After arriving in London on Qantas, next I flew Icelandair to Reyjkavik and back on a separate ticket. After returning and seeing London, I then took a cheap British Airways flight to Amsterdam. Once all the shenanigans with friends there finished, I headed off to Finland. Here’s the report of my Finnair flight from Amsterdam to Helsinki as written back in 2005. Enjoy!
Checked in at the Finnair Business Class counter in Schiphol Airport by the friendliest check-in agent ever. My bags were tagged, and sent off into the netherworld that is baggage handling.
A Joint Lounge In Amsterdam
The lounge for Finnair is a joint Finnair / SAS / name an airline and it was on the list lounge, and it was, quite frankly, disappointing. I had to pay for Internet access via a credit card swipe machine attached to the PC. At least it was quick! Did that for a bit and pigged out on the biscuits that were there.
AY842 – Amsterdam to Helsinki (AMS-HEL)
19 April 2005
Airbus A320-200
Seat: Business Class 2A
Got to the boarding gate before departure time, boarded first and sat in 2A. The seats on the A320 are convertible Business/Economy, so seat width is the same as economy class. There were only 4 of us in Business Class that day, which didn’t surprise me too much.
The safety briefing on the screens came next, and it is all these little digital people doing the things that people do in an emergency, like putting on oxygen masks, jumping out onto the slides and so on. It was a bit crappy!
On Board The Finnair Airbus A320
The bulkhead at the front of the cabin has a plaque that says, “Finnair Business Class” and the whole cabin is decked out in blue. No pre-departure drinks or anything like that. We took off.
Immediately I was offered a drink, so I asked for champagne. I was given the entire piccolo bottle and it was setup on the middle tray of the three seat block.
Next came the meal, which was absolutely delicious. It was a gorgeous hot meal of chicken with some kind of sauce that was light and fluffy. Dessert was a piece of cake that had crackling round balls in it, so I am not sure what it was called.
Also, they come around with a hot bread basket – I took two slices of the black bread, a roll and something else. A lot of food, all told! In addition, I was given a water, a glass of white wine and was continually asked if I wanted more alcohol, which was great.
Overall Thoughts
We began to descend and my tray was taken away. The meal was superb, and if you ever get to travel with Finnair (either on a single ticket or as part of oneworld) do so. I strongly recommend it.
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And that was the report about the shortish flight from Amsterdam to Helsinki back in 2005. I was planning to try Finnair business class again in March however the globe had other plans, so that is now on the future list.
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Featured image by AlfvanBeem via Wikimedia Commons.
[…] let’s look at some of my old flight reviews. First, I took a business class flight with them from Amsterdam to Helsinki in April 2005. Just two days later, after a quick pit stop in HEL, they took me to Dublin in economy class, […]