Recommendations for Finnair

[rmac]

Any Finnair fans on the site ?

I see that they offer very good business fares to Asia, so am thinking of giving them a go to Beijing instead of BA or LH (my usual on that route)

Comments ?

Thanks, Rmac

[Spitfire boy]

I last flew them 18 months ago LHR-HEL-BKK. A very positive experience. Less than 2 thousand sterling return in business class v five thousand direct on BA. A two hour stop in HEL with gates less than 100 metres apart and a good lounge close at hand. At the time I flew on an MD11 HEL-BKK which may now have been replaced by A340/A330.

[L'aviateur]

I quite like Finnair too, friendly cabin crew and easy transfers. According to the in flight mag they pride themselves on transfers and even with short connections they'll ensure that baggage makes the transfer and wait for delayed flights to ensure everyone is onboard.
Not the best product, but if its a good price then it can be value for money when compared to others.

[rmac]

Thanks guys, two positive reps and no one jumping in to throw mud, I'll book with them this evening ;)

[radeng]

I flew London - Helsinki - Seoul with them last February. Half the price of BA in business class. Business class not up to BA standard in terms of seating, but still very acceptable and, in my opinion, good value for money. CC all very good. If I was going to the far east again, I'd definitely look at using them. And being One World, you get points and miles on B A.....

[Egerton Flyer]

We flew Finnair for the first time last october Manchester-Osaka-Tokyo in Economy.
Have to say if we had read some of the reviews on the net before booking we would have looked at other options.
Glad we didn't. One of our best flights, cabin crew where fantastic, always had a smile and they are rare things these days.
Food not fancy, but hot and tasty. Honest:)
Aircraft A330 only a few months old. On the return whilst waiting for our flight in Osaka, we where called to the gate and given passes to fastrack security in Helsinki as our transfer time was a little tight
All in all would use them again given the choice:D

E.F

[Gibon2]

I just subjected Finnair to the Ultimate Airline Service Stress Test: GVA-HEL-HKG-SYD-BKK-HEL-GVA, travelling in business class over the Christmas holiday period with my 3-year-old daughter, my 1-year-old son, my 79-year-old mother-in-law and my six-months-pregnant wife. (Note: the whole trip was on a Finnair ticket on Finnair flights, but HKG-SYD and SYD-BKK were codeshares operated by Cathay Pacific and BA respectively.) These are the results:

The good: Cabin crew and in-flight service - ranged from very good to truly outstanding. Marvellous crew on HEL-HKG, great with the kids, anticipated every need, friendly, efficient, helpful, but discreet and low key. Best CC I've flown with, ever. Good food, seats not the best but perfectly adequate, plenty of space. Very pleasant atmosphere on board.

The so-so: Late leaving Helsinki ("late arrival of incoming aircraft", plus further farting about for no apparent reason once we were on board), so just missed connection in HKG. Although there were at least 40 other pax transferring to the CX flight to SYD, they didn't hold it (I guess CX don't care if Finnair have to rebook a bunch of pax). There was a great deal of farting about, 40 grumpy pax, one harried Finnair rep, all onward flights full to overflowing, no seats anywhere. Took 4 hours to sort out, but in the end, we were well looked after: nice hotel, meal vouchers, and seats on a Qantas flight to SYD 24 hours later.

The bad: On the return, we were booked on a BA-operated flight from SYD to BKK on a Saturday, scheduled departure 17:30. I checked on the internet that morning and saw it was delayed - to 6.05am the following morning! I then spent the next 3 hours trying without success to contact someone from Finnair or BA to find out what the delay would mean for our onward connections from BKK. BA office in Aust closed on weekends. No local Finnair office. Finnair service centre in Helsinki, supposedly open 24-hours (and which charges 3 Euro or something per call), unreachable - wouldn't even ring, sometimes got a message "your call cannot be completed". Finnair website shows no change to our itinerary. Finnair has my mobile phone no. and email, but never contacted me.

In desperation I called Qantas. A sympathetic fellow confirmed the BA delay, said he was unfortunately unable to change my booking, but advised me to go to the airport in person and hunt down a BA rep. This I did, eventually finding the BA office in an obscure corner of the terminal, where a nice lady managed to book us onto a Thai Airways flight to BKK leaving at 16:30. It was a scramble to get home, pack up the family, get back to the airport and on to the flight, but it all ended happily. But really, it could have been so much more easily handled with a phone call.

In conclusion, the rating for Finnair:

In flight - very good.
Ground service/reservations - needs some serious attention.

[747JJ]

I've got similar problems with other companies operating codeshare flights. That is the inability or unwillingness of the company operating the flight helping with connections when there is a delay.

Worst case was a KLM ticket on a Air France codeshare flight operated by Air Europa from AGP to BRU via CDG I think it was. Pick up the ticket from the airport they said. Well Air Europa had an office that opens 1.5h before their first departure. Full of people flapping and they had no idea how to issue me a ticket. After a lots of calls to KLM in AMS and AF I managed to sort it out to be the last person to board the aircraft.

Lots of similar stories. Lufthansa, SAS, Blue1 combo etc same thing. But it is the delay of one flight and connection to a flight operated by someone else than the company issuing the ticket that throws the monkey wrench into the picture.

I've started to carry plenty of phone numbers with me. If I cannot get a hold of the country office or contact of a particular airline, I call another country office, US is good as most airlines there have a 24h line or the contact number in their base. Cost is not an issue when using internet service such as skype. Worked quite ok for me of late.

[WHBM]

I've always enjoyed Finnair as well, and their cool Scandinavian style in the cabin. Helsinki airport seems well organised too. But the comments above are true, their ground ops do seem to sometimes go awry.

For example, connecting at Helsinki, late off the blocks at Heathrow (probably down to handling agent), long delay in holding for departure, then got to Helsinki where we got put in a VOR hold due to "high traffic levels" (surprising but true at Helsinki in the afternoon), then when we finally got in we were the one aircraft on the non-Schengen side who didn't get a gate assigned, and so remote stand and a bus in. And yet we were the busiest flight. So all the connecting delay margin which had seemed so generous got used up.

Did I make connection ? Well, by skin of teeth I did. Helsinki regulars will know that long, long passage between the international and domestic sides. Most aggravating was to then be bussed out to stand, ending up right next to our A321 from London ! These seemed to be the only two remote parked aircraft that afternoon.

[747JJ]

The terminal separation between international and domestic is done with. Old domestic terminal is now called "Terminal 1". It is mostly used by Star Alliance flights. The old international is now "Terminal 2" and is used by One World mostly. Ex Schengen flights are still where they where prior to the re-organisation in 2009.

As for the traffic congestion, well more runways available than LHR and frankly the traffic is lesser, I would put the so called afternoon rush hour to ATC inefficiency within the Helsinki TMA. There is really no reason for holding with 2 parallel runways and a 3rd cross that could easily be used for LAHSO operations by commuter aircraft with proper planning.

[bfisk]

Have only flown Finnair within Europe, but must say it's a fresh breeze comparing to other airlines who are now either lowcost or mediumcost-lowservice. I found the fare to be reasonable for a full service carrier, and nice to get hot food and wine even on a short flight. Nice new aircraft and extremely friendly and helpful cabin crew. Helsinki-Vantaa terminal also good; just the right size for me. Big enough to find a place to your liking but small enough to reduce the stress. Thumbs up from me :ok: