Finnair is undergoing a variety of cost cutting initiatives. Earlier I wrote about how the Finnair Plus frequent flyer program will be seriously devalued as of June 2023. There’s another change happening as of that time, which will impact even more passengers.
Continue reading: Finnair’s Punitive New Seat Assignment Policy
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I'm flying Finnair in business on June 1 -- pre-selected and paid for the night flight seat of my preference. $163 + the cost of my business class ticket. I'm not paying for a selection on my return. It's just nuts.
Wonder if oneworld sapphire or ema take status holders will still be able to pick seats?? , I know I still got a checked bag and seat selection / lounge even on the lite business fares so be interesting moving forward if seat selection is still included!
Ben - Any suggestions for which window, business class seat is best for a single person on the Finnair A330?
Finnair has always been on the cutting edge of monetising ancillaries in premium cabins.
I remember flying with them from BOM-HEL in the late 2000s in Business Class (on an ex-Virgin Atlantic A340) and to date it is the only premium cabin flight where I had to pay cash for a snack between meal services. It was only a couple of Euros for a can of Pringles to go with my (complimentary) Diet Coke, but it struck me as a bit nickle-and-dime at the time.
Wow. Finnair used to be my favorite intra-Europe carrier. Their Helsinki hub was easy to navigate, and I liked the overall "quirkiness" that a quality small carrier from a small country brought to the market.
But this is going too far. I can see it on economy tickets, but pulling this stunt on business class fares (at any level), is just ridiculous. Finnair needs to come to the realization that they are not the only "full service(?)" carrier serving Northern Europe. Not that SAS is any better, but there are still options. For me, I will connect simply connect through another European hub on my way to the Nordic countries. There are many options.
Throw in their joke of a new business class seat with zero recline and where your head sleeps where your butt just was and it's just embarrassing all around. They should be tossed from OneWorld
Just don't fly airlines that are a joke like Finnair. An airline which will probably be bankrupt soon given their poor product and business model choices.
Governments should remember such punitive behaviour next time airlines cry poor.
"That’s right, with Finnair’s new policy, you’ll no longer have your choice of seats at check-in."
But we DO have the choice not to fly Finnair. Most people tend to avoid flying carriers who insult their customers.
Finnair clearly has a death wish with this penny pinching. They're not even cheap in economy never mind business. I won't be flying with them with this in mind.
I truly enjoy Helsinki Airport, particularly the non-Schengen lounge. This airport serves as an ideal stopover for my frequent trips to Asia. While the recent changes are not entirely detrimental, I am concerned about potential further changes in September, following the holiday season, which could be more significant. One inconvenience for me is the rescheduling of certain flights to Asia to much earlier times, such as the Bangkok flight, which is now slated to arrive at 5:40 am. In reality, it often arrives even earlier, which complicates hotel early check-in arrangements. Despite being close to attaining gold status with this airline, I am considering switching to Air France/KLM.
I wonder if they will deliberately allocate middle seats in the hope you pay to move...? Given how cheap they are being I wouldn't be surprised.
We pay for our seat in the ticket price. Now airlines want to charge a person twice for a seat. The airlines that do this ought to be sued. It feels as if they almost don’t want a person to fly. They just want your money!
Finnair made a name for themselves with their formerly extensive service to east Asia, taking advantage of HEL's strategic location in Europe - and using Russian airspace. Now, that airspace is closed and will stay shut for what is likely to be a very long time. Obviously, this places Finnair in a financial bind and I know they have been working on various ideas to ameliorate the problem. However, this particular plan is moronic. It remainds me of newspapers who, as they lost circulation, decided that they were immune from the laws of supply and demand - and raised the price of a paper, while decreasing what was in that same publication. When circulation fell even faster, they answered with another price hike. And so on, into oblivion. Finnair is starting down that road and they need to rethink what they're doing. They are NOT Ryanair.
Will never fly an airline that charges biz class passengers for seat selection. Up next for Finnair: fee for using a pillow and using the restroom more than once.
TRUE!!!
. . . since many years AY, has become a CHEAPO Airline! When airberlin was still in the air and part of OneWorld, ALL the passengers from Finland preferred to fly on airberlin instead of Finnair because of there cheap way to do service and charge for EVERYTHING out of the norm, while others still offered free snacks and beverages.
. . . . other airlines are doing the same thing!
QR, LH, LX just to name a few of them.
QR saver Business fare, NO Lounge, NO pre-seat assignement free,
LH only classic fares get free seat assignement, same in Premium Economy!
LX, throne seats as well as all seats in Eco and Premium Eco cost money of your want to assign your seat in advance.
Ryanair, WIZZair or EASYJet as LOW COST airlines (and without 5* rating) have similar fees.
So why bother, flying on airliens that treat passengers like low cost people?
Sounds almost like UNITED and there carry-on policy on lowcost fares?!?! 🙂
At the end, people DO HAVE a choice and that will desice what airline will make a profit and which one doesn't.
That's why i don't understand WHY so many people still prase certain airlines like Lufthansa Group? That entire Group is lower then low cost!
Even the BEST European Airline is charging for checked bags now in the lowest fares between Europe-Turkey! (if NOT in conjunction with an intercontinental Ticket!)
. . . . but Finnair is going 1 step too far, just like Swiss did on the flights out of Geneva! Low, Low Cost, maybe even Ultra Low Cost!?
