Finnair A350-900 Business Class AMS-HEL
I needed a way back from Europe after my summer trip and had been wanting to try out Finnair’s new Business Class product. I was able to find an award flight with the new product HEL-DFW. For the same price, I was able to add on a flight within Europe, so I booked AMS-HEL-DFW for 57,500 American Airlines miles that I had earned through donating $230 to Conservation International back in December.
The AMS-HEL was on the old Business Class seat in the A350-900 aircraft. It is still a solid seat and more than comfortable for a 2 hour flight.
I arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol about 3 hours prior to my flight; knowing that the airport has had some serious trouble this summer with long wait times.
However, the check in desk wasn’t open until 2 hours prior to the flight. I was able to do self check in since I didn’t need to check a bag. My boarding pass was marked with Priority so I was able to use the Priority security line which saved me a huge chunk of time as the standard line was extremely long. I forgot I didn’t have to go through passport control since I was staying within Schengen countries for my first leg.
Finnair uses the Aspire Lounge 26 which is far from my favorite airport lounge. It is also a Priority Pass lounge and accessible for those traveling in Schengen.
I headed over to my gate at 11:15 with a departure of 11:55. There was a crowd but I was able to quickly board through the Priority lane.
The Business Class cabin had eight rows in a 1-2-1 configuration. I had picked seat 6A so I could have more privacy with a window and an aisle.
The seats are in reverse herringbone configuration, meaning that the window seats face outward while the middle two seats face in towards each other. The cabin feels very open as there are no middle overhead bins. They also have LED lighting that mimics the sky with clouds blowing past while boarding.
The seat had a pillow and bottle of water already in place when I boarded. A pair of very cheap headphones that were impossible to hear with were also at the seat.
The seat is very similar to seats on other airlines. There is a small table by the window and an open locker above it. The tray table folds out from under it. There are seat controls, a remote, outlets and a reading light next to the seat.
On the aisle side is an arm rest that can move up and down as well as a small storage area.
The inflight entertainment screen is large but impossible to watch in the stowed position. It does flip out for viewing. One of the options is outside camera view.
There was wifi on the flight for a fee; I didn’t try it since it was such a short flight.
Our flight ended up leaving about 50 minutes late. No pre-departure beverages or service was provided.
Once we got airport, meal service consisting of a cold smoked salmon salad, roll, and cookie was served.
The flight attendants came through one more time before landing to refill beverages.
We made up a bit of time and were only about 30 minutes late to Helsinki.
Overall a very comfortable 2 hour flight in the old Finnair Business Class cabin.