Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH

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

This was a continuation of my quest to reach Copenhagen to kick off our annual international trip. To reach Helsinki I’d booked an American Airlines flight from Memphis to Dallas-Fort Worth and, on a separate ticket, two segments on Finnair: DFW to Helsinki and this flight, Helsinki to Copenhagen.

How I Booked This Flight

I booked this flight and the connection from DFW 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.

Finnair E190 (photo credit: Aviation Source News)

AY 953 (HEL-CPH)
Embraer 190
Seat 1F (Business Class)
Depart: 11:55 AM EEST (actual 12:03 PM)
Arrive: 12:35 PM CEST (actual 12:44 PM)

As I mentioned in the previous installment, my flight into Helsinki was late, landing just 8 minutes before boarding was due to begin on this flight. Fortunately for me, I was able to quickly exit the plane and when I reached border control there was no one in line and I breezed through. It then took me another couple of minutes to get to my gate in the Schengen zone.

Boarding

I reached my gate less than a minute before boarding began, about a minute or so late. As is common in many European airports, there were turnstiles where I just had to scan my boarding pass once my group was called.

While I had originally selected seat 2F, to avoid the bulkhead, when I checked about a week before our trip I noticed I’d been moved to 1F. At that point mine was the only business class seat shown as occupied, so that made sense. At the gate there was one other business class passenger plus a couple of dead-heading flight crew members. Those two sat side by side on the other side of the aisle from me while the other business class passenger was directly behind me.

There’s nothing special about most intra-Europe business class; it’s just a regular economy seat with the middle seat blocked. On a regional jet like this one, where there are only two seats per side, you get both seats to yourself.

Since I was the last of the four of us in business class to board, I didn’t get a photo but it looked just like this photo from KN Aviation’s website.

Finnair E190 Business Class (photo credit: KN Aviation)

In-Flight

Since I’d hustled all the way across the airport, I was once again in a sweat when I reached this plane. I was therefore thrilled to realize the air conditioning was on full-blast. The cool air never felt so good. In fact, by the end of the flight I was a bit cold, despite having a jacket with me.

Our plane had a somewhat long taxi, all the way around to the other side of the airport where we eventually departed from runway 22R.

This flight was blocked at 1h 40m yet unlike my positioning flight on American, I got a full hot lunch. It began with a hot towel about 15 minutes after take-off and since there were only four of us, the hot meal was delivered shortly thereafter.  Per the announcement, the folks in economy had their choice of water or blueberry juice for free and other beverages were available to purchase.

I’m still not 100% sure what the meat was but the berry compote made it quite tasty. The potatoes and salmon were also good. I liked that the meal was topped off with a chocolate bar, even if it was only milk chocolate and not dark chocolate!

Finnair Regional Business Class Lunch

The flight attendant was young (though lots of them are looking very young to me these days) but friendly and efficient.

Arrival

We arrived at the gate less than 10 minutes late but it made no difference to me. As we deplaned through the clear jet bridge it was cool to see some aircraft that I’ll never see in places I normally fly, like this Atlantic Airways plane with the Faroe Islands highlighted on it.

Atlantic Airways plane featuring Faroe Islands

In the end

A quick regional jet flight yet I still got a filling, if not spectacular, meal and good service. Too bad US airlines can’t compete with that.