Finnair offers a lovely service onboard its European flights in business class with a hot meal, attentive service, and high-speed internet. This review covers my A321 flight from Helsinki to Paris.
Finnair A321 Business Class Review
Check-In
I arrived at the airport via train, which meant quite a long walk to the check-in desk in Terminal 2. Nevertheless, the premium check-in lines were totally deserted and I headed upstairs to clear security. This was in late February when COVID-19 was first arriving in Europe and there were already signs instructing everyone to use hand sanitizer after the checkpoint.
After visiting the Aspire Lounge, I headed to the gate where boarding shortly commenced for our three hour flight to Paris.
Finnair 1573
Helsinki (HEL) – Paris (CDG)
Friday, February 28
Depart: 9:25 AM
Arrive: 11:30 AM
Duration: 03hr, 05min
Distance: 1,181 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat: 3F (Business Class)
Welcoming me onboard, a flight attendant inspected my boarding pass and greeted me in Finnish.
Seats
If you’re expecting premium seats in intra-Eureopan business class on Finnair you will be disappointed. Instead, like most European carriers, business class is the same seat as economy class, with a blocked middle seat.
Today’s flight wasn’t full in business class, so I ended up with the entire row to myself. Finnair uses the Recaro slimline seat on its A321s you’ll find on Austrian, Lufthansa, SWISS, and SAS (among others).
Legroom is 31 inches and seats are 17.2 inches wide.
Each seat has a coat hook built in.
Waiting on each seat was a pillow and blanket.
Food + Drink
We took off on time and a hot towel followed by breakfast was served shortly after. I’ve never been on a Finnair flight in which meals were delayed and clearly the meal was warmed up during pushback and takeoff. Today’s breakfast (no choice given) included a cheese omelet, with potatoes, sausage, broccoli, and ratatouille on the side.
Breakfast also came with fruit (served in a plastic container), choice of bread, yogurt with muesli, and a side with meat, cheese, and sliced cucumbers. I’ve had better airplane omelets (this one was a bit dry), but it was a hearty breakfast overall.
Service
Continuing a trend I seem to experience every time I fly Finnair, service was not only friendly, but the flight attendant who worked business class was over-the-top attentive. At several points in the flight she checked in on me and asked if I would like a refill on beverages or something else to drink. I’m a big fan of the blueberry juice on Finnair and consumed far too much sugar on the flight because she kept refilling my glass! Too much coffee too…but such good service. She also offered water prior to departure.
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Wi-Fi
Finnair now offers wi-fi across Europe on its Airbus fleet. Business class passengers receive 30 minutes for for free, which could not be paused but held me over till we reached Paris. A flight pass was 14.95EUR for high speed (with allowed for video and VPN access) and 6.95EUR for a “browse” package. Finnair Plus Platinum Lumo members receive free streaming access for the entire flight. Connectivity was seamless (we experienced an outage for about 10 minutes), but overall functioned well.
Lavatory
I used the lavatory prior to landing and it was a mess. Not going to defend Finnair here…
CONCLUSION
As we landed in Paris, I thumbed through Finnair’s in-flgiht magazine and appreciated the quote attributed to Audrey Hepburn:
Whether she actually pioneered this quote is another matter…
Sadly, writing this review reminds me of how much the industry has changed in a short few months. We taxied past a now-retired Air France A380 on our way to the gate.
As I said in my intro, with pleasant service, a tasty breakfast, and fast wi-fi, I could not have asked for much more on flight to Paris. As long as your expectations are in check concerning the seat, you’ll experience an enjoyable ride on Finnair.
Thanks, a quality One World member that delivers a decent service intra-Europe I only wish Below Average would learn about delivering the service marketed from their siblings…
Looks pretty standard as to every single Euro business cabin. Uncomfortable.
I am really puzzled as to why one of the carriers in Europe does not look to differentiate themselves by offering actual U.S. domestic style (first) seating in business. I can imagine it would be hugely popular, especially on flights over 2 hours. I get that the flexibility with these cabins is the draw for the carriers, but I wonder if the returns on a proper premium seat would, in fact, negate that, given no one else offers it.
Agree. And the fact that Air Serbia even ripped out their comfortable business class seats to put in the same slimline seats. I just don’t get it.
Well, you can still fly Aeroflot, Turkish and Tarom!
The only reason Air Serbia had those seats was Etihad…once their funding went away, so did the regular business class seats. Also, the catering quality also went downhill once Etihad’s funding went away as well…
Very sad. Have not flown Air Serbia since the break-up. I look forward to returning to Belgrade one day and trying the BEG-JFK flight again.
Unlikely to happen as airlines don’t operate across Europe but have some sort of home market. If one flies from Helsinki to Stockholm, the choices will be something like Finnair, SAS and Norwegian typically. To Germany, Lufthansa and Finnair. To UK British Airways and Finnair. etc.
If you are a Finn, you will probably prefer Finnair. If you area a German, you’ll prefer Lufthansa. Airlines have little incentive to be better than the average.
It’s not that different in the US really, the baseline for the seats just happens to be different.
Three seats across,…. yeah.