Surprising Horizons

As Finland will be our new home come June we planned a trip to check out our proposed city of dreams (Helsinki) with Finnair. People are surprised when they find out Finnair fly direct to Singapore daily but it’s a pretty popular route nonetheless. It takes about 11 hours and 30 minutes SIN-HEL and 10 hours 40 minutes HEL-SIN.

The Booking Details

Finnair’s website is fine; nothing to complain about. The upsell of Economy Comfort is not too “in your face” but on first glance there is not too much difference seat-wise and once you get on the plane and sitting down you realise how little a difference your experience is from the “normies” in normal Economy seating. Do not expect Singapore Airlines level of Premium Economy on Finnair’s fleet! This is what Finnair offers with their Economy Comfort model:

Our Economy Comfort seating option in the front section of the Economy Class cabin makes your intercontinental travel even more pleasurable.

• 8–13 cm (3–5 inches) more legroom
• Seats are located on the first four or five rows in the Economy Class cabin (depending on the aircraft type)
• Better headrests (excl. A350)
• Boarding and exit among the first customers
• Only on intercontinental flights: Noise-cancelling headphones
• Only on intercontinental flights: Personal amenity kit: earplugs, eye shades, socks, toothbrush & toothpaste in cotton bag with Marimekko “Kivet” pattern
• Free Wi-Fi for 1h in widebodies

On Board

The 3-5 inches of legroom are welcomed, surely. On our flight from SIN-HEL we did not get an amenity kit but on this return route we did. Odd. The EC seats are part of the main cabin; there is no feel of this being anything more than a few inches legroom offer. They are the same seats and they don’t offer any more width than normal economy seats. Economy Comfort seats also get noise cancelling headphones which is good. Personally, I’m an ear buds person due to over-ear headphones pressing against my glasses making them uncomfortable after a few hours.
The seats.
Bare bones. Thinnest seats evar. I know this is becoming the thing to do to cut costs and weight on A350s and 787s but, man, these seats are minimalistic. Every movement from one passenger moves the row. Comfortable they are not. The headrest is fine and adjustable.
Foodwise, yeah, it’s airplane food. It was edible. Nothing at all to commend or to vilify here.
Flight attendants are cordial and communicable and on this route tend to be Singaporean based. I know this as I had a chat with one of them in the galley (swaying back and forth in the un-ending chop). They do the route, take two days off, and do the return route. Rinse and repeat.
One nice feature of Finnair’s A350 fleet are the two in-flight cameras; one on the tail and one underneath which gives some stunning views of the planet as you zoom along. On this particular route the camera underneath was not working but the top one was and it was interesting to see how the plane reacted to the turbulence; it actually was more reassuring to see how little the plane was moving when it felt as if we were bumping around quite a bit.
The in-flight entertainment is ok with a range of movies and TV shows but after flying Singapore Airlines a lot over the last seven years I found the range to be quite limited. I guess I will have to get used to that. The TV screens are big with a USB port situated underneath for phone/tablet charging.
Free wifi for one hour is available to Economy Comfort customers. It didn’t work. I tried several times.

Finnair own two versions of the A350 and we had the pleasure of flying both versions on this trip:

Version 1

Version 2

Version 2 is slightly more favourable to flying in Economy Comfort due to the bathroom proximity although if you are flying as a couple and you want a two seater then row 1 in version 1 is for you. The problem is you never know which one you’re going to get (just like chocolates so you could find yourself in a version 2 instead of version 1 and you will have the extra seat beside you in row 21.

The Flight

Roughly an hour shorter than SIN-HEL but it is still a double digit flight time at 10h 46min (which mentally makes it looooongggggg). We were lucky I guess as some days this route takes up to 11h 30mins.

The route is pretty straightforward. Unfortunately for us, on this particular day, no matter what altitude (we were at 37k, 39k, and finally 41k feet) we were at there was light chop nearly throughout the entire flight. There might have been maybe a half an hour when it was silky smooth. It made for an annoying flight experience to say the least.
With a departure at 23:55 from HEL; this flight suits people who can sleep during the night. So that counts me out. It took me 3 or 4 days to get back to normal once back in Singapore; that’s even with the A350’s extra technology bits to help combat jet lag.

End Result

It’s a unique route; one that might attract inquisitive travellers from each country. Obviously with Finnair using the latest and greatest plane it’s an attractive flight package for the average flyer. Looking closer though and you will see some distinct flaws in the flight package. The seats have to be the highest concern; too hard and too thin. In-flight entertainment needs to be more comprehensive; with the price and size of SSD drives these days Finnair must be able to get more movies and TVs squeezed in their platform.