Finnair operates out of London Heathrow’s Terminal 3, which is also used by American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and Virgin Atlantic. We arrived at the airport a couple of hours before our flight and headed to Travelex’s VAT refund desk, which ended up giving Alvin’s VAT refund experience at Munich airport a run for his money, and resulted in us losing a couple hundred dollars’ worth of refunds. Anyways, I digress…
I decided to go check-in early while my mother was holed up at the VAT refund counter. For some reason, the agent refused to check all of the bags under my name and insisted that my mother had to be with me to check any of our bags.
Finnair London Heathrow Priority Check-In Counters
Soon enough, my mother arrived and we were sent on our way through priority security which was a breeze. Although we had access to Cathay Pacific’s London Heathrow lounge, we were running a little tight on time so we did a bit of souvenir shopping.
We headed to our gate shortly as boarding was about to start, which was a mess. The Economy line was bursting at the seams, while the Business line was substantial. Thankfully, it moved quickly and I was onboard in quickly.
Finnair 832
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Origin: London Heathrow (LHR) Dep: 10:20 (10:20)
Destination: Helsinki Vantaa (HEL) Arr: 15:15 (15:05)
Duration: 2 hr 55 min (2 hr 45 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Seat: 2L (Business Class)
I was greeted by the Chief Purser who directed me to my seat.
Finnair’s Business Class cabins by themselves are very Nordic…in the sense that they’re bland, cold and uninteresting. Everything in the cabin is either white or grey, which doesn’t make for the most visually interesting cabin experience. However, Finnair has used the A350’s fantastic mood lighting to make up for the bland cabin by featuring cabin lighting reminiscent of the Northern Lights, as well as through their colourful collaboration with Marimekko on amenities, such as their lime green pillows.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin
The seats are pretty no-frills Zodiac Cirrus reverse herringbone seats. Unlike Cathay Pacific, they haven’t really customized the seat much, which is disappointing. I extensively reviewed the seat when I flew from Bangkok to Helsinki, so be sure to check that out if you’re looking for an in-depth review of the seat.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin
In a nutshell, while the seat is private and the seat has some decent storage, the lack of a legrest means that the seat isn’t comfortable for lounging. The seat also feels much tighter than some other reverse herringbone seats, especially when in bed mode. Despite this, it’s an excellent seat for a 2-hour intra-European flight, especially when the standard in this cabin is essentially Economy with a blocked middle seat.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin
I’d selected seat 2L, which was located in the second row of the cabin. While most seats in this configuration are generally created equal, a general rule of thumb is to always pick window seats over center seats, even when traveling with a companion – as window seats tend to offer more privacy and comfort.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Seat 3A
As you might notice, Finnair has a fixed mini-divider between the two center seats, which makes it difficult to talk to a travel companion (another reason you should pick a window seat, unless you have very urgent business matters to discuss).
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin
I took some time to admire the gorgeous Northern Lights-inspired mood lighting, which gave the cabin a lot more flair and style.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Mood Lighting
Finnair embarked on a brand refresh in 2017 and made minor changes to their overall brand image. One of these changes include a new boarding slide-show.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Boarding Slideshow
Finnair’s new slogan is “find the beauty between hello and goodbye”, which comes through in a lot of their branding.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class New Boarding Slideshow
As Finnair flights to London are usually operated by their narrowbody Airbus fleet, which does not feature in-flight entertainment, the crew supplied a pair of cheap earbuds in lieu of the Bose headphones that you typically see on Finnair. While the sound quality wasn’t great, they worked just fine.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Earbuds
Eventually, the entertainment system was switched on. While Finnair doesn’t have the most comprehensive audio and video entertainment selection, they have a fantastic journey planner that lets you know which stage of the journey you’re at, as well as the local time at both your origin and destination.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Planner
The Chief Purser and the Captain made announcements welcoming passengers onboard and providing basic routing details and in-flight service information. Shortly afterwards, we pushed back.
View During Pushback London Heathrow
At this time, the safety video was screened, which was boring but did its job…
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Safety Video
We passed by some more interesting traffic during our long taxi to the runway.
Traffic at London Heathrow
Traffic at London Heathrow
We took off on time. Look at all those British Airways planes!
