Today, we’ll go over the long-haul economy class flight experience onboard an Airbus A350-900
from Helsinki to Singapore. This video will first go over some trip background and how we
chose Finnair over competing airlines. We’ll then move on to reviewing the actual flight. And then,
at the very end, we’ll wrap things up by offering some thoughts and opinions
on the Finnair long-haul experience in this particular cabin class. So,
let’s get started… ——————
So how was Finnair chosen for this trip in the first place?
With our reviewer originating in Vilnius, Lithuania and having a final destination
of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the itinerary would be a two-stop trip with transfers
at Helsinki and Singapore. Obviously, a step down from a single-stop itinerary,
there should be some good reasons for enduring the torture of two airport transfers…
Well, Finnair was chosen for a handful of reasons:
First, it was a new airline for our flight reviewer- which would
obviously offer a whole new world of experiences to write about.
Secondly, the only single-stop itinerary that was on offer was from Turkish Airlines. While
the Turkish carrier offers a checked bag as part of its lowest fare (unlike Finnair),
it was also significantly more expensive than booking with Finnair.
Instead of paying about $1300 per passenger with Turkish Airlines,
our traveller paid the equivalent of $920USD. This Finnair ticket was slightly higher than
the lowest available fare as tickets included one piece of checked baggage per passenger,
as well as a reduced penalty for flight changes or cancellations.
And finally, in researching Turkish Airlines’ equipment flying from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur,
it was clear that the airline was using its older Boeing 777-300ERs. While the Turkish
inflight experience is generally quite good, our reviewer was keen to avoid the
old inflight entertainment systems that were experienced on a trip several months prior.
————
The actual flight we’ll be reviewing is Finnair’s
AY131 from Helsinki to Singapore. Operated by an Airbus A350-900 registered OH-LWD,
this aircraft is a little over seven years old and is apparently the 22nd A350 ever built!
The service had a flight time of 12 hours and 21 minutes, which is a little longer than it was
prior to February 2022. Now unable to fly through Russian, Belarusian, or Ukrainian airspace, this
flight would have been closer to 11-and-a-half hours in duration prior to the war in Ukraine.
In February 2022, the airline changed the layout of this aircraft. The business class cabin was
completely updated and thus resulted in three fewer seats. Prior to this refit,
the airline had an economy-comfort cabin but with the refit now offers a true
premium economy experience with completely new seats.
The refit saw fewer premium economy seats replacing the
economy comfort section while three standard economy seats were added.
All-in-all, the refit resulted in a net reduction of 19 seats.
—--- For travelers looking to fly directly between
Helsinki and Singapore, this Finnair service seems to be the only non-stop option available. However,
single-stop itineraries between the two cities include offerings from Turkish Airlines,
as well as codeshare arrangements with Finnair and airlines like Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways-
with respective transits in Hong Kong and Doha. ————
But getting to the actual trip, things began in Vilnius on a blustery winter
evening. The journey began with an ATR72 flight from Vilnius to
Helsinki. This first leg won’t be covered in this video but if you’re interested in it,
do keep an eye out for a flight review article on SimpleFlying.com!
Upon landing in Helsinki, transferring through its Vantaa airport was a breeze. No security
screening was needed in the transfer process while border control was quick
and easy. This may have been largely helped by our late, weekday-evening transfer time.
The airport itself is beautiful and spacious and surprisingly quiet - even for 9pm on a
Wednesday night. —————
After waiting for about three hours, boarding for our long-haul flight began.
Passengers lined up to have their boarding passes scanned and were then held in an
enclosed pre-boarding area. The area, which offered a great view of our A350,
had plenty of seating and even included a rocking chair and recliner!
The calls to actually board the plane were interesting as there were really only two calls:
one for business class and elite status members, and another call for everyone else. This was quite
a different experience from other airlines which might have up to 5 boarding zones in
addition to pre-boarding for families with small children and others needing extra time.
This ultimately meant a free-for-all rush to the jet bridge, although everything seemed
quite calm and civil. It’s ultimately less work for gate agents to enforce a strict
boarding order but it would be interesting to know how this affects overall boarding time.
Stepping on to the aircraft, the A350’s interior was a calming mix of blue, grey,
and white. Walking back to seats 55A and B, our travelers were warmly greeted by flight attendants
along the way. ——
The economy
class seats onboard this finnair a350 are a light grey with textured fabric and headrests that can
be adjusted up and down. These headrests also have wings on both sides to support the head.
On each seat are three things: a blanket, a small pillow,
and a pair of earbuds for the inflight entertainment system. Additionally,
a small bottle of water awaits each passenger in the seat back pocket.
Seat spacing was ample, even for our flight reviewer who is 181 cm,
or nearly six feet tall. Recline was quite good as well- and there was the fantastic bonus of not
having any obtrusive inflight entertainment box under the seat to restrict legroom.
Laid-out in a 3-3-3 configuration, these seats are stated to be 46 centimeters (18.11
inches) in width with a pitch that SeatGuru.com notes is nearly 79 centimeters - or 31 inches.
All in all, the seat was comfortable enough for a long haul flight,
and our reviewer even got in a few hours of solid sleep!
——————
When it comes to the inflight entertainment system, these a350s
sport sufficiently modern equipment with large, fast, and responsive touchscreens.
