Finnair is a fun airline that I flew for the first time earlier flight year, from New York to Helsinki, and then from Helsinki to London. While they have an extensive route network to Asia, their route network to the US is quite limited by comparison.
Well, the airline has just announced their first route to the west coast, though it’s only seasonal.
Finnair will operate 3x weekly flights between Helsinki and San Francisco between June 1 and September 28, 2017. Per airlineroute.net, the flight will operate with the following schedule:
AY11 Helsinki to San Francisco departing 4:35PM arriving 5:20PM
AY12 San Francisco to Helsinki departing 7:10PM arriving 3:30PM (+1 day)
The flight will operate using an Airbus A330-300 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.
Finnair has fully flat seats on their A330, though unfortunately they’re in a staggered configuration.
Finnair’s new A350s have reverse herringbone seats, though they only fly these planes to Asia (last year I had the chance to fly it from New York when they operated the plane there for a limited time).
Finnair isn’t typically very generous with award availability, and this flight is no exception. That being said, Finnair does seem to have one business class award seat available per flight.
Usually finding business class award seats nonstop between the west coast and Europe can be tough, so this is a pretty good opportunity if you’re traveling solo.
For example, American charges just 57,500 miles for a one-way business class award between the US and Europe, and there are no fuel surcharges. The availability isn’t yet showing on American’s website, though it does show on British Airways’ website, and should be bookable by phone with American.
Sweat in the sauna in the Finnair Lounge at Helsinki Airport
Bottom line
This is a cool new seasonal route for Finnair, though it would be great to see them eventually add more permanent flights to the West Coast. Helsinki is such an easy airport to transfer through, making this a great flight for anyone traveling to Northern Europe and beyond.
Helsinki Airport
Anyone planning on taking Finnair’s seasonal flight between San Francisco and Helsinki?
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