To get home from my weekend trip to Stockholm I decided to book an economy class flight from Helsinki to New York (JFK). I selected this flight primarily because it was quite inexpensive, but also because it gave me a chance to finally fly with Finnair; a OneWorld partner.
Before boarding my flight to New York I had a few hour layover in Helsinki airport. While I waited to board my flight I first stopped at the Finnair Lounge in the Schengen Area of the airport before ultimately waiting at the Finnair Premium Lounge in the Non-Schengen Area of the airport. I was more than happy to wait in either lounge, however I personally preferred the Finnair Premium Lounge which is reserved for OneWorld Emerald Customers.
Boarding Finnair Economy Class From Helsinki To New York
My time in the Premium lounge was cut short by the scheduled boarding time listed on my boarding pass. Finnair schedules the flight to depart at 2:10PM however boarding begins an hour prior. So, at 1:10PM I left the lounge and walked toward our boarding gate for the flight to New York.
The walk from the Finnair Premium Lounge to the gate took approximately 5 minutes.
The gate agents had already begun the “boarding process” when I arrived at the gate. All that meant was that passengers could scan their boarding cards and enter the secure gate area. We were then held in the secure area until approximately 30 minutes before our scheduled departure time.
While I waited in the secure boarding area I admired our neighboring Finnair A330 bound for Chicago. Then, at approximately 1:40PM the jet bridge door slid open and passengers could board the aircraft.
At the end of the glass jet bridge were two boarding door, one for business class passengers and the other for economy class passengers.
As I was sitting in the economy class cabin I used the economy class jet bridge.
Finnair A330 Economy Class Cabin
As I entered the aircraft from the L2 boarding door I immediately found myself in the “Economy Comfort” cabin. Economy comfort on Finnair’s A330 is simply a standard economy class seat with slightly more leg room.
Directly behind the economy comfort cabin is the standard economy class cabin which as you can see looks exactly the same.
The economy cabin on Finnair’s A330 features a 2-4-2 layout which I prefer when flying economy class.
Each economy class seat features a seat-back entertainment screen.
The cabin also features ample overhead lockers which offered plenty of storage for all economy class passengers on our flight.
After looking around the economy class cabin for a few moments I located my seat for the 8 hour flight to New York.
Finnair A330 Economy Class Seat
Because the A330 features a 2-4-2 layout I opted for seat 35L (a window seat).
I personally like sitting in window seats, even on long-haul flights, so the 2-4-2 layout is nice as I only have to disrupt one other person in the event that I need to get up.
When I arrived at my seat I found a small pillow, a Marimekko blanket, and a pair of headphones on the seat.
As I sat down I found a bottle of water sitting my seat-back pocket.
The seat also offered in-seat power which is to be expected on long-haul flights these days.
More importantly, my seat came with an incredible view of the A330’s wing complete with Finnair branding on the winglet.
Shortly after taking my seat the remaining passengers boarded and the cabin crew closed the boarding door. Shortly thereafter we watched a short, no-nonsense, safety video as we pushed back from the gate.
At the end of the safety video passengers could begin watching content on the IFE monitors.
Finnair A330 Economy Class In-Flight Entertainment
As I mentioned, each economy class seat came with a small in-flight entertainment monitor. Prior to takeoff the monitor featured a scrolling video which advertised various Finnair products and services. You are unable to watch anything other than these ads prior to pushback.
After we pushed back from the gate the in-flight monitor became operational. You could either control the screen with touch controls or with the IFE remote in the armrest.
There was a small cutout in the armrest for passengers to access the most important IFE remote functions. Otherwise, you could raise the armrest door and eject the remote from the holder for additional controls.
I found the remote was a much better option to control the IFE monitor as touch inputs didn’t always seem to register. Shortly after pushback passengers could select something to watch on the IFE monitor. For takeoff I opted to watch the forward facing camera of the aircraft.
There was also an option for a downward facing camera, however I was never able to view the downward facing camera.
As we took off from Helsinki airport it was fun to watch the nose of the aircraft raise to the sky and watch the ground below disappear.
Once in the air I quickly browsed the selection of in-flight movies and tv shows.
