After a long flight with Qatar Airways and LATAM from Asuncion via Sao Paolo to Doha the day before (click here for the Qatar Airways review), my flight back to Europe was scheduled in Finnair's new Business Class. During the changeover of British Airways frequent flyer program, small mistakes were made, which is why it was possible to book Business Class flights from Doha to Copenhagen for 20,000 Avios and 49 euros in taxes. As I still needed a return flight to Europe anyway, I didn't hesitate for long and booked the last available seat. My flight from Sao Paolo landed the day before at around 5pm, so I used the evening to explore Doha and drove straight to the airport in the morning to catch my flight at 8:05am.
Details:
Route: Doha (DOH) to Copenhagen (CPH)
Airline: Finnair
Airplane: A330-300
Departure: 8:05am
Flight time: 7h 30min
Class: Business Class
Seat: 2L
Check-In:
Finnair flies several times a week from Doha to Scandinavia (Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm). There are separate business class counters in Doha, where I arrived a good 2 hours before departure. After a very short wait, I had my boarding pass in my hand and headed towards passport control and security control. Although my hand luggage was almost 4kg too heavy, I was fortunately allowed to keep my suitcase. As I made my way towards the priority security checkpoint, I was stopped by a member of staff who explained to me that a Finnair Business Class ticket would not give me access. He took me to the regular aisle, which surprised me a bit...but it wasn't too bad, there wasn't much going on and I still had enough time.
Boarding:
I had already seen the planes parked on the apron the evening before, so I was already expecting to have to board by bus. When I saw gate C85 in the lounge, I knew that we would actually be boarding by bus. So I made my way to the gate C85, which was in the basement, 15 minutes before the scheduled boarding time. The room was completely overcrowded and boarding was delayed by almost 20 minutes. At least this time there was priority boarding, which unfortunately was of little use because we had to board by bus. I was one of the first to get on the bus and after another 10 minutes it finally took us to the A330-300, which was waiting for us to fly us to Copenhagen.
After boarding the aircraft, my boarding pass was checked and I was shown the direction to my seat. For the next 20 minutes, several flight attendants walked past me without saying a word. At one point shortly before taxiing, someone stopped next to me and asked me if I wanna have a welcome drink. I opted for a blueberry juice.
Rating: 2.5/5
Seat:
I had already seen many reviews of the seat in advance and the opinions ranged from revolting to uncomfortable and a step backwards for the aviation industry. There is only one large Business Class cabin on this flight and I reserved seat 2L in the front on the right side. The special thing about the seat compared to other Business Class seats is that it cannot be adjusted. This means that the backrest cannot be individually adjusted and there are no features such as a seat massage. Only the footrest can be moved with a button next to the seat. Instead, there are some pillows available (and more on request) to make yourself comfortable and to imitate a backrest. Finnair also provides a comfortable blanket. Visually, in my opinion, the seat is definitely a success and the colors go perfectly with Finnair.
On the right side of the seat there is a shelf (including wireless charging) and a storage compartment with the safety card and headphones. There is also a reading lamp next to the head and a small storage compartment in which a USB port and the remote control for the screen are installed.
When the foot rest is folded out, the result is an approx. 2m long bed, which is very comfortable and spacious. The only thing that bothers me is that there are no intermediate positions between lying and sitting. Since the seat cannot be adjusted, cushions must be placed so that it is reasonably comfortable and I found this annoying, especially when eating.
Rating: 4/5
Amenities:
Finnair also does a solid job with the amitities. An amenity kit and a pair of grey slippers were already at my seat when I boarded. Unfortunately, the contents of the amenity kit were somewhat disappointing, as it only contained a sleeping mask, earplugs and a toothbrush (according to the note inside for ‘environmental reasons’). The missing creams were supposed to be available in the washrooms, but unfortunately they were not there. Nevertheless, I find the bag itself very nice and it is ideal for e.g. transporting charging cables.
Rating: 3.5/5
Food and beverages:
Now we come to a point where Finnair disappointed me a little: the food. As the flight took off in the morning, there were unfortunately only three breakfast options to choose from.
I opted for the french toast with caramelised banana, vanilla sauce, roasted hazelnut and salted caramel sauce as well as the white chocolate mousse. To my surprise, the starter and main course were brought together on a tray, which I find very unusual for daytime flights.
The two starters (salmon and fresh fruits) were both really tasty, but the pancakes unfortunately didn't fulfil my expectations at all. They were very dry and needed way more sauce (I also was not able to find any vanilla sauce on my plate). The white chocolate mousse, on the other hand, was delicious, but the portion was too small. Unfortunately, the snack shortly before landing was not really convincing either. It was bread wrapped in plastic, which was served with coloured hummus and some vegetable sticks. I expect much more from flights departing from the Middle East (Qatar Airways has excellent catering on their flights starting from Doha), especially when it comes to hummus. Visually, however, I found all the dishes very appealing.
Rating: 3.5/5
Service:
One of the highlights of this flight was definitely the service, which was very personal. Due to the fact that perhaps 20% of the Business Class cabin was occupied, the flight attendants took a lot of time for each passenger and also explained the functions of the seat to me in detail. They were very friendly at all times and went through the cabin several times during the flight to ask for drink wishes.
Rating: 4.5/5
Result:
Finnair definitely offers a solid flying experience in Business Class. Even though the seat was a bit unfamiliar at first, it's still very comfortable (although I wouldn't want to spend 12 hours during a day flight). Unfortunately, the check-in and boarding spoilt the whole experience somewhat and the average food also played its part. But nevertheless, I would choose the Finnair Business Class again (especially for such a low price).
Check-In and Boarding: 2.5/5
Seat: 4/5
Amenities: 3.5/5
Food and drinks: 3.5/5
Service: 4.5/5
Total: 18/25
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