While not Bluetooth compatible or supporting USB-C, the systems all had one USB-A port
for charging devices and dual headphone jacks for audio- although single prong earbuds work
just fine as well. There were no AC outlets for charging larger devices, unfortunately.
The screens, unfortunately, were incapable of tilting. Again, this can present challenging
viewing conditions if the passenger seated in front decides to recline.
As for the content within these systems, there seemed to be a sufficiently robust
offering of movies, television, music, and games to entertain passengers for hours.
On top of multimedia, passengers can access an interactive moving map as well as external
cameras. One of these cameras appears to be located up on the vertical stabilizer while the
other is down by the front landing gear- perfect for passengers with a middle or aisle seat.
One thing that was particularly nice to see on this flight was an
approximate schedule of services across a timeline of the trip,
as you can see here. This gives passengers an idea of meal times and rest times- extremely
helpful for those who want to make sure they’re awake for a meal service!
———
And speaking of meal service, our flight reviewer encountered something new when compared to all of
their previous long-haul travel experiences: Finnair’s general inflight meal lacked any
options. Essentially, if passengers failed to pre-select a specific meal according to their
dietary restrictions, then they had no choice but to accept the main dish. In this case,
it was tomato garlic chicken with quinoa. While a single main course option isn’t
exactly an earth-shattering change, it certainly was a surprise since every
other long haul experience for our flight reviewer had two options to choose from.
——— The main was
accompanied by a bread roll and butter, as well as a pasta salad starter. For dessert,
the airline went with a packaged chocolate-covered toffee-filled wafer, which seemed like a bit of a
step down from a real dessert that would be in a little dish or cup of it’s own.
While complimentary wine was offered with
the meal, our reviewer went with the airline’s signature blueberry juice.
The second meal, which was either breakfast in the origin time zone or dinner at the destination,
was a vegetarian lasagna with green lentils as the
main filling. ——————
So how was the food? Our reviewer found the tomato-chicken dish to be overly salty.
This might explain the absence of any salt and pepper packets to adjust the flavour. Meanwhile,
the accompanying quinoa was on the soft and mushy side, although it tasted okay..
The quote-unquote dessert was fine but also didn’t feel like a true dessert either.
The second, lighter meal of lasagna was quite good. If you’re hoping for something
that’s more of a light breakfast than you might be disappointed due to the meal’s heaviness. However,
our reviewer found the lasagna noodles to be cooked perfectly and enjoyed all the melted
cheese that was part of it. —————-
Beyond the inflight meal and inflight entertainment system there are a few
more things worth mentioning about this flight:
Our flight reviewer found the quote-unquote “off” lighting of the lavatories to be brighter than
necessary. While other airlines might have fairly dim lighting in the lavatories prior
to closing the door and locking it, the Finnair facilities were a fairly bright white lighting.
This meant that whenever passengers opened a lavatory door, light would pour out. This
definitely caused some disruption in sleep for our reviewer- who didn’t pack an eyeshade.
Speaking of eyeshade- or lack of one- this lengthy finnair
service didn’t include any sort of amenity kit.
While it might be quite standard for middle eastern airlines to provide an economy class
amenity kit on select flights, it’s less consistent for European carriers. Thus,
it wasn’t a huge surprise or disappointment with Finnair,
but something worth mentioning for the sake of comparison with other carriers.
And finally, the airline’s inflight wifi seemed to be a little spotty. Our reviewer
was unable to connect to the network for a large portion of the flight and was only able
to check out the internet options closer to the end. Travellers should also know
that Finnair only has paid internet options- without any sort of free low-speed offering.
On the other hand, carriers like Singapore Airlines and Delta offer wifi for members
of their respective loyalty programs while Air France has free connectivity for all passengers
for basic messaging. ——————
The Finnair A350 economy class cabin is beautifully designed
and truly offers some Nordic simplicity and style while remaining comfortable.
But while the carrier’s hard-product shines, its soft product offerings show
small signs of cost cutting: From the single meal option and lack of dessert,
to a lack of free basic wifi - either for loyalty members or as a low-speed option to send messages.
Despite the absence of these small perks you’d typically find on other long haul carriers,
this lengthy flight was comfortable and pleasant enough. The flight’s Singapore-based
cabin crew were warm, friendly, and very professional throughout all of their duties.
Ultimately, Finnair lacks some of the finer perks,
comforts, and options that you might find on other airlines.
However, it might help to understand that the carrier is currently in a
rather challenging situation due to Helsinki’s geographic position in Northeastern Europe.
Indeed, having to fly longer services during a period of higher fuel costs
has put the airline in a fairly tough spot when it comes to flying passengers
to destinations in Asia- forced to circumvent Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian airspace.
So, when you think about these challenges and the fact that Finnair was able to offer this
flight for significantly less money than the most convenient itinerary,
then it’s quite impressive that Finnair is able to operate its services to Asia profitably.
When considering the Airbus A350’s comfortable seats in economy class, along with a robust
selection of inflight entertainment and two complimentary meals- all at a competitive price
- then flying with Finnair seems like a decent option - especially for the budget-conscious
traveler - or those who want to get between Helsinki and Singapore without any transfers.
So what do you think of Finnair’s long-haul experience in economy class? Is it an airline
you would consider flying with? Let us know what you think, by leaving a comment!