There were a decent number of feature films to choose from, but Finnair’s IFE content leaves much to be desired. Instead, I opted to watch the fantastic A330 wing cut through the clouds.
Finnair A330 Economy Class WiFi
Luckily the A330 we were flying on came complete with in flight WiFi in addition to complimentary IFE. Logging into the WiFI was extremely intuitive and the WiFi rates were extremely reasonable. To being logging on, you must first visit the Nordic Sky landing page. This page comes up immediately after connecting to the aircraft’s WiFi network.
Toward the bottom of the page is the option to “Get Online” which you must press to connect.
Next, you’ll find a page which shows you the connection status and the number of passengers online. As the number of online users increase I suspect the connection speed slows.
As I was seated in the Economy Cabin I did not receive complimentary WiFi. However, WiFi for the entire flight cost just €20 which isn’t terrible for 8 hours of use.
If you don’t wish to pay for WiFi you can use the Nordic Sky portal to shop Finnair’s products, do some duty free shopping, or browse a surprisingly large collection of online periodicals.
Shortly after familiarizing myself with the in-flight WiFi the first meal service began.
Finnair A330 Economy Class Meal Service
The meal service began about an hour and a half into the flight. Flight attendants stopped by each seat and offered a hot meal service. I opted for the Lamb Roulade dish. The meal arrived on a standard economy class meal service tray complete with a side, a dinner roll, and a small pastry for dessert.
The Lamb Roulade dish didn’t look like much, but the dish was surprisingly good.
The meal service also included complimentary soft-drinks, water, tea, coffee, juice, wine, or beer. Our flight featured a snack service shortly before arriving in New York. The snack was among the worst snack services I’ve ever received on a long-haul economy class flight.
The snack service was simply a roll with some lettuce and cream cheese on it. While the snack itself wasn’t good I had no complaints about the coffee.
Finnair A330 Economy Class Flight
The flight itself from Helsinki to New York on the A330 was uneventful. Given the flight was a completely daytime flight the cabin crew never completely dimmed the cabin. Instead, the crew turned off the cabin’s overhead lights and turned on every economy class reading lamp.
I’m not sure that I’ve ever flown a long-haul flight with the lighting configured in this way, but I actually enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed the views out of my window seat as we crossed into northern Canada.
I love the subtle Finnair “F” proudly displayed on the A330’s winglet.
A little while later we began descending over upstate New York.
It was at this time the IFE again went into lockdown mode and only displayed the Finnair landing video.
A short while later we descended even lower and began making a series of sweeping turns to line up for the runway at JFK.
On final approach I could see the New York City skyline off in the distance.
When the flaps fully extended I switched my IFE screen to the forward facing camera.
From the camera I could see parts of the borough below.
A few moments later I could see the runway clearly.
Before long we were on the ground in New York and taxiing toward our arrival gate.
Final Thoughts
I’ve been wanting to fly with Finnair for quite a while now. For the longest time flying British Airways was my favorite OneWorld airline to take me across the Atlantic. However, in recent years I’ve noticed a dramatic decline in the food offered on board British Airways and huge discrepancies aircraft hard products. For example, some BA aircraft are without WiFi or seat-power. Because of the decline of British Airways I’ve looked at Finnair as my replacement airline to get to Europe.
Thankfully, economy class on Finnair was exactly what I expected it to be. In true Finnish fashion the flight was simply fine. Nothing was bad, nothing was great, it was just fine. The primary meal service was fine, the cabin was clean and tidy, and the cabin crew was friendly. Nothing was over the top and likewise nothing was amiss (except for the snack, but I didn’t really need it anyway).
All in all, I had a pleasant flight on Finnair. However, what I’ve noticed is that Finnair operated flights tend to be more expensive than their OneWorld (British Airways, American, Iberia) counterparts. Rarely do I find that Finnair flights are competitive when trying to find flights between Europe and the United States. Given the higher price I wouldn’t pay extra to fly Finnair over another OneWorld partner. However, if the prices were the same, I would opt to fly Finnair via Helsinki over British Airways or Iberia.
