEL where you should declare your checked through luggage if necessary.

At each of these points there is a possibility for random checks.

If you are traveling intra-EU, random checks are not done. Only if there is a justified reason for the check it can be done (profiling, tip, etc...).

WilcoRoger

Semantic problems, really Many people equate going through customs with going through immigration with going landside, even though they are three very different things, any of which can be done without the doing the other 2, depending on your dearture and arrival airports.

Basic examples:

Only going landside: FRA-HEL
Only passing immigration: LHR-HEL-FRA
Only passing customs: OSL-HEL

DALtoAAL

Ok, I know that the rule number one is to NEVER book codeshare flights as they are pain in the butt..! Anyhow, I have an AA booking which includes JFK-HEL segment operated by AY and it seems that there is no way to get the seats reserved for that flight as AA refers me back to AY and AY cs agent (who seemed to be a bit lost in general) stated that there is no way to get seats assigned for that flight before the check-in is opened. This sounds unbelievable, but knowing AY IT, I'm not totally surprised. Usually this wouldn't be such a big of a deal but this time I'm traveling with two minors so it would be great to have seat assignments already in advance. What do you think, shall I just suck it up or is there any chance that there is someone somewhere in AY who could magically get the seats to me and my entourage?

remymartin

There's a lot of discussion about this in this dedicated thread - Unable to book seats on codeshare flights

Aviating

How did you buy the ticket?
I was able to reserve the seat through the TA, when AA and AY were pointing to each other in a circle.

My conclusion is that AY has some front end sw which can't deal with situation. The CS agent at AY said that he can't see the seat map with the AA flight number. I am pretty sure that they could reserve the seat if they do it directly in the GDS (Amadeus).

DALtoAAL

I booked the flights through aa.com/fi.

Thanks for the tip, remymartin!

petteriusa

Okay, I know this has been covered here before, but I'm still not 100% on this. I've booked a business class tkt MIA-LHR-CLT-MIA, via the Finnair site. The MIA-LHR-CLT segments are AY marketed and the CLT-MIA segment is AA. All segments on AA metal. Per the Finnair calculator I should get this if I've entered it all in correctly. Have I?


Thanks!

Courmisch

Seems about right

petteriusa

Thanks, it's not clear if you need to enter in the marketing carrier or operating carrier on the calculator. The difference in this case is stark.

lkrt