The chance to fly Finnair's new no-recline business class on my return flight to the US was something I was excited about. The new business class on the A330 and A350 will be particularly innovative, as the airline announced earlier this year.
At the moment, Finnair has intercontinental flights out of Sweden. Finnair used to mainly fly to Asia, but since China and Russia have closed their airspace, Finnair has had to look for new destinations.
We have seen the airline add more routes from Helsinki to the United States, as well as adding long haul service out of Sweden to the United States and Thailand.
I was able to book a flight in business class for 57,500 American AAdvantage miles.
The flight from Sweden to New York arrives at 5:00PM.
Finnair's new business class is being rolled out at a pretty fast pace, and what was most exciting to me was that the flight would feature it.
We took different flights back to the US. There was only one award seat on the flight and I had to leave early for a special reason.
It took me 3.5 hours to get to the airport for my flight. The airport was an amusement park. As lines moved quickly, it was a pretty functional zoo.
The check-in counter was not open until 11:30AM.
The baggage belt didn't work at the premium check-in counter. Even though I was the first in line, it took me 30 minutes to get help. That is not a good start.
You might think that the security lines would take a long time based on the number of people in the terminal, but the monitors show that they only took 13 minutes.
The lines were long. A fast track security lane could have saved a few minutes, but it wasn't much more than that.
I was impressed by how functional everything was at the airside terminal. Priority Pass members can use the Norrsken Lounge in Terminal 5 as well as business class passengers.
I checked it out and went to the Amex Lounge by Pontus because it was so busy that I didn't want to go.
The Finnair flight was leaving from gate 18. The gate opened at 1:35PM. Your boarding pass is scanned before you enter the gate area and you are already considered onboard. The gate opened at 2PM and the boarding began at 2:30PM.
After boarding through the second set of doors, I entered the business class cabin. Finnair's new business class cabin has 28 seats spread across seven rows in a 1-2-1 configuration.
This cabin is kind of like a Northern European one. When you consider that you are on an A330, which has a narrower fuselage than the A350, the cabin is quite impressive.
One of the solo seats by the windows is likely to be your preference.
If you are travelling with someone, the center seats will allow you to talk with them. There is a privacy shield that can be raised if you sit in the center section next to a stranger.
There isn't a lot of innovation when it comes to the types of seats being introduced. Finnair shines in that area. The seat back doesn't move in Finnair's new business class. It is easy to slide down in the seat and extend the sleeping surface when you are tired.
Finnair has a new business class seat. I didn't find the glare to be an issue with the television on the seat back.
There was an enclosed cabinet at the back of the seat.
The entertainment controller, headphones, and rack were inside the cabinet. There was enough room to hold a cell phone or glasses.
There was a console on the side of the seat with buttons for seat control and wireless charging. It's always a great idea in theory, but I don't think it's practical on planes because my phone wouldn't charge very quickly and it needed to be positioned very precisely to charge. The phone wouldn't charge until it stopped moving on its own.
The seat controls were simple to use. There were buttons for the tray table and seat lighting.
The tray table could be folded over in half.
It wasn't hard to turn the seat into a bed. If you folded over the panel that makes up part of the footwell, you would have a roomy sleeping surface.
There are many new business class seats that require you to squeeze your feet into a small footwell, but that wasn't an issue here. Even if you have big feet, the footwell in Finnair's new business class is large.
A large storage compartment, deep enough to hold a bottle of water, a laptop, and any other loose items, was located at the bottom of the seat.
I didn't think the AC power outlet was placed well. The power outlet was not accessible when you turned the seat into a bed.
Finnair's A330s feature individual air nozzles in the panels above the seats, which is appreciated as the cabin was warm.
Finnair's new business class seat exceeded my expectations for comfort, spaciousness, and privacy. This has to be one of the best A330 business class seats out there.
I think the seat is similar to Singapore Airlines' business class. This seat is better than the others.
There are a lot of advantages for Finnair. The seat is light and requires less maintenance than other business class seats.
Finnair has good bedding in its new class. There are two thick pillows, a mattress pad, and a blanket in the new seat. If you put a pillow on each side of you, it will act as an arm rest.
Finnair collaborated with Marimekko to design business class kits.
The kits were basic and only had ear plugs, eye shades, and lip balm.
Business class passengers were given flimsy slipper.
Bose headphones are offered in business class at Finnair. It was a pleasant surprise that there are so many airlines with garbage headphones.
The pre-departure drinks were available with the choice of champagne, sparkling water, or berry juice. I liked the glassware the champagne came in.
Menus were at the seats during boarding.
The main cabin door was 30 minutes behind schedule due to the slow boarding process. There were only three empty seats in business class.
The captain informed us of our flight time of 7 hours and 50 minutes. He apologized for the delay and said it was due to the summer of 2022.
A few moments after the cabin manager added her welcome, the safety video was shown. We started our pushback around the same time.
We were able to take off from runway 19R at 3:40PM after having an engine startup and taxi. After a long takeoff roll, we climbed out of Stockholm.
The ride smoothed out after a few bumps on the initial climb out. The sign for seatbelts was turned off.
I looked at Finnair's entertainment system. The system was responsive and I liked that it could be controlled with a controller. The home screen gave a time out of the flight when passengers could expect meals.
The entertainment selection was not bad. The number of movies and TV shows was much smaller than that of the ICE system.