Time to chose whisely these days!! 😉
I just missed Platinum in April (40kshort) so I’m Gold. I got an email today exposing the luggage policy (worth looking up if you haven’t seen). The message on seating was to read Bluewings magazine. No additional message. Just “read the press release”. I have over 600k miles that I don’t want to use now.
Finnair will come to regret these moves. I fly frequently on Finnair in the front cabin. I have no intention of paying any of these stupid fees and I will tend to move away from their flights. How does a company make more money by p....g off their clients especially their regular business class passengers. If I was on the Board of Finnair I would be looking to remove the joker that sent out the bad news this morning. If he wants to run a low cost airline why doesn't he write to Michael O'Leary to get a job with Ryanair? Does he not understand that not everyone wants cheap but want a good experience when they travel?
OMG!
I am Platinum Lumo and I will stop flying Finnair specifically for the fact they have devalued the awards and now charge crazy surcharges on there own flights, partner flight awards were all Ready useless using ridiculous amounts of points, huge charges and not able to book multi segments, now also upgrades increased which was the only thing I could use my points on sensible, they took away the champagne last month, took away the Platinum lounge only used on restrictive hours, they took away the food quality both on the flights and in the lounge and now they destroy the Finnair Plus programme, on top of that they have rude and poorly trained outsourced flight crews on most of there Asia flights and the Fares have increased in price drastically in the last year making them less competitive against other Airlines. Whoever this new management is he has sealed the fate of Finnair because I for one have started booking elsewhere as of today, Qatar here I come and Finnair Plus goodbye, nice being Lumo but no point when the points have limited value and the airline scams you even on business class, well it is not business class now is it, you pay for seats, no champagne, lousy food, and rude crews, that says budget airline with business prices.
GOOD BYE FINNAIR FROM A LOYAL LUMO CUSTOMER YOU ARE YESTERDAYS AIRLINE!!!!!!
Happy that we are still free to choose the company we fly with. Only this will keep us free of these dictatorial and erróneos decisions.
The Finn's have always been quite dumb ( some might even say bloody stupid ). This proves it. They'll realise what a cluster f... this is, the CEO will get fired and they'll ship him to Qantas, it's a merry-go-round of incompetent airline executives
Different 'John' here. It's never just 'one thing' that turns me off an airline. It's when a combination of bad points finally outnumber the positives. With Finnair's uncomfortable seat, mediocre service, bad connection times, and now this joke of a seat policy....Finnair is now off my preferred carriers list as of today. Yup, the small details do matter! When will airlines learn?
Hopefully that doesn't apply to seats already assigned a long time ago, like my 4A DFW to HEL end of June.
Seems they forgot about how inconvenient it is for most to fly their airline given the extra time and their geographic location.
Swiss and Lufthansa started something similar , at least for the lowest fares. With LX I managed to change it at the gate at no cost…and the Swiss gouging costs 35$ whilst LH ‘only’ demands 14$ … go figure
So let me get this straight. I have to pay to choose my business class seat that does not recline? Sounds like they want me to choose another airline.
I use the LHR - HEL route on a regular base's. Its Finnair or nothing. Let's hope BA will now restart this route they dropped 3 years ago.
Anything that gets me across the pond in 'J' is good for me, just needs a 2 hour (+/-) positioning flight to MUC, as I have done from ZRH, VIE, DUB, CDG, AMS for a few extra miles, or a nice scenic First Class train trip.
Finnair has also change their luggage policy for the worse. Things like you have to pay for sports equiupment.
Bye bye Finnair
Its sort of counterproductive cos finnair will need to be the cheapest carrier on a route or surely everyone will just book on a different airline?
The Finns are smart enough to know you don't form a plural with an apostrophe.
Likewise, I am platinum/lumo/gold at least over a decade. This management it's simply a disaster. All measurements they are taken directly impacting loyal and non loyal customers....are ludicrous. I just don't understand what on earth are they thinking...
Finnair has already reduced economy class toilets to 1 ,and do not allow to use business class toilets for economy passengers. That's a disgrace. Now they raise prices for basic features......RIP.
Next step for Finnair will be to remove all seats and passengers travel on stand up position.
I just purchased premium economy for 5 people. These are definitely not cheap tickets. Charging to pick seats is infuriating. Last time flying finnair. Absolutely ridiculous policy that will only make them loose customers.
I have my first Finnair flight ever in Business in two weeks to Seoul. After all I read and heard, it'll be most probably my last one as well. Can't understand how a company that provides client oriented services takes such decisions.
Going through this right now. Returning from Helsinki to Dallas tomorrow on AY 19. I paid for aisle seat when I booked. Now would like to change to different aisle seat but must pay again for that seat and, by the way, the seats are flat and hard... Back to LH I go for future trips. I'll live with FRA stopover
Despite the Finnair 'sale' announced today, I will be paying the extra few hundred pounds to fly with CX, in Business, to Singapore. The same applies to BA. No comp seat selection for me and my wife when making regular long-haul Business/First travel is an insult. It is important NOT to sit close to the galleys or toilets to allow good rest. This policy prevents that, unless one pays significantly more. As for Business Lite with Finnair, what is that all about? Who travels like that? Terrorists? Everybody needs a case in the hold.
I just learned the "lovely" news. Never flew Finnair before and didn't know it was a cheapo airline. I booked my travel on American and my fare indicated seat choice was included - but it turned out it's included only on the legs operated by AA. How clever! And I cannot use my AA miles to pay for those very expensive seats on Finnair. Hate being nickel and dimed!