Finnair's glassware is called Ultima Thule, originally designed in 1968 for their new NYC route. The glassware is available in department stores and also online nowadays, seems its back in fashion. These were once my mother's "better glasses" :)
Flew an embraer with them fairly recently for a 2hr45 min flight, although pleasant, not having an airbridge in Helsinki was definitely odd (nearly 5 min bus ride at hub airport) and a full economy sharing one toilet on a full service airline is also pretty annoying, besides that very professional crew and love their design language
Qatar Airways have proper business seats (arranged 2+2) on their short-haul A320 business class routes in their home region, but the cost is also quite a bit higher than on European carriers.
Great channel, Matt. It annoys me that these European seats are sold as business class, if it's only separated by a curtain and not a bulkhead, it's premium economy at best!
Finnair used to boast the fastest connection between key Asian cities & Europe, but these flights now take 10% to 40% longer because its planes can no longer fly over Russia. Helsinki-Tokyo service that used to take around nine hours, now grinds on for around 13.
From my experience, Finnair has some of the highest intra-European fares and I have rarely seen promos or sales. It is clearly on the unapologetically pricier side.
Hi Matt, And yet again, you show AY as an airline that is clean, crisp, well designed, nice little food offering, nothing special, but also nothing bad. I can imagine that if you book long haul via HEL to lets say DEL, you get a very crisp feeder flight into HEL, a great lounge at HEL, followed by a great experience on their long haul configured flght. Nothing wrong with that at all as a package! Would be good in your little AY series to mention sweetspots for tier point runs East ( if any?). As always, Thank you, stay well Thomas
Thanks Thomas. I have mentioned that Finnair can occasionally be squeaked into a US tier point run, but it usually comes at the expense of something else as the maximum permitted milage gets sucked up by the extra miles through Helsinki
We flew Finn Air from LHR to PMI as there was a change to aircraft from BA. Although in Economy loved the interior and the cabin crew were nice and friendly. We only experience Business short haul when redeeming Avios or Cabin Upgrade voucher from Barclaycard but it can be hit and miss with what you get.
Although to add , I didn't realise they increase the seat prices as demand increases, so we have 4 x Club Europe through avios for June , £25 to sit together now £32 for same seats. We might just wait until we check in see what we get
Looks much the same arrangement as BA although the food offering appeared much more substantial. The wine glass looks very sturdy which is useful during turbulence. Some short haul business class fares are really outrageous for what is offered, but at the right price I like using them to obtain Tier points (usually booking well in advance).
I maintain that in euro-biz the pitch should be 34 at least. For a fatty like me I'd need that to get the tray down to eat, otherwise I'm eating side on, off the tray of the middle seat in front. A business flyer can use a laptop better with this seat pitch. So what if often a few economy seats at the rear of the forward cabin would end up with more leg room. There are status holders to be appeased, there is upgrade revenue to be had, there could even be appreciated accommodation towards exceptionally tall people. For those flying long haul in business class the prospect of a better experience onboard the connecting flight might help sway customers to use Finnair via Helsinki instead of the big usual suspects via LHR, AMS, FRA.
You speak (write!) a lot of sense there.... And giving lucky economy passengers a few extra inches if they can't sell out business? Big deal - hey, I'm sure they could work out a way of charging people for it!
Its a pleasure to see your experience and fun anecdote! I have a question about Moomin shuffle, Do you know if the 140 tier point allocation is still valid for Finnair fly frequent program? their program has been updated recently (it is spend based now, unfortunately there is calculator available) and I am not certain if we will receive same Tier point values. Also, I noticed that QatarAirways privilege club would designate lower Tier point and Avios for flights operated by Finnair compared to BA or AA (another bummer).
Tier points is a BA concept (plus a few other airlines but not Finnair or Qatar). So you'd get 140 if you charge the flight to your BA account. If you credit it to Finnair or Qatar you'll get a different amount and I have no idea whether it would be equally lucrative in those respective schemes
@@MattsPlanet Thank you for your response. While British Airways is tempting, I don't fly with them often enough to make it a rational choice. However, I'm uncertain which airline, Finnair or Qatar Airways, would be more rewarding in terms of reaching higher status levels and earning more Avios points.
I think I've flown that seat type agp-hel-lhr and back, and it plays merry jip with my neck: always ends up cricked. No pillows seemed to be around so resorted to improvising with my coat. Utterly horrible experience. Couple that with Finnair's website, seat choice, and customer support making BA look best of breed and I'm afraid I'm not in a rush to sample them again.
I know they used to run AGP-HEL overnight which would be an ordeal in that seat - it was briefly on my radar as it earns 140 TPs.... A couple of hours - fine. Longer - no thanks. But that's the same for all Euro Business cabins....
Reward availability is often OK to HEL and its not a massive premium for a bit of a treat if you're making a redemption, and lots of people connect, but I doubt many are paying for it. Perhaps supported by there only being 3 or 4 people in the cabin that day
@@MattsPlanet Finnair also allows paid/points (relatively cheap) upgrade closer to departure if 1st class seats are still available. I have used those couple of times myself.
I recently flew Delta in domestic “First Class” on their brand new A321neo. I I didn’t get lounge access or a meal onboard but the seat was much better than EuroBusiness. It also had a screen with lots of options. A year prior I flew on British Airways EuroBusiness. The seat was subpar, no in fight entertainment, but there was a meal onboard and I had lounge access. Both the flights were around the same length. Which experience would you prefer?
That's a tough question! I'm tall so leg room carries extra weight for me and screens on short flights aren't a big attraction.... Food and drink is good so I'd probably pick BA! Just....
Are you mixing first class with business class? Not many carriers have first class and it's only offered on certain routes. Nowadays they sell business class saver etc tickets which don't include any perks. That's a shame.
Hi Matt. Great video. Random off topic question for you. Have you experienced AA rerouting as part of a tier point run at all? I’ve had a JFK-LAX-PHX sector rerouted to JFK-PHX direct, which not only loses TP’s but also swaps out the AA Flagship Business seat on the Sharklets plane. Should I expect push back from AA when I call to ask them to revert back to the original? Cheers!
AA is renowned for changing things - I'm almost disappointed if they don't these days! Work out what you want to do, then call them and ask to change. They should be accommodating.
I am with Finnair's FF program and the ONLY reason to fly business in Europe is the catering. Otherwise I cannot fathom why anyone would pay for Finnair's business tickets in Europe routes unless your employer etc pays for the ticket and you just want to rack up the points. Or you have upgrade vouchers which is when I use the business on anyways rather short Euro-routes
