Intra-Europe business class is usually a pretty underwhelming product. It even makes domestic first class in the US look good. On most European airlines it's simply an economy seat with a blocked middle and improved service & food. For whatever reason, Finnair was flying an Airbus A340 between Helsinki and London for the flight I…
Continue reading: Review: Finnair Business Class A340 Helsinki To London
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Good report.
How come you chose the seat closer to the aisle on a short flight, where presumably sleep (and foot) comfort was less important?
The color and shape of those seats remind me of old-charter bus seats back from my school field trip days LOL.
Anyway, keep up the great work
@Lucky: please tell us your shoe size. I know this is a gift for the crowd and I apologize in advance for what I've wrought. But seriously I'd like to know whether, with my size 9 feet, I can ignore your oft-mentioned footroom complaints.
I've always been happy on my back or on my side in CX J and in EVA J, in their reverse herringbone seats on 777-300ER. Maybe I'd be OK in situations where you aren't. Maybe yours are simply bigger than mine.
Row 1 (at least on DL's 767 configuration) has a significantly larger foot well. This comes from someone that's flown DL's 767 probably 40 times in J. I'd only assume that other carriers may have a similar setup, so if you haven't, you need to try row 1, especially the "throne" seats 1A and 1D.
@ YYZgayguy -- Well I've never had an issue with the reverse herringbone seats on Cathay or EVA either, as they have plenty of room. These are tighter. My shoes are size 12.
@ KW @ CSP -- Well my preference would have been for the "true" window seat rather than the throne seat. The throne seats have the least legroom and aren't actually much closer to the window. All that being said, all the "true" window and throne seats were occupied when I booked.
Great trip report. I am planning to take the same flight in September on a return leg from Singapore, and luckily it will be upgraded to the A350! (Just as SIN-HEL). I'm eager to compare with yours.
It's still much better than an A320 with no leg room and no wider seat!
Off topic, but, did you see Emirates is launching non-stop service to Auckland on March 1? Had to beat QR!
Agree with KW - why not 2/4/6A seats? I chose 4A when I flew this config & found it preferable to the single window seats 2/4/6/9L which would be my next best choice. Maybe you have the benefit of ginormous feet, something I don't suffer but do in other areas 😀
They use an A340 on this route as it has the downtime between long-hauls to slot in nicely, plus it's the cargo capacity which is coming into play here as they operate as part of IAG Cargo, just like how sometimes IB operate their A340-600 between Madrid and Heathrow.
Lucky, do you have a photo of the seat in fully flat? (or at least test out to feel the comfort of in it full flat?)
Seatguru puts Finnair A340 as angled flat, in 2-2-2 configuration, so I guess they need an update to what you have in this report.
Great Finnair reports btw!
I am ready to fly them if I have a chance to!
Well, technically, it isn't quite like Delta's, since Delta is 1-2-1 each row.
Of course, Austrian is probably the most crammed of them all, since they do 1-2-1/2-2-2...
on a seperate note, Emirates just announced direct flights between Dubai and Auckland, starting March 1st, beats Qatar
Turkish airlines would be an exception. Fantastic business seat for intra-Europe flights.
This isn't their "old longhaul business class seat". Finnair just installed these on their A330s/A340s back in 2014. The old product had 2x2x2 angled-flat seats as I recall.
Also, I find it funny that you say this cabin is bland yet you rave about AA's 77W business class. I find AA's cabin to be much duller, sort of a grey "SkyCubicle" look.
Great review. I've been considering flying Finnair business class from Helsinki to Delhi (on an A330). I've heard good things about their service but I'm not sure how I feel about the 121 / 221 seating. I'm not a big fan of their color schemes either.
As some have stated before, Finnair is flying this HEL-LHR as a 340 service few times a week due to demand for greater cargo capacity after the IAG cargo deal. So, nothing new really but you're right, of course, that there aren't too many intra-european business class products that are this good.
AY Widebodies operates the HEL-LHR route every Mon, Fri and Sun on the 8am/0800 departure until at least beginning of July. At that point I stop checking any further.
Mix of A330/340's for now, switches to A350 from beginning of March.
How full was the business-class cabin? I wonder if they give upgrades to their elite customers when they're flying such a large plane within London. I'd also be curious to know if this is the standard catering -- it looks a but much for intra-Europe. Still, as with your other flight, the catering is a disappointment. The plating and quality looks premium economy, at best.
@ FNT Delta Diamond -- I believe it's the standard catering, and they don't give upgrades to their elite members for free. It was about 80% full.
Dear Lucky,
The food on this flight actually looks a lot better than the JFK catered. And please stop using the word "sort of" to describe every single dish. An egg dish is an egg dish but not "sort of" an egg dish!
Good review. As a travel consultant I like the Finnair configuration as it offers something for just about everyone. Why your comment about the A340 feeling underpowered? I've never flown in an A340 because they are rare around Australian skies but as the aircraft that has the longest range of any aeroplane and the only remaining single deck four engine jet (apart from the BAe146/Avro RJ) I would have thought it would feel very powerful.
A340-200/300 are notoriously underpowered. They're designed for optimum performance in the cruise, but due to this their climb rate is phenomenally low especially compared to twin engined competitors.
Please from now on tell us if the airlines are using metal cutlery on London routes. I always love reading the reviews.
I also was interested having worked at LHR back in 1995 when there was more inflight caterers there.
Question
I know that British airways is round trip catered from Heathrow on European flights I'm interested to know about the other European airlines catering.
I presume finnair is round trip catered because the yogurts don't have any English logos names on them.
I also know are linguists is round trip catered from Dublin Ireland and they make do on the way back to Dublin with what they hey have left.
Is that the case for all European airlines now?