FARE ALERT: Los Angeles – Moscow Business Class From Under $2,400

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At the beginning of April Finnair restarted non-stop service between Helsinki and Los Angeles after a 25-year hiatus and, courtesy of the restarted route, we now have a pretty decent Business Class deal for travel between LA and Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

Headline Fare Rules

• Reservations are required at least 21 days before departure
• 2 free stopovers are permitted – one in each direction in Helsinki
• Children and infants with their own seat cost 75% of the adult fare
• Infant under 2 without a seat costs 10% of the adult fare

There doesn’t appear to be a published end date for this fare so it may be around for a while or could disappear at any moment – if you find dates that work for you I suggest booking sooner rather than later.

Routing & Aircraft

The fare involves a stopover in Helsinki and, as I’ll show later, you’ll need to be careful with your flight selections if you’re not planning to visit Helsinki on your trip as some itineraries include a long layover in Finland.

The only aircraft that really matters for the purposes of this fare is the aircraft Finnair operates on the 10+ hour flight between Los Angeles and Helsinki…and it’s good news.

Finnair operates its excellent Airbus A350 to and from LA with an all aisle access Business Class cabin offering seats in a reverse herringbone layout (very similar to the seats and cabin on the American Airlines 777-300ER).

I’m a big fan of this aircraft and this cabin so this should be a very comfortable way to cross the Atlantic.

Fare Availability

There’s more good news here as the fare is widely available across the next 10 months and through to the end of the currently open booking period.

Because of the 21-day advance booking rule, the first date the good fare is available is towards the end of this month….

…but after that it’s not exactly difficult to find:

The good deal disappears for a few weeks over Christmas and New Year but reappears again from January 12th:

Searching & Booking

My suggestion would be to use the ITA Matrix search engine to find fights that work best for you (below is an example showing the search parameters I used for this fare)…..

…and make sure you include the ‘maxdur’ commands if you want to avoid any very long layovers in Helsinki (exclude these commands if you’re hoping to make the most of the free stopovers the fare offers).

As Matrix won’t allow you to book the flights you should be able to find this fare pretty easily on Google Flights….

….as well as through most Online Travel Agencies.

Don’t forget that some credit cards (like the Platinum Card from American Express) only offer bonus points when booking directly with an airline.

Bottom Line

As far as fares between the US and Europe go this isn’t bad but as far as fares between the West Coast and Moscow go this is a pretty great deal.

With Finnair flights qualifying for credit in the American Airlines AAdvantage program (and with Finnair flights earning EQD based on the distance flown) this fare could be a great way to boost your progress to elite status with American Airlines while getting a great trip at the same time.