Finnair vs. British Airways
#1
Original Member
Original Poster
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 98
Finnair vs. British Airways
I have to select between BA and Finnair on a transatlantic Canadian Plus miles redemption flight in economy class. I like BA and use them quite frequently, but never had experience with Finnair. Should I try the Finns or stick to the Brits?
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,719
I flew Finnair JFK-HEL in business class a few years ago and it was just excellent. I remember we had reindeer for dinner. A lot of red-nose-in-the-sauce jokes ensued.
It's perhaps worth noting that Finnair flies only a handful of intercontinental/long-haul services, to North America and Tokyo, so each flight is more special. BA (which I like very much, don't misunderstand) does hundreds daily. I got the impression that the Finnair JFK service was the pride of the airline and they were trying extra-specially hard to impress.
It's perhaps worth noting that Finnair flies only a handful of intercontinental/long-haul services, to North America and Tokyo, so each flight is more special. BA (which I like very much, don't misunderstand) does hundreds daily. I got the impression that the Finnair JFK service was the pride of the airline and they were trying extra-specially hard to impress.
#10
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Programs: TK *G, BA Gold
Posts: 592
The european flights at least are better than BA. Better leg room, free tea/coffee/juice for all passengers in economy, emerald card holders given a free drink from the menu. On BA nobody in economy gets anything for free, not even water. And BA have packed in so many seats on their latest planes that one of the jump seats is actually mounted on the toilet door. Meanwhile the long haul BA planes are being reconfigured with 777 having 10 across, which is massively worse than the economy A350.
#11
#12
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Programs: Finnair (AY) Platinum, Air France Silver, Tallink Club One Silver :)
Posts: 1,655
I'm not sure what airline you are comparing AY with, also possible that my expectations regarding service on an airplane are too low, but in my opinion AY service is really far from crap. They are nowhere close to perfect, but especially when you hold a higher tier frequent flyer card, I believe they treat you nicely in economy, and in most cases very well in business (in the pointy end it, the shiny card makes only marginal difference though).
#15
Join Date: May 2015
Location: ATL/MCO
Programs: Costco Executive, RaceTrac Sultan of Soda, Chick-fil-A Red
Posts: 5,662
IIRC the AY forum was created in ca 2007 and most if not all threads about AY were moved here.