Hey guys, this is my experience of flight AY61 from Helsinki to Tokyo Haneda in the Airbus A350-900 (XWB) Finnair business class. See here what the all the buzz about Finnair’s new business class seat is about and whether it works or not.
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InterContinental Okinawa – https://youtu.be/XSXZ9TFDuLg
InterContinental Saigon – https://youtu.be/umQtOASGOBk
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Europe:
DoubleTree Krakow – https://youtu.be/n3Lcmd5wa4E
Hyatt Regency Düsseldorf – https://youtu.be/4bYK2b2VjKk
Hyatt Regency Mainz – https://youtu.be/gRcLTrv4V2Q
Andaz Munich – https://youtu.be/MrJGkJ9WOxk
Hilton Park Munich – https://youtu.be/6pBFxCqWFHU
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Andaz on 5th, New York – https://youtu.be/sk7WR7jFm-0
Andaz Wall Street, New York – https://youtu.be/qCiZa5NffhM
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Hey what’s up Travelers chrisa with another review I’m really excited about this one as you could already see in the title we are going to talk about Fin Air’s new business class and there has been a lot of hype around their new seat uh if you’ve been in the frequent flyer
Forums especially because it is a non-reclining seat and the question is can it actually work so let’s see we prepare for boarding and today our flight takes us from Helsinki all the way over to haneda in Tokyo it is around a 13 to 14h hour flight it takes a bit
Longer as they still have to uh circumvent Russian airspace and so we were actually flying for this trip on the south of Russia over um Afghanistan over China over South Korea now in terms of pricing unfortunately I only saved the cash fair for one-way use of around
$3,000 I don’t think that’s a fair comparison you should always always look for a return trip price but nevertheless maybe that gives you a bit of an idea of how much this costs for this flight finner is using a brand new a350 900 extra wide body plane and it comes in a
Three-class configuration meaning you have a little bit of a premium economy section in the middle and then 30 business class seats in a one to one configuration and for me for this flight I took seat 78 and here you can see the new seat they call it the air lounge and
It’s actually a fairly customized seat that you don’t find in a lot of other airlines it also comes with this very big screen that’s right in front of you and also for me personally at least I love the color scheme of th air this dark blue with these like Scandinavian
Light wooden tones H it looks super modern it looks very comfortable I think it works fantastically before take off I then had the chance to get a bit more familiar with the seat but more importantly first of of course there’s a serving of champagne in this case it’s the ysf
Perier CU Royale Brew which is around $50 a bottle and it was actually quite delicious more importantly since it was Sweden in Winter it was not only dark but they had to be some deicing on the plane done before we could actually take off one more thing before we get fully
Into the review is that because it’s a winter flight um most of the light is actually dark and so it was very hard for me to get really goodlooking footage because most cameras at least small ones struggle really hard with the darkness so I tried my best guys apologies for
The video quality at some points it was really tough to get it done but anyway our plane is now preparing for takeoff and we start into the night sky of Stockholm so then right after takeoff and after reaching flight altitude we got some salted almonds as well as the
Signature blueberry juwes I love this drink this is a fin air special okay then let me talk about the entire fin Air flight experience and first I want to highlight the screen I really love this screen it’s a touch screen you can easily reach it you don’t
Have to move forward too much it’s very comfortable it’s also working already with movies even when the airplane is still on the ground which I love as well as having these infotainment systems where you get told when the breakfast or the next meal will be and you can easily
Pull up the the drink and food menu for each meal it’s really a good idea it’s simple but I really like it overall this is quite comfy to Lounge in and as you can see here from this view you have a lot of space the screen is taking up a
Lot of your field of view and as you can see here also that movies work on the ground why does this not work for all Airlines I absolutely love this maybe my bar is too low but this is nice overall you can see here a little bit of the leg
Room I have I am 6’3 or 1 M 90 and I had absolutely no issues you also see how this shell of the seat is kind of warping around you and giving you a really private space and while this is not a close sweet like on other airlines
I have to say I had absolutely no issues I found the Privacy to be fantastic especially in those window seats I could hardly see other passengers it felt really cozy and private overall also because in the middle aisles there are no uh luggage compartments it makes it
Very airy and bright as you can see here so overall it feels fantastic I love this cabin and the only downside I have to to highlight and this is something I’ve already experienced on My Thai a business class flight as well review you can find on my channel is that the seat
Belt is quite high up which means that it actually presses against my neck and I felt it to be really uncomfortable so most of the flight I was actually not using the seat belt um not a recommendation guys but just as an FYI to the left of your seat besides the
Reading lamp you have this little compartment for the headphones as well as a little control maybe you can use that for games I guess because the touch screen is perfectly fine there’s the headphone access as well as some charging ports which is great I wish this little headphone area had a little
Bit more storage room where I could actually store more of my things during the flight I always like this Peace of Mind of having my things safely secured but you can see especially with all the plastic from unpacking the slippers and blankets and whatnot it really adds up
And fills up quickly one thing to highlight you not only get usba a but also USBC I think that’s fantastic and really future proving this cabin in terms of the headphones I tried them for quite a while and the noise cancelling is not very impressive but at the same
Time they are fairly comfortable at least to my ears so even after wearing them for 4 to 5 hours I did not feel any pain on my ears so overall that’s quite decent um however even with all this padding and whatnot I always prefer to wear my airpods nowadays I feel like the
