| Update: Finnair has just loaded award availability on this route. There seem to be four business class award seats per flight. This is an excellent opportunity, since Finnair awards can be booked using American AAdvantage miles without fuel surcharges for 57,500 miles one-way across the Atlantic. You can find the original post from December 7 below. |
Finnair is continuing its expansion to the United States. First the airline launched routes from Stockholm to three cities in the United States, then the airline announced flights from Helsinki to Dallas, and now the airline is announcing flights from Helsinki to Seattle.
In this post:
Finnair launching Seattle flights in June 2022
As of June 1, 2022, Finnair will be launching a 3x weekly Helsinki (HEL) to Seattle (SEA) route. It would appear that this route will be seasonal, and will run through the end of the summer schedule, which is October 28, 2022. The flight will operate with the following schedule, and is already bookable:
AY33 Helsinki to Seattle departing 5:55PM arriving 5:40PM
AY34 Seattle to Helsinki departing 7:20PM arriving 2:50PM (+1 day)
The service will operate in both directions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The flight will cover a distance of 4,784 miles in each direction, and is blocked at 9hr45min westbound and 9hr30min eastbound. It’s not often you see a westbound transatlantic flight arrive before it departs (based on local times), so that’s kind of cool.
Finnair will use an Airbus A330-300 for the Seattle service, featuring 289 seats. This includes 32 business class seats, 40 extra legroom economy seats, and 217 economy class seats. Finnair’s A330s have staggered fully flat seats in business class, so it’s a solid product, but not as good as you’ll find on the A350.
How this fits into Finnair’s route network
Finnair has been growing its network to the United States in recent months, which makes perfect sense. Historically Finnair’s biggest long haul markets have been China and Japan, and those countries remain closed to tourists, with no indication of that changing anytime soon.
Seattle will be Finnair’s sixth destination in the United States, as the airline also offers service to Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York. Since the Seattle route is seasonal for now, I imagine it’s largely targeting Europeans looking to enjoy the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, and Americans looking to travel to Europe. Of course Seattle is also a major business hub, so I imagine this will get a fair bit of business travel.
Also keep in mind that Finnair is part of the oneworld transatlantic joint venture, which otherwise includes American, British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus. The airlines share revenue across the Atlantic, and American is working on building up a long haul hub out of Seattle. Furthermore, Alaska Airlines has joined oneworld, so Finnair passengers will enjoy lots of connectivity.
In addition to Finnair’s expansion out of Helsinki, the airline has also gotten creative beyond that — Finnair launched long haul flights from Stockholm, including to Los Angeles, Miami, and New York. Obviously the airline saw demand for long haul flights from Sweden, and with so many spare long haul aircraft, it seemed worth trying. While those routes were initially only supposed to operate for the winter, the Los Angeles and New York routes have been extended through next summer.
Bottom line
Finnair will be launching a new 3x weekly service between Helsinki and Seattle as of June 2022. This will complement Finnair’s existing destinations out of Helsinki, plus long haul routes out of Stockholm.
It’s cool to see Seattle get yet another long haul airline. For a seasonal route this makes sense, between the general tourist demand, the oneworld transatlantic joint venture, and Alaska Airlines having joined oneworld.
What do you make of Finnair’s new route to Seattle?
It would be great if Finnair added service to Duluth MN-Superior WI because of the number of Finnish people in that area.
Who will Finnair be using for their lounge at SeaTac?
Two words: blueberry juice
Interesting but not surprising given Icelandic's strength in the Pacific Northwest. Clearly, there's a market for US leisure travelers to the Nordic countries. I always think Finnair and SAS are two airlines generally overlooked by Americans, despite decent business-class products and good route networks.
Good to have another TATL flight out of SEA in the evening. I usually work at least until 4pm, that takes LH and DL off the table for me.
I got to fly Roundtrip on SAS on a Pratt Whitney powered attracted 1988/1989 built Boeing 767 383's in October of 1993 between Seattle and Berlin via the main hub in Copenhagen 8 hour flight relatively to the Scandinavian market it's good to see one of the carriers in Seattle FINNAIR again I miss Scandinavian airline system they were the best it's like they brought the country of Norway Sweden and Denmark inside those cabin...
