Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
Why I Booked This Flight
Our big international trip was to Scandinavia and you can’t get much more Scandinavian as an airline than Finnair or SAS. But I’d flown SAS before so I wanted to try an airline I’d never flown. I found award space on a Saturday out of DFW to Helsinki (the Finnair hub) and onward to Copenhagen. It was too bad I couldn’t find it on the same days my friends were flying (Sunday) but if I’d taken this flight on the next day they’d have had to wait around at the airport for a couple of hours for me to arrive. (And as it turns out, the flight doesn’t even operate on Sundays!) I didn’t mind going a day ahead and it also let me review another hotel.
How I Booked This Flight
I booked this flight and the connection to Copenhagen as a single ticket, using 70,000 Alaska Air Mileage Plan miles plus $25.20, which included Alaska’s $12.50 booking fee. If I’d paid cash at the time of booking the two legs of this flight would have cost me $1908. If I value Alaska miles at 1.5 cents each then this 2-segment flight cost me $1050, so I came out ahead using miles.
AY 20 (DFW-HEL)
Airbus 350-900
Seat 4L (Business Class)
Depart: 04:50 PM (actual 05:22 PM)
Arrive: 10:45 AM+1 (actual 11:11 AM)
Pre-Flight
After the major flight delay on the flight from Memphis (see prior post), I made it to the Finnair counter and checked my bags about 1 hour and 10 minutes before departure. I did not know what time the counter closed and was scared I’d be too late but fortunately was not. Just as I was about to walk away I noticed I didn’t get Pre-Check. I was almost certain I’d added it to my Finnair profile and/or my Alaska profile (since I used Alaska miles for this trip). I mentioned this to the agent and she was able to add it. Thank goodness! I could not believe the length of the security lines. Of course a lot of international trips depart in the late afternoon/early evening so the non-Pre-Check lines were outrageous, snaking back and forth in the terminal. In addition, of the two security checkpoints, only one has Pre-Check so I had to walk the length of the terminal to reach it. Even then it was about a 15-minute wait. But it did move pretty quickly and I had time for one quick pit stop before heading to the gate which was, of course, back at the other end of the concourse.
Boarding
Boarding started just a couple of minutes late and moved rather quickly. Even though I’d been waiting in the air conditioned terminal, the stress of actually making the flight caught up with me and I was sweating heavily walking down the hot jet bridge and getting to my seat. We entered via door 2L and I crossed through the galley and turned left to my seat, 4L, a single window seat. I was disappointed there were no air vents so it took me awhile to cool down and settle in. The cabin ended up mostly full though I believe there was at least one seat open.
Finnair A350 Business Class Cabin
A pre-departure beverage was offered and I was excited to try the blueberry juice Finnair is known for. I found it very tasty and it was nice to have something a little different for a change. The flight attendants also brought around some chocolates including some 70% dark chocolate, which I loved. I don’t have a photo of that because I ate it too quickly!
The Seat
I was excited to try out the famous “no recline” seats on Finnair just to see how they work. Essentially it’s a large, padded shell of a seat with a couple of small pillows that each person can adjust to their own preference. All the window seats are alike with the seat near the aisle, feet pointed toward the window, and the large armrest on the window side.
Finnair A350 Business Class Seat
When seated, there’s a compartment just over your shoulder where the provided headphones plug in. There are also USB-A and USB-C ports for charging. The IFE controller was stored here too. The IFE screen was also a touchscreen so you didn’t necessarily need use the controller.
The ottoman was quite deep and angled toward the aircraft wall, under the armrest of the seat in front. Waiting for me there was a shaped mattress pad, which was tapered toward the end for my feet, a striped duvet and a pair of slippers. No compression socks but the slippers were a nice surprise.
Finnair Bedding and Slippers
The armrest had a wireless charger built in which was great. However, the thin plastic case I have around my phone was enough to prevent it from charging so I had to remove it from the case. That made me a little nervous but fortunately it was a smooth flight and I didn’t have any issues with it trying to slip away over the edge.
Finnair A350 Business Class Armrest with Wireless Charger
On the edge of the armrest were the seat controls. I had to study them a bit to figure them out but finally realized they were (in order): the flight attendant call bell, the seat adjustment, the over-shoulder light, the overhead light and the button to pop out the seat tray.
Finnair A350 Seat Controls
There was a deep compartment down by my knees, big enough for a laptop or tablet to stand on one end. It’s also where the bottle of water was found.