Noise cancelling is good enough for most flights and at the same time it’s just way more comfortable you can see here then the standard lounging position if you use the seat you have a really big foot well but you have to sit at a slightly angled position just like with
The Singapore Airlines business class seats for example there’s also on the left side a little bit of a storage box and I really liked it because there was already a bottle of water from the get-go I think that’s always nice to have there’s also compartment for your
Laptop you can put other things in there so overall this is quite nice it’s just very deep so some of your stuff will drop in quite deeply but anyway I always love to have storage around my seats so big thumbs up as mentioned already I really love the colors and it just feels
So modern this seat you also have these very nicely feeling metallic buttons that control the table that control a bit of your seat this little footrest as well as the light and I have to say it works super well no complaints there if we have a look at a table that you can
Slide out I have to say it’s quite okay it’s big enough for my my use case of putting an iPad or a laptop on there and get some work done so that’s great you can also slide it out of position a little bit to even get out to the toilet
For example get out of your seat even when the when the T cable still has something on there another nice addition is on the left side of the table you have a little wireless charging area I love the idea however as you can see here in this clip it took me quite a
While to get the right position and you have to get it just about right to make it work so a nice idea but still not absolutely perfect however at the bottom at the foot area of the seat you also have a full power plug with International kind of plug type so you
Can plug in whatever you like you can see also in general you get two to three Windows depending on which seat you are at and to me that’s plent it felt quite spacious it felt like a nice cocoon that I did not want to leave at
All one thing I want to highlight is that in the lounging position like this you can actually quite comfortably put your feet on the leather footrest here and this is a big complaint I had with the Singapore Airlines business class seat and I think fin air Sol it in a
Much better way here all right then let’s pop on a movie and let’s take the proper resting position let me show you how it works with that seat first you have to electronically put up this little foot rest that you can control from underneath the the table on the
Side that’s perfect you then have to still manually with a with a handle kind of put up this little Gap filler here to make it a really even surface with that in mind then it’s actually quite comfortable again there’s a slight angle but it’s not as bad as with some
Other seats and it’s just really a massive area you can see it here in my normal sitting position there’s so much space in the footrest still because of course the seat is not reclining so it needs to already be as long as it needs to be for the sleeping position so that
Is quite a nice feeling you see there are then already blankets a pillow and also slippers and an amenity kit the slippers were quite nice and comfortable the amenity kit is fairly small and again that’s something that I guess a lot of airlines are going for in the
Terms of sustainability although I feel like it’s more of a cost-saving thing anyway this amenity kit is created by Mari Mako a very famous Finnish design brand together with thire and like the design or not I think it’s quite nice in the amenity kit you then have a sleeping
Mask and a matching p pattern you have a reusable Eco bamboo toothbrush and you have some information material basically and some ear plags so then around 1 to 2 hours into the flight dinner was being served and again from this handy little menu on the screen you could easily pull
Up the food menu and the drinks menu to see what actually would be served here in my case that was a starter some called Wasabi s lemon rolls with aprico miso and some roasted beetroot with beef root puree beef root mousse and go cheese cream that’s a mouthful as well
As a beef chuck roll with potato c h chisu Ragu and black Curr sauce Jesus but let’s see what we’re actually getting there is some tablecloth service which is nice however actually it took quite a while for them to then come back with the food nevertheless uh the
Service was was all right and after a little bit of waiting the food finally appeared it all comes on one tray so you don’t have multiple cses that come one after another there’s of course a wine option in my opinion it was fairly normal good wines but I’m no expert on
That you also have some warm breads um multiple ones if you want so here you can see the food and I think it looks quite pretty so I would say that this looks like a really good way of presenting the food compared to some of my other flights especially thaier I
Have to say I prefer this way more and it looks nice and it also feels like it’s a a bit of a Scandinavian dish with these root vegetables and the fish overall I have to say these starters were great and they tasted delicious the main dish however was quite
Disappointing I have to say and this would also be one of the main points where I can see finner still improve after the main dish there were then two options for the dessert I chose this little blueberry cake and it was fine I have to say nothing to write home about
But it was all right overall though and I think that’s important to some people I have to say that the service was very efficient you only have 30 seats in business class and so I guess they can bring out the food and clean it up again
Quite quickly so if you want to go to sleep I think they did a great job here even though at this point it was quite dark outside on the plane I decided to pop on a movie and try to relax in this seat so let’s see how that goes I have
To say it’s it’s quite decent actually I expected it to be much worse because you don’t have this kind of relaxed um position this reclined position that I usually like on airplanes for uh lounging around but to be honest with the pillows and the paddings somehow it
Works I can’t put my thinger on it but somehow it does actually work quite well so then the bigger question is and we move here to the sleeping area you can see how you move it from a seat position to a bed does it also work as a bed the