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class View During Takeoff
I decided to turn on the airshow, which was easy to use, interactive and featured a bunch of modes.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Airshow
As we climbed out, I had some difficulty stowing my television. Unfortunately, stowing my television caused the seat in front of me to shake, which led to the passenger in front of me yelling at me. Yikes.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin During Climb
One of the unique features on Finnair’s A350 is that the seat-belt signs are all electronically displayed on LCD screens.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Seatbelt Sign
I managed to take some Instagram-worthy pictures as we climbed out.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class View During Climb
As the seat-belt sign was turned off, an informational video was played for all passengers. While I’m glad they’ve ditched the 5 minute-long monstrosity that they played for all passengers in English and Finnish, the new video isn’t exactly interesting either. Can’t they just have a quick announcement, or display the information on the entertainment system? Gah.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class
Finnair offers WiFi on their A350’s. Although this has been significantly cut back, Business Class, Finnair Plus Gold still receive an hour of free WiFI, which is better than nothing… Unfortunately, you can only connect to one device per subscription, which was super annoying.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Wifi Instructions
Finnair has redesigned their Nordic Sky portal, and it is much easier to use. Instead of having to create an account, passengers simply have to input their last name and seat to enter the WiFi portal.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Wifi
Overall, the WiFi speed was on the slow side. They also blocked Snapchat for some reason, which annoyed me, since that’s essentially 90% of my social life.
Scented hot towels were distributed by the crew, which were the cheap disposable kind. C’mon Finnair, invest in some proper hot towels!
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Hot Towel
I decided to watch Hidden Figures for the 4th time.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Entertainment
The flight attendants came around the cabin with a drinks cart. I chose Finnair’s signature blueberry juice, which is to die for. The drinks were served with Penn State Sour Cream and Chive Pretzels.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Drinks Run
At this time, the mood lighting in the cabin was switched to more of an orange-red colour, which was calming.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Mood Lighting
Shortly afterward, the meal was served all on one tray. There were no menus, and all choices were read out by the staff. The starter was some kind of smoked salmon and shallots in mayo dish and was quite decent. The main was a beef stroganoff with risotto and spinach, which was decent without being a stand-out. The meal was served with three chocolates (dessert?), a warmed bun and butter.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Meal
Overall, I quite enjoyed the meal. The food was good but not a stand-out. The meal service took around 75 minutes to complete and was efficient, though I wish they’d bring the starter and main out separately, especially since it’s not a nice feeling to suddenly have a ton of food shoved in your face.
Service throughout the meal service was good. The flight attendant serving my aisle was friendly enough, so I have no complaints. While Finnair breaks the cabin up into four section and assigns one flight attendant to serve each section, presumably because it makes the service more personable. Despite this, I still felt like part of an assembly line.
The cabin lights were switched back to a cool blue hue.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Mood Lighting
Eventually, a short landing video was screened including Helsinki Airport connecting information.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Pre-Landing Video
Next, a video about Helsinki Airport’s development was screened. Um, cool?
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Pre-Landing Video
We started our descent into Helsinki Airport shortly afterward, and the cabin crew came through the cabin with their pre-landing checks.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class View During Landing
The seatbelt sign was switched on along with a sign that told passengers to put away large electronic devices.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Seatbelt Sign
I turned on the airshow again, which showed our progress.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Airshow
We got some really pretty views of Helsinki as we descended.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class View of Helsinki
I took the time to check the connection information that was on the in-flight entertainment system, which provided a helpful terminal map, as well as general flight information. The system even calculated the total transfer time and the walking time between gates.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Connection Information
We landed at Helsinki Airport slightly ahead of schedule.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class View During Landing
The mood lighting was turned down to a single blue strip.
Finnair Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin During Landing
As we taxied to our gate, I spotted some Finnair widebody aircraft, as well as a Japan Airlines 787.
Finnair Airbus A330 and Japan Airlines 787 Helsinki Airport
We parked next to a Finnair A330.
Finnair Airbus A330 Helsinki Airport
Bottom Line: Finnair A350 Business Class
It’s always a real treat to get a long-haul Business product on an inter-European flight. Finnair’s short-haul soft product is decent enough. Add in a tasty hot meal and friendly service and you have the makings of a really great flight.
