Finnair

[bertair]

I am about to book a Business Class seat for my wife and I to Rome and found that Finnair have a good price currently from SYD to European cities including Rome.

I have found that they fly out of SIN & HKG from SYD connections.
I see the connections to these ports use Cathay, BA and Qantas.
I have also found that they will not have their new Airbus A350 until October.
I plan to depart during late August.
What aircraft do Finnair currently have on the HKG/HEL and SIN/HEL routes ?
Finnair Australian Offices are currently closed, so I cannot ring them.
My preference would be to have either connecting port, providing I can get a Business Class seat on the window side into HEL, where looking at Seat Guru plans, they have only a single seat on the right hand side of the cabin on only some of the A 330 aircraft.
CanI choose my seats(all sectors) when making the reservation on line with Finnair ?
What airlines lounges are used in SYD.HKG,SIN and ROM ? And, can I use them when I fly Business with ?

I am a QF FF member, but I doubt if I could use my points for the fare, so am prepared to use cash.
Should I join Finnair Plus to collect points, or will my QF FF give me points & status credits on my Finnair flights and make it unnecessary to join Finnair Plus.?

Do Finnair have Business Flat bed seats HEL/ROM ?

 

[JessicaTam]

I can't comment on the seating, but if you use points for the fare, you will not earn points. I would think it unlikely to find an award flight this close.

Of course if you buy a revenue ticket then I would suggest putting the earn to QF if you do not intend to fly AY much. Or perhaps to AA for their better burn rate.

Edit: A quick look at flightaware.com shows A333 or A343 on those (SIN/HKG) routes.

 

[Himeno]

AY, as with almost every other European carrier, operate narrow body (in most cases A320, 737, E170) aircraft around Europe. The AY (and BA) Europe route aircraft have normal Y type seats with the first few rows being convertible between Y and J. Only the AY widebodies (A330, A340 and soon A350) have flat seats in business. They don't fly these within Europe.

Flying Business on AY, a oneworld member, will let you use the QF, BA and CX business lounges. Lounge access - oneworld
You will earn points and status credits to QFFF when flying on AY (or any other oneworld member).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

According to Finnair's AU website, the full flat beds are as follows:

FULL-FLAT SEATS ON SELECTED ROUTES

Full-flat seats will be available in Business Class on the following intercontinental routes from Helsinki to:

• Tokyo and New York from 1 April 2014,
• Beijing and Seoul from 1 May 2014,
• Hanoi, Nagoya, Osaka and Shanghai from 1 June 2014,
• Hong Kong during the winter season.

Aircraft with full-flat business class seats are allocated to the above-mentioned routes. However, please accept our apology if in case of aircraft change due to operational reasons, the full-flat seat is not available on your flight.

It seems HKG might have a better chance of full flats, but with several planes still in the system with old seats, it is never guaranteed (or even close to guaranteed). While the current business class fares are a great deal, the lack of full flats probably goes a long way to explaining why.

According to this thread it seems Singapore might also have a fairly good chance of flat beds: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/finnair-finnair-plus/1695084-a340-flat-bed-availability.html

 

[drron]

I have looked at that special for next year.You don't get a choice of Asian stopover-it varies by date.
Next year I was offered HKG or NRT but not both on the same day.Just looked at late August and the day I selected it was SIN(24/8).

To find out what plane just click on the AY flight number when you get to the choose flights.That day it was an A340-that has flat beds in J.The left side if you are in your J seat is the one that can have 2 seats on the window side-odd rows have 1,even rows have 2.The right side only has 1 seat.


Basically impossible to get 2 J awards on AY-they seem to only release 1.AY is part of One World so you do get QFF points and SCs.Unfortunately seeing these fares are more often on partner airlines you will get less SCs than a QF flight.To or from Asia 120 SCs on QF,60 on BA or CX.From Asia to Europe AY will earn 80 but if you found a QF codeshare it would be 140-I have no idea if such exist as I would never use one if it existed.

PS-fares also vary by date.

 

[OATEK]

Flew SYD-HKG-HEL-CDG//TXL-HEL-BKK-SYD in March/April. CX first leg (A330), AY A340 with new lie flat to HEL, then AY A320 to CDG. Great flights, even the A320 with European J (eg vacant middle seat).

Coming back it was AY 320 to HEL, A340 to BKK, another new lie flat fitout. The downside of the trip was a long wait in BKK, meant to be 11hrs, with the final leg on QF. The QF flight was 3 hrs late so a long wait. Took an airport hotel room for 6hours, but it was too long a wait for us, and then the Mark I seats back to SYD. But the AY flights were very good, and if I can get a good deal with a stopover in HKG on the return I will use them again next year.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Which is great if you get a refurbished plane... I think they're running at 4 out of 7 being refurbished.

 

[Isochronous]

I have looked at that special for next year.You don't get a choice of Asian stopover-it varies by date.
Next year I was offered HKG or NRT but not both on the same day.Just looked at late August and the day I selected it was SIN(24/8).

To find out what plane just click on the AY flight number when you get to the choose flights.That day it was an A340-that has flat beds in J.The left side if you are in your J seat is the one that can have 2 seats on the window side-odd rows have 1,even rows have 2.The right side only has 1 seat.


Basically impossible to get 2 J awards on AY-they seem to only release 1.AY is part of One World so you do get QFF points and SCs.Unfortunately seeing these fares are more often on partner airlines you will get less SCs than a QF flight.To or from Asia 120 SCs on QF,60 on BA or CX.From Asia to Europe AY will earn 80 but if you found a QF codeshare it would be 140-I have no idea if such exist as I would never use one if it existed.

PS-fares also vary by date.

I've seen AY release as many as 4 J awards if you book far enough out.

 

[drron]

Very rare though.Having looked a few times at getting 2 J awards at both 330 and 360 days out.

 

[codash1099]

Which is great if you get a refurbished plane... I think they're running at 4 out of 7 being refurbished.

They have a couple of A340's that are on lease and won't be refurbished, since they will be returned as the A350's come through.

I've flown the refurbed A340 HKG-HEL and vv and have no complaints with either the seating or the service. My plans are to use CX/AY for all my future trips to Europe.