Good news is that it’s not too complicated to put this seed into a a sleeping area you unpack this little kind of mattress cover and the blanket you put everything into position and that’s basically it now one thing I want to highlight is that this mattress
Topper is not super thick it’s in no comparison to for example Japan Airlines airweave mattress toppers for example this is really just a little bit but overall to be honest the pading was still quite good I believe that all the leather and that the seat padding really
Helped with that as well as giving two pillows is is quite nice one was a bit firmer one was a bit harder so at least for me it worked really well I like the decor again for the blanket and the pillow again this is coming from marimo
The the finished designer brand and I think it also fits beautifully into this whole kind of design scheme in regards to space when you’re sleeping I have to say it’s quite good lengthwise so again I’m 1 M90 and I had still plenty of space in the footrest however the way you can sleep
Is a bit limited you can see here as a side sleeper in this position it’s perfect and I think that’s also how it’s meant to be with your back to the aisle if you sleep on your back or if you try to sleep on the side but in the other
Direction it’s a lot less comfortable it’s still really decent I have to say I don’t have a lot of complaints it’s just very narrow in the beginning of the footrest for your legs so if you don’t like that feeling then you might not have the best time but overall it’s
Absolutely fine one downside of this seat is that the screen is fixed in place and you can see it here if you actually want to lie down and watch a movie it’s quite tough the viewing angles are okay for the screen but it’s just not super comfortable to look at a
Slightly tilted away screen you can see it here a little bit it’s not great but it still works to some extent I would say as I generally usually don’t sleep much on airplanes as we were flying over China I decided to wake up and actually see the sunrise out of the window it’s
It was beautiful there’s also this cool clip I filmed of another airplane going basically parallel to us I think that looked really cool I decided to go back into lounging position and I still have to say even after 78 hours on this flight that the experience was really
Great in terms of lounging Comfort I really did not expect this and it it somehow works I don’t know how but it somehow Works they were actually handing out a little bit of snakes during that time as well you could go to the galley you can
See a little bit of a selection of snakes you can take as well as water and and other drinks at all times unfortunately there’s no order anytime menu like on Jal where you can also order hot soups and other hot dishes but of course this is also at a much lower
Price than these more premium Airlines there were some fruit bowls handed out as you can see here some European snaks so overall I was quite content I have to say after some light reading it was then already time for breakfast and you can see here the selection I think that
Looks great as a breakfast usually I’m not too excited about airplane breakfast but I love that you have fruits you have yogurt you have a lot more sweet items than I am used to and that’s just something I personally quite like the weak point of this breakfast certainly
Was the coffee that tasted pretty much like water I have to say but on the upside I think the ham and cheese omelette dish was quite nice and again also the bread was good two additional points then that did not fit into any category here you can
See the restrooms they are functional I like that they have a window it was quite nice to see the daylight outside over China at some point you also have some creams here as you can see I’m not familiar with the brand but I believe it’s a very local finish brand on top of
That you can get internet access and at least on that route it was quite decent I have to say if you have a business class seed or you’re a gold member or one world Sapphire member you get 1 hour complimentary for fin a platinum members this is entirely complimentary for the
Entire flight all right then it was slowly heading towards daylight we were flying over the snowy Soul which was beautiful to look at and one more thing I would like to highlight is that I really love when the airplanes nowadays have this kind of mood lighting where
They simulate the sunset and and sunrise I think that’s quite nice and I don’t know if it actually helps with the jetl but I think it’s great so then slowly the flight was coming to an end and I have to say I was really happy with the
Decision to fly thin air on that route I have the somewhat direct comparison with Charles A Apex suite and of course if it’s a direct comparison I would still go with Jal because I think the overall service and the food is better however keep in mind
That thin air usually is priced a bit lower than these very premium Airlines so it might be worth it especially if you’re not too focused on the food to go for this product overall I have to say the non-reclining seat works perfectly that’s absolutely no problem I love that
It’s a super modern product which means that you don’t see anywhere in Te the touchscreen is super responsive and big you have lots of charging you have I think enough of storage space and I cannot really complain much about anything besides the food I think the
Crew was a bit on the cooler side but very professional and they did a great job they were quite efficient certainly not in line with let’s say Asian Hospitality but still nothing that that actually bothered me in any way and as we were touching down in Hana airport in
Tokyo I have to say this was a very enjoyable flight and I can wholeheartedly recommend it especially if you have some miles to burn this can be a very good use of them so that’s it from my side pretty much guys if you’ve had the chance to
Fly the new fin air business class please share your thoughts below I would love to hear how you perceived it and what you liked and disliked about it overall looking at different websites on on travel and reviews my impression is that mostly people quite like the uh fin air business class it’s overwhelmingly
Being positively reviewed I’m not surprised I think it’s it’s really solid and I think if you know of the drawbacks that you will encounter and you don’t mind them then this is a really a kind of a no-brainer almost so I’m really happy that I could try this seed out
Finally and that’s it from my side guys thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you in the next one Cheers