Finnair has a map feature that allows you to zoom in and out as you please, instead of just being able to choose from a limited number of views.
Finnair's A330s have a nose camera, but it's only used for takeoff and landings. Unlike Finnair's A350s, there is no tail camera.
The more exciting feature of the A330s is their wi-fi. I found the W-fi to work well and it was interesting to see how many people were connected.
There were three different pricing options for wi-fi.
It is not unreasonable for the ability to stay connected during a daytime flight with no data caps if you choose to pay 24 euro. I was able to get a lot done while I was in New York.
Business class passengers in Finnair receive one hour of free wi-fi when they enter their last name and seat number. I didn't use that because I didn't want to miss out on the free wi-fi on the flight.
Lunch and a snack were served before the flight landed. The business class menu can be found here.
The Finnair business class drinks list is below.
25 minutes after takeoff, warm towels were given out. I thought that was a sign that drinks would follow. That was not realistic.
Drinks and main course orders were taken after 45 minutes. The drinks were served in 75 minutes. I ordered a glass of water and a bottle of wine and they were served with room temperature nuts.
The pace at which a crew can get out the first drink after takeoff sets the tone for service in the air. I don't think it's a good idea for airlines to serve drinks within 30 minutes of takeoff, and 1 hour and 15 minutes to wait to have a drink.
The pace of service didn't improve from there. The entire thing was served on one tray after takeoff, and it took 1 hour and 45 minutes. The airline can't serve a coursed meal on a flight.
Appetizers were included with the meal. The first item was smoked salmon.
The cauliflower was made with oil and vegetables.
I chose the slow-baked cod with chanterelles, potatoes, and bottarga veloute sauce.
You would think they could heat the bread roll since it was old and cold.
After takeoff, my tray and tablecloth were put away. I wasn't sure why the tablecloth was being cleared, since dessert hadn't been served.
The crew carried a tray through the cabin with the choice of a chocolate or white chocolate dessert. The desserts were small but I chose the other one.
The crew never passed through the cabin with a cheese plate, so I asked if they had one. It was basic and they brought me one.
I found this to be disappointing. The food was good, but the service was not up to par and the small portions were not personalized.
There is a snack bar in the business class cabin. It's better than nothing, but not well executed. There was a small selection of snacks. There weren't any glasses for self-serving drinks and there weren't any individual water bottles.
The front of the cabin had a toilet. L:A Bruket makes toiletries.
The business class bathroom was large and had a window.
The cabin was completely dim so I didn't want to open the window shade at my seat, but from the bathroom I could see the wing. I still need to go to the island.
Finnair has a no-recline business class that sleeps. Well, surprisingly well. By raising the leg rest, the seat becomes a 78′′ flat bed.
I wanted to lounge and watch something on the inflight entertainment in situations where I didn't want to sleep but still wanted seat comfort. The seat was comfortable in the lounging position. I was more comfortable when I put one of the pillows behind my back.
The only awkward part of this seat is when you are in bed and want to get up. To pull yourself up, you have to back up. It is not easy to raise the seat back, but I didn't find it to be a big issue.
The cabin was dark throughout the flight.
I ordered a coffee around 2.5 hours before landing. Finnair does not use handles for the cups they use for cappuccinos. The cup is hot, that doesn't make sense.
Warm towels were distributed two hours before the landing. It was another 30 minutes before trays were brought with the choice of fruit or water. There is a specialty on Finnair.
The pre-arrival meal was served around 80 minutes before the plane touched down. There wasn't a choice. I ordered Diet Coke but it wasn't served.
There was a salad with the start.
I appreciated that it was vegetarian.
There was new fruit.
It was a fairly basic meal. I drank a cup of coffee.
I want to know if someone can help me understand Finnair's labor situation. Finnair doesn't seem to have a very strong centralized flight attendant union because I know pre-pandemic most flights to and from Asia were operated by local crews.
I am not sure if the flight attendants on this flight were Finnair flight attendants or temporary flight attendants from Sweden. Finnair is hiring flight attendants through a third party, so I think it was the latter.
The service just wasn't up to par. The crew seemed apathetic and inefficient, even though they were not rude. The crew appeared to be going through the motions.
There was no proactive service between meals and the meal services felt inefficient. The service is exactly what you would expect from flight attendants who were hired a few months ago. There is a lot of room for improvement here.
I eavesdropped on the cabin manager talking to her colleague. She was talking about how she used to work for two airlines before she started this job.
The captain made a pre-arrival announcement just under an hour before we landed.
The crew had to put away laptops and raise all the window shades in order to get the cabin ready for landing. I think it was early to have to do that.
I enjoyed the view out the window as the cabin was ready for landing.
At 5:40PM, we touched down at JFK. It took another 20 minutes to taxi to our arrival gate at Terminal 8 due to congestion at the airport.
Global Entry helped me get through immigration quickly. My next long haul adventure would start at Terminal 5 and I will keep you posted on that.
Finnair has a new business class. The product is innovative and smart, as well as a very good hard product from a passenger perspective. This was an A330, so that makes it even more true. This is where Finnair has a chance to win.
Finnair has nice amenities, like great bedding, Bose headphones, etc., as well as reasonable pricing and no data caps.
The food and service were not up to par. In terms of how the food was served and the quantity, it was one of the more disappointing long haul business class meals I have had.
I think Finnair's soft product is one of the best business class products in the world.
What did you think about flying in Finnair's new business class?
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