Snapshot review: Finnair A321 Business Class (Trip Report: London Heathrow to Helsinki)

Finnair operate to and from Heathrow Terminal 3 on their London flights. Two of their daily flights operate using widebody Airbus aircraft with long haul style seats which are easily the better option. Terminal 3 is an excellent terminal for lounges with a variety of options including Cathay Pacific, Qantas and the decidedly more average options from British Airways and American Airlines.

However, my flight operated using a narrowbody Airbus A321 on my flight - significantly more average but still a decent experience. Here’s how I found it.

Some images were taken from my flight review from Helsinki to Stockholm which used the same aircraft type and seats.

I headed straight to the Cathay Pacific lounge before my 7am flight. This is easily my favourite lounge at Terminal 3, especially at breakfast.

Our flight was called on-time but we were held in the boarding pen for about half an hour, leading to a late departure. There was no toilets or free water in this boarding gate.

This service is decidely average. With a standard 3-3 layout in Business and the middle-seat blocked, it’s not particularly beneficial to opt for this flight unless you need to. The flight was surprisingly full though. I hadn’t planned to fly on Finnair, however British Airways rebooked me on the Finnish flag carrier after they cancelled my nonstop flight.

Finnair’s narrowbody seats are very similar to British Airways but with a soft touch grey fabric instead of faux leather. They’re comfortable enough for Finnair’s shorter flights but I’m not sure I’d enjoy flying this on the airline’s flights to Dubai.

While the seats are quite average, they do have a very handy tablet holder which can help you to ‘bring your own’ in-flight entertainment similar to a long-haul flight. I used this to play downloaded YouTube videos while I worked away on blogs.

While inflight WiFi is chargeable, you can get access to Finnair’s portal which provides access to destination information, a flight map and more. It’s quite a neat feature and I used it to access to the flight plan on my tablet.

A basic breakfast was provided that wasn’t particularly good consisting of a potato item, powdered egg and spinach. I didn’t really enjoy it.

On both my flight from London to Helsinki and Helsinki to Stockholm, I took the opportunity to have a blueberry juice - always refreshing! This was served with a bland tasting sandwich on my shorter connecting leg to Stockholm.

Inflight service was pretty limited on both my flights. On these flights, Finnair does very little to distinguish themselves from other European competitors which is a shame. If you can, I recommend to opt for the A350/A330 flights from London - they’re much more fun and often the same price!