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This Finnair Business Class Review is from my husband's LAX to HEL flight in 2019, prior to our Switzerland site inspections. This is a 10 hour 35 minute flight that departs LAX 7:35pm and arrives in Helsinki the following day, at 4:05pm.
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Finnair A350-900 Business Class Cabin and Seat Selection
Finnair's A350-900 Business Class is in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration, with 32 seats across 8 rows.
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There was a full cabin, with a crying baby (more on this later). After boarding, I was asked for my choice of champagne, blueberry juice and water, and requested a blueberry juice. It was quite refreshing and tasty.
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Finnair Business Class Seat, A350-900
The Finnair Business Class Seat is rather narrow, but not terrible. I’m tall, at 6'5,” and thin, and the entire compartment was just big enough to accommodate me. The compartment feels kind of cozy and appears (at first glance) to be well-engineered and designed, with crisp, clean lines.
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The seat controls were very intuitive and easy to use.
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Above the seat controls were the power outlet, USB port and headset jack.
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The foot compartment is very small; it worked ok when seated, but was very cramped later when trying to use it as the foot of the flat bed and and trying to sleep on my side.
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Because I am tall the headrest was jamming me in the shoulders, so I tried to raise the headrest a bit. Unfortunately, this caused the headrest to break off from its tracking. Luckily, after a few minutes the flight attendants were able to fix it, although it still kept poking me in the shoulders. I much prefer non-contoured seat backs, since contoured ones and those with headrests that can't be raised invariably jab my shoulders and/or back.
Finnair Business Class Service
The best I can say is that the service was very Northern European: crisp and perfunctory with no superfluous pleasantries. The worst I can say is that that service was terrible. The attendants never helped much, and never attempted to help much. I usually grew tired of waiting for someone to come and assist, so I adopted self-service: I got up to bring back my own plates and any garbage. The attendants seemed pleased with that outcome. I was not.
Here's my Finnair Business Class YouTube Video Review:
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Finnair Business Class Menu and Food
Before dinner service, a warm hand towel was brought.
Then came warmed mixed nuts with a glass of water.
There was a delicious prosciutto appetizer, with zucchini wrapped around ricotta.
The salmon dinner was delicious. The salmon was cooked perfectly, add was tender and flavorful. I enjoyed a lovely Riesling with it.
For dessert, the Haagen Daas ice cream was predictably good, if rather pedestrian.
For breakfast, the potato rosti, eggs and orange juice were all very good. The yogurt got the job done, although it was pretty low quality, and the coffee was terrible.
At least the orange juice and blueberry juice were excellent:
Finnair Business Class Flatbed and Amenities
The seat becomes a flatbed, with barely adequate width. Though this is no fault of the airline, just a few rows away was seated The Toddler From Hell. Now, I generally love kids and am very tolerant of kids on planes, even crying ones. But this child screamed and yowled for almost eight hours straight. But that was not the worst of it. No, this child not only yowled, but there was something intensely pained and unsettling in this child’s cry. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. For the parents’ sake, I didn’t know whether to hope that the child was enduring some unusual condition that would elicit such cries, or whether to simply accept that the child was demonic. Either way, it was impossible to sleep.
On more mundane matters: the flatbed was very hard, with no cushioning, so it was a good thing I'd brought along my orange inflatable mattress. But even with that, the flatbed was still rather hard.
My feet were confined to a very small, tight compartment space, which made it very difficult for me to sleep on my side.
The IFE selection was extremely limited when it came to films, and was probably the most limited of any flight I have ever been on, international or domestic, that bothers to offer in-flight entertainment. There were a grand total of 14 films, of all varieties. There were a couple blockbusters (Avengers Endgame, the latest Lego movie, and Alita: Battle Angel) with a few films for kids, and a few dramas.
The Verdict
It’s actually quite hard for me to separate out the effect that The Toddler From Hell had on my flight experience, from the Finnair Business Class experience itself. The best I can say is that the food was pretty good, and the seat was ok. The worst I can say is that the service, IFE, and flatbed were all pretty crappy. I hope to never fly Finnair again.
If you've ever flown Finnair Business Class, what was your experience?
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Seat width is better than most competitors. Footwell size is better than similarly styled seats of competitors. I think your experience was spoiled by the baby and the fact you are so tall. Unfortunately they cannot build planes just to accommodate people who are 6’6” or it would be too expensive and a waste of space. An unfair review.
I stand by my review. Yes, the baby and my height made it worse, but I’ve flown many, many other business class flights and the all-in experience, from the seat to the service to the coffee was not as good as the others.