Unveiled in early 2022, Finnair’s flagship AirLounge business class seat on board its Airbus A330 widebody aircraft is a unique offering in the aviation industry. Indeed, it is perhaps the only business class product long-haul on the market that does not bow! Designed in conjunction with Collins Aerospace, the seat’s lack of recline capability is most often what you’ll read first in any product review. This eyebrow-raising feature is one of the few remarkable things you will experience with Finnair’s new signature premium product. I had the honor of being a guest of long-distance service in this new class business, with a flight from Singapore Changi to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. This review will go over the experience of spending almost 14 hours in this new special and unique offer from Finnair.
Airubus A350: Flight fund and transfer to Changi
With airspace restrictions caused by the current geopolitical conflicts, this flight from Singapore to Helsinki can take up to two hours longer than before February 2022. Now having to fly over Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian airspace, the AY132 flight is now often 13-and-a-half hours, whereas it once took around 12 hours.
Finnair’s service is the only direct connection between Helsinki and Singapore, and operates daily with the Airbus A350-900. Round-trip flights in this class of service are currently between US$4,400 and US$5,500 during off-peak times of the year.
Airubus A350
Boarding the Airbus A350-900
After a short time in the lounge, we head for the boarding gate. Some airports do not perform any security screening for transferring passengers, while others route travelers to a centralized facility. However, at Changi and many other airports in Asia, security screening is done at the gate. This is exactly what was encountered at gate C25 as we approached the aircraft.
photo:="" chris="" loh="" simple="" flying="" data-modal-id="single-image-modal" data-modal-container-id="single-image-modal-container" data-img-caption="""">Boarding was quick and easy, airline company first calling Zone 1 passengers – which included those seated in business class. Assigned to the right front window seat of the 2L, I was directed to a separate walkway that led to the front of the aircraft. To my surprise, I found a passenger already seated in that seat. Upon being confronted, this individual apologized for apparently misreading the seat numbers and confusing his premium economy seat at 9L with my business class seat at 2L. I suspect this was an attempt to “self-level”, but what do you think?
photo:="" chris="" loh="" simple="" flying="" data-modal-id="single-image-modal" data-modal-container-id="single-image-modal-container" data-img-caption="""">But eventually, once seated, myself and the other business class passengers were given a welcome drink. In this case, I opted for the signature blueberry juice of the airline company
