Finnair Airbus A350 XWB Trip – Introduction

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The Finnair Airbus A350 XWB Trip

• Introduction
• Review: American Airlines Flagship Lounge Heathrow T3
• Review: Finnair Economy Class A320 (LHR-HEL)
• Review: Finnair Premium Lounge Helsinki
• Review: Finnair Business Class A350 XWB (HEL – LHR) – Part 1
• Review: Finnair Business Class A350 XWB (HEL – LHR) – Part 2

Around the middle of September I decided to do something that I’ve never done before and attempt to be one of the first (few thousand!) to fly on a new plane. Contrary to what Joanna would probably tell you, I’m not an “Av Geek” (plane geek) at all – I like what aircraft do and I think they’re amazing pieces of engineering but I don’t actively follow the industry with a passion like I know some do…and I certainly don’t normally spend cash and/or points on a trip just because I want to see a new plane in action.

So what was different this time?

Well, I caught an article on some website-or-other (I genuinely can’t remember where I saw it) discussing Finnair taking delivery of their band new Airbus A350 XWB aircraft (XWB just means Extra Wide Body in case you were wondering) and I noticed that they were planning on flying it to the UK (where I am right now) on one of the “crew orientation” flights.

Normally I wouldn’t really care but, even with my limited knowledge of aircraft, I knew that the Airbus A350XWB was a very new plane and that almost nobody was flying them yet (Qatar Airways and Vietnam Airways were the only two airlines flying the aircraft at the time). That made Finnair the first European Airline to fly the aircraft and I felt that I should probably try it out.

Finding The Award Flight

I was keen to keep the cost of the trip as low as possible and that consideration ruled out the London to Helsinki A350 flight – that was scheduled to fly in the evening and would mean an overnight stop at a hotel in Helsinki.

So that left flight AY995 from Helsinki to London on 15 October which was scheduled to depart Helsinki at 16:50.

At no point was I about to pay to fly in Business Class on a sub-three hour flight so that meant I was going to have to pay with miles.

As Finnair is a member of the OneWorld Alliance I could use any of the OneWorld airlines to book the award…but first I had to check availability. American Airlines’ website is terrible for searching OneWorld award availability so I used BA.com and sure enough, seats were available.

The next thing to decide was what currency to use for the flight, should I use Avios or AAdvantage miles?

What Miles To Use?

With Avios, a Business Class seat would cost me 15,000 Avios + $64 taxes

And, with AAdvantage Miles, a Business Class seat would cost me 20,000 AAdvantage miles and $16.70 in taxes.

Despite valuing AAdvantage miles higher than British Airways Avios I elected to use my AAdvantage miles for the booking.

Why?

Two reasons:

Firstly, Finnair had already changed the A350 schedule once (it was originally scheduled to fly to London on 7 October) and there was every chance that the schedule could change again…so I wanted the maximum amount of flexibility in my booking.

I have absolutely no status with British Airways so, if Finnair changed the A350’s schedule, I’d be left with a $55 re-deposit fee if I wanted to get my Avios back. With American Airlines, where I hold Executive Platinum status, I can book/cancel award flights with impunity without incurring any charges…and I figured that this could prove useful on this trip.

Secondly, I have a lot move AAdvantage Miles than I do Avios and I may well need my Avios balance for some short-haul flights I’m planning for summer next year.

As I mentioned earlier, American Airlines’ website is terrible for booking partner awards (you can’t actually book most partner awards online), so I had to call up to book my flight. Once the agent had me booked in I made sure to get the Finnair reservation code for my flight – I was going to need this to select my seat.

I now headed over to Finnair.com (for those at home counting, that’s the third airline site I used for one booking!) to choose my seat:

The seat map bears little resemblance to the actual A350 XWB aircraft which is set out in a 1-2-1 configuration with a double aisle….that aside I was happy with my seat 🙂

Now that I had my ticket and my seat reservation for the main event I had to get myself to Helsinki.

Booking The Outbound Flight

This flight required a bit of a judgement call and a lot of luck because there was absolutely no award availability on the one flight that I could trust to get me into Helsinki on time to catch the A350 (for the trip back).

You’d think that a 16:50 departure would leave me with a lot of options for my London – Helsinki flight on the same morning….but it really didn’t. I didn’t particularly want to take a flight that landed after 14:30 because it wouldn’t take much of a delay to really put the squeeze on the connection time in Helsinki. That just left me with the 7:30am Finnair flight from Heathrow which got in to Helsinki at 12:20.

I was a bit wary of booking my outbound ticket because I didn’t know if Finnair would change the A350’s schedule and my discounted economy class ticket would almost certainly not be refundable.

So it turned into a game of chicken….how late would I leave it to book the outbound? If I left it too late the price would be extortionate and if I booked too early the chance of Finnair changing the scheduling for their new toy was greater.

On the 28th of September I blinked and booked the ticket.

I used Kayak to find the cheapest option…..

and then I headed over to TopCashBack to get a tiny bit of money back from my booking.

Final Opodo booking before cash back:

The Cost

• Heathrow Airport parking: $38/£25
• Flight London – Helsinki: $202/£135
• Flight Helsinki – London: 20,000 miles + $17/£11 Taxes/Fees

Total Cost: 20,000 AAdvantage Miles & $257/£171

Stay tuned for the other posts in this trip report (starting tomorrow) which will include an Economy Class review, two First Class lounge reviews and then the main event – the A350 XWB 🙂