When I heard that Finnair had a sauna in their Platinum Wing Lounge in Helsinki, I knew I had to give it a try. You’d be hard pressed to find a sauna in an airline lounge anywhere else, so it promised to be a rare experience.
Finnair’s Platinum Wing is only available for Emerald level oneworld alliance frequent flyers. You are unable to gain access by purchasing any kind of ticket, which keeps it very exclusive. It is also in the non-Schengen part of the airport, so it’s generally restricted to people on long haul services.
The Sauna in the Platinum Wing
Happily both Ireland and the UK are not in the Schengen area of Europe, so flights to Dublin and London use this part of Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The sauna is located off separate men’s and women’s changing rooms, which both feed into the cooling room.
There are lockers available for storing clothes, which have an electronic keypad for access. I disrobed, hung my clothes up on a hanger, put them into the locker along with my bag and locked it up. With a towel around me and slippers on, it was sauna time!
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- Men’s changing room, the far door leads to the cooling room.
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- The cooling room, the sauna door is on the right out of shot.
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- Opening the sauna door reveals this!
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- Hot stones and the water bucket.
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- Three people would fit inside, I’m sitting in the middle.
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- I am not sure what this is for.
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- You wouldn’t want to fall on this, it’s very hot.
After getting various pictures, I took the bucket with the water dipper outside into the cooling room. A tap is located in the wall there, where you can fill up the receptacle.
Once inside, I was able to ladle the water onto the hot stones, which makes the temperature rise markedly. Once it would cool a little, I would repeat the process, until I was pretty much dripping with sweat. It was lovely!
Cooling Down
I spent around 20-25 minutes in the facility, which is plenty. When I came out I was able to take advantage of the thoughtfully placed bucket of drinks to rehydrate.
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- A cold drink was needed.
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- Shower time!
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- Slippers and towels.
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- The area to make yourself pretty.
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- Various items you might need.
Next, it was off to the shower to sluice the sweat off me and then I headed back into the lounge. Of course, I put all my clothes back on, otherwise I might still be in Helsinki.
Overall Thoughts
Since the sauna originated in Finland, it’s very appropriate for one to be in a Finnair lounge. It’s a really lovely thing to have available and very much a showcase of the local culture.
You’re going to want to plan for an entire hour if you wish to use it. From getting undressed to 20 minutes inside, to cool down time, a shower and getting dressed again is going to take about that long. That’s if you want it to be a leisurely and relaxing experience, of course. You could rush it, but why would you?
All in all, I think it’s a fantastic thing indeed. Have you been in the Finnair Platinum Wing sauna? Or perhaps another somewhere else? What did you think of it? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Used the one in the VS Clubhouse LHR back in the day. Think I got in flying VS Y as a BD Gold (best ever FF program). Would deliberately bake in long layovers in LHR to fully enjoy the clubhouse
I can totally understand doing that, it’s worthwhile when there are great things inside. You’re not the only one who laments the loss of the BD programme, everyone says it was perhaps the best one ever. Thanks for the comment!