Finnair’s standard Euro-Business (HEL-BER)

Following up on my Finnair Platinum Lounge experience is the actual flight from Helsinki to Berlin. This was the next flight on my trip in Europe, and it was a more typical European Business Class flight from Helsinki to Berlin. The Finnair Platinum Wing is a great lounge, but has suffered some cutbacks. I was curious to see what the state of the Schengen Finnair lounge that the lounge agent had tried to direct me to would be.

After my sauna session, there was about 20 minutes until boarding. I finally cleared passport control and then walked to my gate.  There was no line at passport control, so I cleared within a minute and still had 15 minutes before boarding, so I stopped by the Schengen lounge.  It was not good.  I was definitely aware that I was in an airport again.

The Finnair lounge has a cute location above gate 23.  It is actually a very nice space with lots of windows and views of both planes and the terminal.

The seating inside is perfectly nice and much brighter than the Platinum Lounge, but the space is a bit sterile (but definitely clean). The Platinum Lounge has elegant, classy vibes, whereas this has efficiency vibes.

Just around the corner from the entrance is the bar and buffet.

The buffet was pretty simple on this visit.  It consisted of salmon and potato soup (which is very Finnish) with some side salad options.  In addition, there was a vegetarian pasta dish slightly further down the line. 

I left the lounge without eating much because I was not particularly interested in the offerings. I had just eaten in the Platinum Lounge and would get another meal on the flight.

About two months after I took this flight (so in mid-August), Finnair announced that they would be moving the lounge to a more spacious location and have a dedicated area for top-tier members. I’m not sure if that means it’ll have a Oneworld Emerald area or just a Finnair Platinum Lumo section, but I’m looking forward to finding out!

Once I left the lounge, it was only a short walk to the Schengen gate from which my flight to Berlin would be leaving. I arrived just after boarding had begun and made my way directly on. This was my first intra-Schengen flight within Europe in nearly a year, and I was excited to check out a proper Euro-Business experience.

As is standard for Euro-Business, all seats on the flight were identical, and the size of the Business Class cabin was adjustable based on demand. I actually really like this concept for shorter flights. There are some short routes in the US that can fill a larger premium cabin but not a larger aircraft (e.g. all the routes that United flies CRJ-550s on)

In this case, the flight had 7 rows of business class, (but the cabin was only about 2/3 full).  I had assigned myself seat 1F, as I often do, because, in general for European Business Class, only the seats in row 1 have extra legroom due to the bulkhead.

As is standard on European Business class, shortly after take-off, a full meal service began.  First, a drink selection was provided, with the standard choices of (sparkling) wine and spirits, as well as beer and blueberry juice.  I selected the sparkling wine as always.

Next, they came through and provided the meal service. I had pre-ordered an Asian vegetarian special meal.  The meal was served on a single tray.  Unlike on the flight from London, there was no starter, which I think was the case for the standard meals as well.  The main was a vegetable curry, which was a bit of sweeter curry than I would normally go for, but it had a Thai flair to it as far as curries made in Finland go. 

It was served with a pre-packaged vegan roll with a vegan “butter” spread, and I selected a slice of rye bread from the basket to accompany it.  The dessert was a gluten-free carrot cake, which actually was not half-bad.  Service was very attentive given the somewhat light business class load, and so drink top-ups were offered proactively and frequently. 

As a Business Class passenger, I would have been entitled to 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi, but it was not operable on this flight. But the in-flight map worked at least.

Upon landing at Berlin’s airport, we pulled up as an intra-Schengen arrival next to a parked KLM aircraft.

Given the number of times that I’ve flown Finnair between Helsinki and London, Finnair holds a special place in my heart, and I definitely will go out of my way to fly them, not only for their wide-body service to London but also for the Platinum Lounge in Helsinki.

In summary, I thoroughly enjoyed this flight from Helsinki to Berlin.  Although this flight lacked any special amenities, it did not disappoint. I had a great lounge experience at the (non-Schengen) Platinum Wing, but Finnair’s Schengen Business Lounge was pretty uninspiring (4/5).  The first row of Finnair’s standard narrow-body aircraft is perfectly fine, but I definitely wish it had a center table (3/5).  The meal service was great for this relatively short flight (5/5).  The service on the flight was very attentive and proactive (5/5).  The broken Wi-Fi was unfortunate, but it does happen relatively often on planes (1/5).  Overall, this flight gets a 18/25, which means it’s just above an average flight for me. 

I paid 25,000 Finnair points plus $69 in taxes/fees for this ticket, which I put on my Amex Platinum card.  I generally value Finnair points at around 1 ¢/point, so the overall cost of this flight was around $319, compared to over $600 if I had paid cash, which is a pretty good deal.  I only earned Amex points off this flight and no Avios or Tier Points on BA.