Review: Finnair international business class lounge in Helsinki

Finnair operate an international business class lounge at Helsinki airport for flights to non-Schengen destinations. This generally means it is restricted to people travelling outside of Europe, with a couple of exceptions.

Ireland and the UK are not part of the Schengen area of Europe, which means passengers on services to Dublin and London also get to use this lounge. I was heading over to London so I took the opportunity to visit around 9:30am when it was very quiet.

Finnair International Business Class Lounge

Typical for airline lounges, there is plenty of seating inside. Once you have been granted access, you are immediately greeted with several different types plus a drinks area.

Everything is well designed and comfortable, with options to group together and be convivial or to hide away on your own. It all works quite well in this front section of the lounge.

Showers and Toilets

While I didn’t bathe in this lounge, those with a sweat on can go for a pre-flight or post-flight sluice in the showers. Naturally there are also toilet facilities.

Everything was clean and lovely while I was there, which was admittedly when the lounge was empty and before any kind of rush. Not complaining though!

Dining Tables

There are a plethora of places to eat, with tables and chairs everywhere. No doubt when it’s busy they need all this seating, but being there on my own, it was a bit like the party hadn’t started yet!

Whether you wanted to be more formal in your dining experience or more casual, there was something for everyone. That is quite a thoughtful thing.

Here Be The Food!

One of my favourite parts of being in a lounge is trying the food on offer. I was not disappointed here, as there was an array of different items available to try. Both breakfast and lunch items were available as it was mid-morning.

As you can see, I only tried a tiny bit of the food as I was saving myself for later on in the Platinum Wing lounge. The sausage and egg was nice, the rice pastie disappointingly bad. Overall though there was plenty of choice, so you won’t go hungry.

How About The Drinks?

Those who like to imbibe a little booze are not left out at all, with red wine, white wine, Champagne, beer and various spirits all available for your pleasure.

I’m unable to pass remark on any of the drinks, since I didn’t have any at all while in here. Those who might know about these, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom.

Down The Back

The Finnair international business class lounge has quite a lot of seating down the back around the bar. This includes some really lovely long navy blue couches.

Again, it was all very nice looking. I would love to see it with some people there though, to gauge what are the popular seats and to enjoy the buzz. Still, the empty lounge worked well for photos.

Overall Thoughts

Considering Finnair is not a huge airline, they have a world class international business class lounge at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Visiting HEL should never be this comfortable, but it is.

It has everything you would expect and then some, so I think business class passengers and oneworld frequent flyers will be very happy to visit here. I know I was.

Have you ever visited this lounge before? What do you think of it? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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