Finnair

Shanghai to Oulu via Helsinki with Finnair. Beautiful, clean aircraft. Very good service and the cabin crew is nice and smiling. Food was great, although understandably not served during the short 1hr connecting flight. No complaints.

This was the final leg of a set of 4 short haul flights and having not travelled with Finnair for several years overall standards seem to have fallen. The only thing different to a low cost airline is the free baggage allowance (which I did not use) and the complimentary coffee, tea, water and blueberry juice. No sandwich or even a packet of nuts which seems miserly even by European airline standards. I travel frequently in Europe across a range of mainline carriers (BA, LH, AF, OS, LX etc) and have not seen this level of penny pinching on this type of flight duration (almost 3 hours) for a long time. To be fair the buy-on-board prices aren't too bad but Finnair are not a cheap airline to begin with. Aircraft condition and cleanliness was good, seat comfort / space was average and staff fairly pleasant. Overall the experience wasn't bad but it was not value for money.

Helsinki lounge was well lit and beautiful, although the catering was rather poor. Because the JFK-flight leaves early in the afternoon several hours before the actual rush hour, the bar was closed and no warm food served. Aboard the plane the ambient was relaxed and nice, cabin crew were mostly very welcoming and warm, a pleasant surprise. Food was very good, they even offered a small scale crayfish party (typical Scandinavian autumn feast with whole crayfish and schnapps) as a starter. Entrees were nothing special, but well made. Seat was quite comfy, not superb but adequate. In JFK there really should be a priority border control line for business and first class passangers. After almost 9 hours in-flight one doesn't want to spend 2 hours standing in line for a passport check.

3 hours 45 mins flight, no food included the price. Even you want to buy food from the menu they don't have what you want or it's finished! Flight attendents were super slow to serve, and don't know how to smile. Seats are uncomfortable and no inflight entertainment.

It started with checkin (in Reykjavik from where we were originating) when my wife and I were seated separately behind each other (28E and 29E) and when we asked to be seated together were told that the plane was full and there were no spare seats - but we should check at the transfer desk in Helsinki. They confirmed it was full as did the staff at the gate. On boarding we found we were sitting next to a similarly unhappy couple (in 28D and 29D), so we did what Finnair staff apparently could not do and exchanged seats so that both couples could now sit next to their partners. In addition despite being "full" adjacent seats 29A/C were empty, which was lucky as several seats in our section were "broken" and the cabin crew had to move people to these empty seats before take off. So zero points for the Finnair seat allocation system and the ground staff's attempt to sort the matter out. Then the true nightmare started. The plane was about 20 years old with old uncomfortable seats (several broken - see above) with negligible leg room (and I am only 5'7"), entertainment screens about 2.5" x 2" and as the movies were in wide screen format, the image was about 2.5" x 1.5" and very low res. The inflight meals were indescribably bad. One toilet had a blocked sink which was overflowing almost from take-off. Overall it was 10 hours of hell. The only reason I am giving them a 2/10 is that at least we got safely to our destination.

Long distance HEL-HKG: great business product, seat comfortable with excellent flat-bed sleeping comfort. Service good and plenty of good food, IFE not as good as EK, SQ or CX, but sufficient for a relatively short night flight (9 hours 15 minutes from Helsinki to Hong Kong). AY lounge in Helsinki good but limited food offerings, however enough for a very short layover (1 hour). Helsinki airport excellent with easy-to-manage immigration procedures and excellent AY boarding procedures. Overall an excellent product (can't wait to fly the new Finnair A350).

35 min flight VAA to HEL. Everything very comfortable and smooth. Flight on time. Nice and clean cabin. Good seat pitch. Complimentary coffee, tea, water and blueberry juice like they have always on domestic flights (expect Nordic Regional Airlines operated flights with turboprop planes). Very friendly smiling cabin crew.

35 minutes domestic flight HEL-VAA, operated by Nordic Regional Airline. Finnair aircraft and service concept but crew of Nordic Regional Airline. Complimentary coffee, tea, water and bluberry juice. One of two flight attendants very unfriendly. I understand that sometimes you can be tired, but you should be at least neutral way polite for other people, especially for customers. I got a feeling that this guy wanted to be so unfriendly and rude as possible. So low rating because that cabin crew member.

Finnair - the national carrier of Finland - is now a budget airline in function albeit not in fares. I paid the same I used to pay but now the fare includes hand luggage only. Note it is cheaper to pay the extra for a bag in the hold at check in than purchase a fare which includes luggage. There are no free snacks served. Just coffee, tea, water or blueberry juice. I pre-ordered a paid meal (has to be done 72 hours before you fly) for €12 and was served a minuscule plate of quite tasty meatballs, tiny salad and a piece of cake in a plastic bag with no plate to eat it from thus having to eat a very sticky cake with fingers. You had to pay extra if you wished to have wine or beer with your meal. After the rushed coffee service there were no top ups. The crew did not smile once. Finnair appears to have discontinued the screens showing flight location and other details. Flying Finnair might be above the level of Ryanair but just. The decline of service on this route has been rapid. I fly it every month and it is sadly not worth the cost any more. The crew seeming to wish to be anywhere else but serving you.

HEL-MPX and FCO-HEL. A typical efficient Finnair flight. The planes were on time, clean, the staff friendly (in the distant Finnish way). Coffee and snacks were served, other food and drinks available to buy. For a Finnish passenger the major point is the direct flights, so whether or not there is free food etc. is not so relevant.