We arrived at Helsinki Airport after a short walk from the Hilton Helsinki Airport around 70 minutes before departure. We headed straight for Finnair’s Priority counters to drop off our bags. However, because we were traveling during the summer holidays, there were quite a lot of people in line and it took a bit of time before we were helped by an agent.
Finnair Helsinki Airport Priority Check-In
The agent wasn’t the nicest, and we were soon sent on our way through priority security. We headed straight to our gate, as boarding had already started. However, we discovered that our gate area was one hot mess of people lining up in the hopes of boarding early. Eventually, Group 1 Priority boarding was called and we headed down the jetbridge.
We were welcomed by the Chief Purser standing by the door of our brand new Airbus A321.
Finnair Flight 841
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Origin: Helsinki (HEL) Dep: 08:00
Destination: Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) Arr: 09:45
Duration: 2 hr 45 min
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat: 3A (Business Class)
I took a picture of the first row of Business Class seats as we boarded. As is the case in Europe, “Business Class” seats are basically a row of three Economy seats with a blocked middle seat. While some airlines offer a little more legroom or a little “center console” in the way of hard product enhancements, you won’t find any of that on Finnair.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Cabin
This flight was operated by a plane fitted with Finnair’s new regional seats, which are Recaro BL3530 seats. These are the same seats found on SWISS and Lufthansa’s regional products, among other airlines. The seats are decked out in Finnair’s signature cabin colors (grey and light grey) and are a little boring but not aesthetically unpleasing. However, it’s worth noting that these seats are exceptionally poorly padded. It’s like they’re made out of bedrock or something…
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Seat
I found a flimsy pillow and two comfortable wool blankets waiting in the blocked middle seat.
On the seatback, there’s a tablet holder and a clip along with a literature holder with a safety card, Finnair’s Onboard Bistro menu and their signature Blue Wings magazine for some in-flight entertainment.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Seatback
You’ll also find another mesh seat pocket to store some bits and pieces throughout the flight. As you can see, although the slimline seat design doesn’t exactly score the seat points for comfort, it does result in a bit more legroom than your average Economy seat.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Legroom and Mesh Pocket
We were parked next to another Finnair Airbus A321.
Finnair Airbus A321 Helsinki Airport
Boarding started wrapping up, and the crew did a manual safety demonstration. I snapped a picture of the cabin as they were done. Business Class was full save for one seat and was filled with mostly connecting passengers.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class
We passed by a lot of Finnair traffic as we taxied to the runway.
Helsinki Airport Traffic
We passed a 737 that belonged to Jet Time, an airline that I had never heard of. As it turns out, they’re a Danish charter airline that occasionally operates some flights on behalf of Finnair.
Jet Time Airlines Boeing 737 Helsinki Airport
Eventually, we arrived at the runway and we started our takeoff.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Takeoff
We got some really nice views of Helsinki and the area surrounding Helsinki Airport during our takeoff.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class View of Helsinki
Shortly afterward, the meal service started with the flight attendants closing the curtain between Business and Economy class. The only good thing about European-style Business Class is that it allows airlines to be flexible between the amount of Business and Economy seats it has on each flight.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Curtain
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Cabin During Climb
I decided to visit the lavatories, which were clean but pretty sparse. I wish they’d stock something like a simple lotion to at least try and differentiate their business class product.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Lavatory
I played around with the seat and got a picture of the tablet holder in action. There’s a clip to secure the top of the tablet to the seat as well. Despite the tablet holder, Finnair continues to not offer any form of in-seat power onboard their regional aircraft, which I find to be disappointing in this day and age.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Tablet Holder
The meal service started with the Chief Purser distributing disposable hot towels from a plastic tray. The towels were scented but very thin.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Hot Towel
Then, the Chief Purser came through the Business Class cabin conducting the service through a trolley. Breakfast was served on one tray and consisted of cubed fruit in a plastic container yogurt and scrambled eggs with sausage, tomato sauce, potatoes and broccoli, and a breakfast pastry (I selected a Finnish-style Karelian pastry).
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Meal
The meal was okay. The presentation of the fruit was sloppy and the fruit wasn’t really fresh. The main breakfast dish was decent – the potatoes were a little dry, but the sausage was tasty and the eggs were a tad bit rubbery. The yogurt and the Karelian pie were excellent. Definitely not the worst breakfast that I’ve had in the sky, though not great either.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Cabin After Meal Service
Service throughout the meal service wasn’t actively bad, but the flight attendant serving us wasn’t very friendly either.
The trays were quickly collected by the flight attendant, who also offered coffee or tea which I declined. I fell asleep after that and woke up as we were starting our descent into Amsterdam.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class
We got some really nice views of Amsterdam as we descended further.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class
We touched down at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on schedule.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Landing
We passed by some interesting traffic as we taxied to our gate, including a ton of KLM heavies. If you squint hard enough you’ll also see a Cathay Pacific 777 somewhere in the photo below.
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Traffic
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Traffic
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Traffic
We parked next to an airBaltic CS300, which some passengers from my previous flight from Bangkok to Helsinki had been rebooked on through Tallinn to get to Amsterdam.
I took one last picture of the Business Class cabin. You’ll notice that Finnair has some Business Class branding on the bulkhead in front, which adds a bit of class to what I’d say is a pretty trashy Business Class product.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Cabin
I took one last picture of my seat before we started deplaning.
Finnair Airbus A321 Business Class Seat
I thanked the crew and headed to baggage reclaim where we were subjected to a really long wait. Eventually, our bags came out and we headed towards the Enterprise Rent-A-Car counter in order to collect our rental car, which was quite an experience…
Bottom Line: Finnair’s A321 Business Class
Call me crazy, but I think Cathay Pacific offers a better Economy product on their regional flights than Finnair does in Business Class. I can’t blame Finnair for choosing a Euro-business style seating arrangement since that is very much the industry standard. However, it’s on them for not trying to improve the padding, or fitting the seat with something as basic as power ports. The food wasn’t bad but was also not impressive by any stretch of the imagination. Overall, I was disappointed with the product, and definitely wouldn’t pay extra to fly business class on Finnair regionally.
Read more from this trip:
Have you flown Finnair regionally in business class?