Just below the compartment and armrest was an electrical outlet.
Finnair A350 Electrical Outlet
Right beside that compartment was something I’d never seen before but thought was a great idea – a seat belt to be used while sleeping. It connected nicely to a clip on the aisle below the seat in front. It was so nice not to have something going over my waist while asleep. Instead it fit over my legs which you might think would be annoying but it was not.
The amenity kit was from marimekko and was made from recycled polyester.
Finnair Business Class Amenity Kit
The kit was quite basic and contained a toothbrush and toothpaste, an eye mask and earplugs. I don’t know if it was coincidence or not but shortly after I laid the mask over my eyes (while I was still “watching” a movie) my sinuses were immediately irritated so I ended up not using it.
Finnair Business Class Amenity Contents
The IFE offered both a tail camera and an under-plane camera along with the standard moving map. While there was a fairly large selection of movies and TV shows, not much caught my fancy so I mostly kept it on the map though used the tail camera on both takeoff and landing.
Wi-fi was offered throughout the flight and Business Class passengers got a free hour. I did not have a need for it so did not use it and cannot comment on the speed. Finnair Plus members get a discount.
The Delay
This flight experienced a delay too, about 30 minutes and strangely we only made up about five minutes of that in-flight. My friends’ flight the next day left 15 minutes late yet still landed 10 minutes early; I don’t know if AA blocked longer than needed for their flight or what but the delay meant I was once again sweating my connection though this time it was not quite as scary since there was at least one more flight to Copenhagen later in the day.
In-Flight
Service started with a cold towel about 40 minutes after push back. I know you know what a cold towel looks like so I didn’t take a photo. A bit later a ramekin of un-heated mixed nuts was provided.
Finnair Mixed Nuts
Meal service began just under 30 minutes after the cold towel. A week before my trip I received an email from Finnair where I could pre-select my dinner meal. I selected the chicken breast with mashed potatoes, leek, broccoli and red wine sauce. There were two other standard selections available: a wasabi-encrusted salmon and a vegetarian dish of Italian baked zucchini bites. There were also numerous specialty meals available though no detail was given about these options. I still had a food menu at my seat when I arrived as well as the drinks menu although when it came time for me to order, the flight attendant noted that I had already selected the chicken.
Here is the complete menu:
Finnair A350 Business Class Menu
The drink menu was as follows:
The meal was served all on one tray with the bread and drinks shortly thereafter. The bread was soft and the zucchini appetizer was not bad. I had been concerned the pork tenderloin with peach compote would be too spicy (I can’t handle spicy foods) but it was not spicy at all. The broccoli was a bit overcooked but then it had extra time to warm since we’d departed late.
Finnair Business Class Dinner
Dessert was an apple crumble that was quite good and some cheese. I couldn’t eat all of the cheese as I was too full.
Finnair Business Class Dessert
The entire dinner service only took about 90 minutes from cold towel until my tray was taken away, a time that I feel is quite reasonable.
I half-watched a movie after making the seat into a bed but surprisingly did not sleep at all. I just rested the best I could but wished I’d been able to actually go to sleep.
Breakfast began with juice about 2 hours before landing. Service began with a glass of juice of choice. I went with orange juice.
Finnair Orange Juice
Hot beverages, tea in my case, were brought on the tray with breakfast. I’m not much of a meat-eater at breakfast but there was enough food on the tray to fill me up again.
Finnair Business Class Breakfast
Crew
The flight attendants I dealt with on this flight were all what some might call “senior mamas” but they were terrific. They all seemed very genuine and personable. They were thoughtful and seemed to enjoy their jobs.
Arrival
We touched down at 11:03 AM but, just my luck, had to taxi back the length of the airport and around one concourse to our gate, arriving at 11:11 AM. My next flight was due to start boarding 8 minutes later.
There were no other planes arriving in the non-Schengen concourse, thankfully, but our gate was at the far end. The gates seem to be pre-set for certain flights as we passed a lot of inactive gates with far-flung city names even though the flights were not due for several hours.
When I reached Border Control there was an open station and I was able to zip through quickly. Of course then I had to walk all the way around to gate 17 for my commuter flight to Copenhagen. There was a slight delay in boarding so I had just enough time to drink some water before boarding commenced. Group 1 was called and I went through the automated gates.
In the end
While stressful on either end, the flight itself was a delight and I would love to fly Finnair again.
2B Traveling 
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