While not as comfortable as the A350, the Finnair A330 proved a comfortable ride from London to Helsinki.
Industrial action in Helsinki (airport ground workers launched an unexpected strike) delayed my inbound flight from London by two hours. Despite a quick turn in London Heathrow, we ended up arriving in Helsinki over three hours late.
By the time I had boarded, I was pretty exhausted. I had arrived into Heathrow at 11:30AM and it was now pushing 9:00PM. I actually just wanted to sleep.
The Finnair business class cabin on the A330-300 features 1-2-1, 2-2-1 staggered seating. I settled into my seat and leaned back, almost falling asleep before takeoff.
With the delayed departure, several business class passengers hopped on an earlier flight to Helsinki. I remained on the delayed flight because I booked this flight specifically to review the A330, which only operates once per day from London (the A350 also operates once per day in the morning). The result was a near-empty business class cabin. There were only three other passengers in the rear business class cabin, which seats 14 passengers.
I know the Finns have a reputation for being somewhat cold and aloof, but that has never been my experience on Finnair. The service was warm and friendly; my only complaint was it took over an hour to serve dinner, which is simply too long for a 2.5-hour flight. By the time dinner was cleared away, I did not have much time to take a nap.
Speaking of dinner, the choices were pasta or lentils (both vegetarian). I chose the pasta and it was served with goat cheese and walnuts over a bed of red cabbage. It was an interesting juxtaposition of tastes and actually pretty tasty. I always appreciate the blueberry juice when traveling on Finnair. And the Ultima Thule glasses and Marimekko cups are such a nice touch…
You’ll just receive a “shorthaul” blanket and pillow on these flights, but I managed to rest until it was time for landing.
I’ll provide more details on the seat, IFE, lavatory, and other amenities in my full review.
Share similar thoughts on the AY experience. Very pleasantly surprised by the quality of food–thought the veggie options tasted great, and the non-veggie options were reasonably healthy as well. Portion size at first seemed small, but ended up being too much (quite deceiving how filling a piece of trout can be…) Blueberry juice = <3.
I also prefer the A330 seat to the A350 seat for a short flight like LHR-HEL.
Had delays as well with AY, but connections at HEL were very smooth. One missed connection so far, and handled very well by ground staff at HEL. Another time had a connection reduced to 20 minutes, but still made it. So did my bag. Impressive. New Platinum Wing was over-hyped in my opinion. Nice, but tiny! (i.e. crowded)
Talking about glassware and cups, you really should have ordered a G&T or something. The short tumbler version of that glassware… luckily you can order it in flight and bring a pair home. Not a fan of the Marimekko cup (print is nice, but too short for my liking), but I really like the KLM cup… was really tempted to accidentally knock one into my bag sitting under the table…
Flown several narrowbodies as well as the A330 and A350 in business on Finnair and it has always been nothing short of excellent.