Finnair HKG-HEL J Seats. Any good?

[cdinoz]

I'm looking at a Euro flight to LHR, going a bit of a long way round, going SYD-HKG-HEL-LHR in J. Mostly just for the fun of travelling another airline other than QF - and their Biz fares are currently as good as MAS, yet yield more points....

The HKG-HEL and v.v. flights are operated by their A343 (and another first for me too). Any one have any idea if this routing (looking at AY070 and AY069) have the upgraded cabins with the newer J seats?

Any recent Finnair experience here?

I'll be travelling SYD to HKG and return on good old QF 388, which I know all about already.

Cheers!

 

[NM]

I walked past those J seats a few times, enroute to my allocated Y seat. They are sloping 180 degree bed seats in a 2+2+2 config and I would have been very happy to stop before the partition to the Y cabin.

In both directions the departure is very late at night (just before midnight). Arrival into HEL is early morning :6am-ish and easy for transfers. Arrival into HKG is around 3:30pm.

 

[RooFlyer]

The J seats are sloping flat beds, not upgraded yet as far as I know. But isonchronous will correct me if I'm wrong I'm sure

I liked flying Finnair J. Good service and nice other touches. Will happily do it again.

Trip report including AY SIN-HEL and HEL-HKG here

 

[robs12]

Flown that route several times in last year or so, but last time was April. As rooflyer says, seats are not flat (or weren't back in April). I always slept well though.. probably more to do with flight times and bubbly ;-)
Cabin was a little dated, service is good, food OK, Helsinki lounge is quite OK too (as is the airport generally-very efficient). The boarding music is a little irritating after a while...and if that's my biggest gripe then it must be pretty good overall!
IMHO definitely nowhere near as nice as QF A380 (which I've been flying since), but then it's a lot cheaper, so I'd say good value for money.

 

[nonpop]

I've done HKG to Europe (via HEL) now several times and have re-booked again for Dec. though we only ever fly J with them.
The A340's are sloped beds. The cabins are ageing and are due for refits late 2014. Yet we continue to book AY out of HKG, SIN or BKK as bang for buck they stack up well.
But Intra-EU flights are not true J cabins ... they are usually Y seating with mid seat blocked out with J service. So for shot hops we are ok with that.

The SCs are a nice earner for the spend. Plus some points as well (usually at discounted rates as we booked discounted J tix).

HEL airport is usually fine. We've had 40 min transfers with ease. The HEL non schengen lounge is nice (it is a J not F lounge). The enjoyment is avoiding LHR 'international'.

Each flight we have had, our OW status recognised and 'rewarded' on AY.

Now in comparison ... CX provides a better hard & soft product out of HKG, but I find the cost saving of AY vs CX for the pair of us is usually over $1k+ ... which I'd rather throw at accommodation and tours. So again always comes down to product vs cost. And in HKG we use the CX lounges anyway.

We view AY (their A340's) as an entry level J experience on a tier 1 airline. If you can, you have a high chance of a full flat seat out of BKK.

Happy travels.

 

[cdinoz]

Thanks for the notes guys.

Have booked with Finnair. So the actual legs are SYD-SIN on BA, SIN-HEL-LHR with AY and then LHR-HEL-HKG with AY and HKG-SYD with QF.

All under 27 hours end to end - so time is good. Actually gives me a better arrival time into LHR than going with MAS - and get to experience a 343 for the very first time (I know!!) before they all get withdrawn! Not to mention the SC's and I am told full QF points (which Malaysian don't).

I'm doing this trip more as a "new experience" flight (haven't done BA's 777 Biz before - and will be good to compare with QF SkyBed's).

Cheers

 

[Isochronous]

The J seats are sloping flat beds, not upgraded yet as far as I know. But isonchronous will correct me if I'm wrong I'm sure

I liked flying Finnair J. Good service and nice other touches. Will happily do it again.

Trip report including AY SIN-HEL and HEL-HKG here

Will I now?

Can't speak from personal experience but I know third hand that as others have already stated, it is sloping flat beds on the 343s. Newer birds are supposedly fully flat.