I got to fly Roundtrip on SAS on a Pratt Whitney powered attracted 1988/1989 built Boeing 767 383's in October of 1993 between Seattle and Berlin via the main hub in Copenhagen 8 hour flight relatively to the Scandinavian market it's good to see one of the carriers in Seattle FINNAIR again I miss Scandinavian airline system they were the best it's like they brought the country of Norway Sweden and Denmark inside those cabin not to mention the forker 50 turbo prop between Berlin templehoff and the SAS swede link..... I remember correctly the two ship names I was on they were prominent Norwegian Night lady's Sigrid Viking & Ulf Viking
FINNAIR is not Scandinavian you m*ron! Americans have no sense for geography, culture or gourmet food.
Yanks go home.
Take the time to read again the comment you’re criticizing so rudely. You’ll see that nowhere in the comments does Gary state that Finnair is from Scandinavia. He states that he misses the Scandinavian airline system and even states that it’s like they brought Norway, Sweden, and Denmark into the aircraft cabins. Now, aren’t Norway, Sweden, and Denmark all Scandinavian? And what does Gary’s comment have to do with your gratuitous comment about Americans and...
Take the time to read again the comment you’re criticizing so rudely. You’ll see that nowhere in the comments does Gary state that Finnair is from Scandinavia. He states that he misses the Scandinavian airline system and even states that it’s like they brought Norway, Sweden, and Denmark into the aircraft cabins. Now, aren’t Norway, Sweden, and Denmark all Scandinavian? And what does Gary’s comment have to do with your gratuitous comment about Americans and geography, culture, and gourmet food?
Wow ... when they launched the DFW route, I suggested exactly this in this forum ... Seattle makes a lot of sense from an operational and marketing perspective. Seattle is relatively poorly served from Europe (the only OW service is BA, but also other alliances don't have a big offering) and the route is only marginally longer than via London, e.g. from VIE or WAW. The flight schedule published also offers good connectivity to European destinations, both ways.
Please be more thorough in your research. Finnair has run seasonal services for years to either YVR or SEA due to the large Scandinavian heritage in the region. VFR is actually one of the main drivers of the service!
You must be mixing up airlines.
AY used to fly to SEA 1981-1989 with DC10s. YVR, never. YYZ a long time ago.
I have a feeling that HEL-SFO is gone, replaced by SEA. It is a sad thing, but whaddyagonnado?
And still no word on whether or not Finnair still flies to San Francisco...
(1) I believe that Finnair is retrofitting their A330s with the same reverse herringbone J seats that their A350s have, and adding premium economy, and I remember they said the retrofits will be complete in 2022. If that is indeed the case, that’s awesome! (Turkish Airlines, do you see this?)
(2) Additionally, this is a great development for Seattle! I bet...
And still no word on whether or not Finnair still flies to San Francisco...
(1) I believe that Finnair is retrofitting their A330s with the same reverse herringbone J seats that their A350s have, and adding premium economy, and I remember they said the retrofits will be complete in 2022. If that is indeed the case, that’s awesome! (Turkish Airlines, do you see this?)
(2) Additionally, this is a great development for Seattle! I bet connectivity from Alaska played a huge role in it. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Seattle have a significant Nordic diaspora that would benefit from this flight? Which probably contributes to Icelandair doing well there?
A330s have air vents. A350s don't. Seems like a miss by the AY A350 design team.
I'm hoping they'll start service between Helsinki and New Haven. I'd really like seeing a routing of HVN-HEL.
This is the funniest comment I have seen in three years of reading this blog.
This is exciting news, though the A330 is kind of a wet blanket...having flown both their A330 and the A350 BKK-HEL-JFK a number of times over the last few years, the latter is hands down more enjoyable. Even the throne seats on the A330 are a tight squeeze for my swimmer's build, 6'3" frame...that said, connecting through HEL has always been a breeze, in my experience.
Best way to book finnair biz on miles/points?
I've always used Alaska Mileage Plan, last minute, for J...far out, there's typically not a lot of availability in J, but closer in (within a week or two) it seems to open up.
This is great news! I have lived in Seattle for over 30 years (born in Helsinki), and the last time there was a direct flight to Seattle was in the 80's. I will definitely take advantage of this opportunity.
Ben, I am hoping you could include a Finnair longhaul flight in your travel plans in the near future. Their catering has gone downhill so fast that old reviews are practically useless. And some bad reviews would sure do us some good, as publicity might give Finnair an incentive to make some improvements.
On JFK-HEL, an 8-hour flight, they serve a cold chicken salad in business class after departure, with no options!
Any idea when this will show up on AA.com for award bookings? I'm going SEA-HEL on a Friday this summer and this would be perfect.
I remember when I was in Finland, I spoke to a few Finnish people who said they would love to visit Alaska in the U.S. I imagine this route will help with some of that traffic