Finnair A340-300 Business

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  • Anonymous
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    wardill
    Participant

    Check In:
    I checked in online for my flight from Amsterdam to Helsinki then on to Hong Kong departing Amsterdam on Wednesday at 1905. On arrival at Schiphol there was no queue for baggage drop so I was quickly on my way through the fast track security to airside.

    Lounge:
    Finnair use the Menzies lounge in the Schengen departure lounge at Schiphol. This is a pretty basic lounge with a couple of newspapers, very limited food and drink and paid wi-fi that would not allow my VPN to pass through. In contrast, the Finnair lounge at Helsinki was much more stylish and well provisioned with lots of food and drink including espresso machines (with only a caffeinated option) and pre-flight hot dining for the 2340 departure from Helsinki to Hong Kong. I didn’t take advantage of either the pre-flight dining or espresso having eaten on board the Amsterdam leg and not wanting to load up with caffeine before trying to get some shut eye.

    Boarding & Departure:
    The Amsterdam leg of my flight boarded and departed very smoothly. The Hong Kong leg was not quite so stress free. We ended up departing an hour late because of a technical problem. Information provided was reasonable. I decided to get some sleep whilst we waited to take off. I was glad I had not waited to eat on board.

    Seat:
    The seat on my A340-300 from Helsinki to Hong Kong was a lie flat type rather than a fully flat bed. I believe that Finnair have both. It was relatively comfortable for sleeping and I got a good 5 hours on this 9 & ½ hour flight plus the hour I took before we waited to depart. The lady sat next to me remarked on the economy of the amenity bag supplied. However, it had everything that I ever use (socks, eye pads & ear plugs) and I may well find the drawstring bag useful in the future (I’ve never really been able to get passionate about any airline’s amenity bag since the sad demise of the British Airways Body Shop bags).

    IFE:
    When I woke from my sleep with four hours to go I was disappointed to realise that the In Flight Entertainment was on a loop rather than on demand. This seemed to me a little dated. Although there was a good selection of films, there was no description of the films in any of the in pocket magazines. The headset was noise cancelling but was hard wired into the seat. This meant that the headsets were not collected and cleaned after each flight. Instead, each passenger was supplied with a self adhesive ear cover to stick on the foam ear-pad. I wasn’t convinced that this was an entirely hygienic arrangement. I watched the end of The Social Network, a film that I had seen before. I then watched another film on my laptop. When I realised that the power on my laptop would not last me the rest of the trip I attempted to use the at seat power socket. Neither the flight attendant nor I could get the power to work reliably so I had to find alternative entertainment when my power ran out.

    Food:
    As I did not take advantage of the main long haul flight meal I am not really able to review the food offering thoroughly. The dinner on the Amsterdam leg was of a reasonable standard. The breakfast before arriving in Hong Kong was comprehensive, however the hot breakfast was served a little luke warm.

    Crew:
    Cabin crew were mainly Finns with one Hong Kong attendant in the business class cabin. Service was efficient and moderately friendly. However I was not very demanding.

    Arrival:
    We managed to lose another 45 minutes overnight (from looking at the moving map it seemed to me that we were circling over Szechuan for some time in the middle of the night for some reason) so we arrive 1h45min late. The immigration queue took me about 20 minutes and, after I had passed through, my luggage was waiting for me on the carousel.

    Summary:
    I had chosen to fly Finnair over British Airways for this flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong so that I could depart an hour later, arrive an hour earlier and avoid transferring in Heathrow. I also saved about £800 albeit having to travel on an inflexible ticket. My flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong and then Singapore to London (direct with Qantas), with a London to Amsterdam leg that I will have to use some time in the future, cost me a very reasonable £2500 in business. As it turned out, the BA flight probably arrived before we did. The Finnair long haul business class product seemed a little dated compared to BA. However, the simplicity of connecting in Helsinki won me over and I did not regret my airline choice on this occasion.

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