April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 1: Finnair

Upon arrival into Chicago, my original plan had been to go to T3 and check out the American Flagship Lounge.  That wasn’t possible because when you’re in T5, you’re trapped because you can’t take the airside bus unless you have a connection, and you can’t enter another terminal with a T5 boarding pass.  So that was exceptionally annoying.  Further, the British Airways lounge in T5 denies entry to Oneworld members on non-BA flights, which is strictly against Oneworld policy.  So, the only lounge option is the Swissport lounge.  I had read online that it was the worst lounge in the US.  And, you know, I fully agree.

Some other blogs separate out the lounge reviews from the flight reviews, and that often makes sense. However, I tend to take the approach of looking at the holistic trip experience, so I like to keep them tied together. And this trip really suffered from the lounge experience.

The Swissport lounge consists of a single room with some uncomfortable, inelegant chairs.

There are some drinks in a gas station-style fridge.

And some prepackaged snacks

At least there was some alcohol.

I didn’t even bother hanging out in the lounge beyond taking pictures.  I just went back to the Terminal and boarded the plane ASAP.

After sitting at the gate for about 30 minutes, it was finally time to board. And once on the plane, I was not disappointed. I had flown Finnair’s new business class last year on their flagship European route to London, but this was the first time I’d be flying Finnair intercontinentally. It was my third attempt over the course of four years, but finally it worked! I was so excited when I stepped onto the plane and turned left to my seat.

My seat on the A330 that evening was 1L.

Waiting for me at the seat was a menu, an amenity kit, and a pair of headphones.

As well as the bedding and a pair of slippers:

Shortly after settling into my seat, the flight attendant came around to offer a pre-departure beverage. I selected the champagne.

And then perused the bilingual menu. As is standard on Finnair, a combination of cold small plates and a warm main were offered. There were three choices: beef, fish, or vegetarian, which is also typical for Finnair.

The drinks menu was pretty extensive, with nine choices of (EU) wine as well as Finnish spirits and Nordic cocktails and tea. The fact that they offered a white dessert wine was a huge win for me. I love Sauternes.

On the last page was the amenities list, which included some unknown “on-demand” items.

The meal service began with mixed nuts.

And then I had the Northern Blush cocktail, which was served from a can.

The main part of the meal service, including the two small plates and the main, were all served on a single tray. When I first saw the meal service, it seemed to me that the meal service was not actually much larger than on Finnair’s intra-Europe flights, like my flight from Zurich to Helsinki or London to Helsinki. The main difference was an extra cold plate, but looking at the previous posts, it’s clear that this main is bigger than on intra-Europe flights.

The small plates had a decidedly Finnish vibe to them, as did the salmon with (basic) vegetables. That’s what I want from a Finnair flight, so that’s good.

I then ordered the cheese plate for dessert, which was sad. Now, from the way the menu reads, it seems like I should have gotten the cheese plate and a dessert, but I didn’t really seem to be given that option. However, I don’t generally like airline desserts (except for AA’s ice cream sundae), so I didn’t push.

After the meal service, I brushed my teeth and prepared to sleep. With the time left in the flight, I could reasonably expect around 6 hours of sleep. The unique design of Finnair’s seat means that I didn’t actually have to do anything to convert it into a bed beyond lying down. The two pillows provided were sufficient, but not particularly large or high-quality.

Breakfast was served around 90 minutes before landing. There was only a single option, which was in many ways a sampler platter. It had two small plates: reindeer cold cuts and fruit plate. It also had some yogurt, bread, and a hot plate of sausage, eggs, and roasted potato (hash brown-esque). I had a cup of tea as well as a glass of Finnair’s signature blueberry juice.

As is standard on Finnair, we landed right on schedule and pulled into the non-Schengen portion of Helsinki airport, which meant that I knew exactly where I was going next: the Finnair Platinum Wing.

In summary, I was extremely excited to have finally successfully flown Finnair’s business class intercontinentally.  However, nothing about this flight was particularly memorable except for me finally flying Finnair intercontinentally. The lounge game in Chicago was a complete joke; normally I give lounges points just for existing, but not this one (0/5).  I’m glad that I at least knew to expect it.  The amount of space Finnair’s seat offers is unparallelled in business class and is great for sleeping (5/5).  The service on this flight was not particularly good.  It was pretty mechanical but at the same time not particularly efficient (3/5).  The in-flight entertainment was good, both with some free Wi-Fi and a decent selection of movies (4/5).  Overall, the flight gets a 16/25, which is largely due to poor ground experience in Terminal 5 at ORD.  I’ll be actively avoiding ORD going forward.

I booked this flight as part of a Finnair award ticket from Chicago to Helsinki to Budapest for 95 000 Finnair points and around $140 in taxes and fees.  I bought these Finnair points in 2020 for €643.75, so the total ticket cost around $840, and this portion cost around $600.

Leave a comment with what you think about this flight. Was it worth the wait and detour to fly Finnair?