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Finnair launched its service to Chicago back in 2014 while the service between Helsinki and San Francisco only launched last summer. Both routes are seasonal summer routes for Finnair but, for summer 2018, the airline is stretching the definition of that season to include more flights to both destinations.
Helsinki – San Francisco
This route currently operates 3x/week on the following schedule:
AY11 HEL 16:20 – 17:20 SFO (Tue, Thu, Sun)
AY12 SFO 19:10 – 15:50+1 day HEL (Tue, Thu, Sun)
The service is operated with an Airbus A330 aircraft (more on that later) and was scheduled to run between 3 May and 27 September 2018.
Finnair will now extend service to San Francisco through 5 December 2018 but will only be offering the service 2x/week. After 27 September the flight times remain the same but the days on which the service is offered vary from week to week (as shown on the current schedule).
Helsinki – Chicago
When Finnair first introduced its route to Chicago the seasonal service was only offered 3x/week but, since then and although the service has remained seasonal, the frequencies have been upped to 7x/week.
Here’s the schedule as it currently stands:
AY9 HEL 14:20 – 15:30 ORD (Daily)
AY10 ORD 18:00 – 10:50+1 day HEL (Daily)
Just as with the San Fransisco route, the flights to Chicago are operated by A330 aircraft and were originally scheduled to fly between 19 April and 27 October 2018.
Now Finnair has said that flights between Chicago and Helsinki will continue through to 3 December but the frequency will reduce to just 2x/week after 27 October (Mondays & Fridays). Flight timings change slightly (but not significantly) when the twice weekly service kicks in.
Finnair Airbus A330
Image – Valentin Hintikka via Flickr
Both of the routes I’ve been writing about are operated by Finnair’s A330 aircraft….but they’re not identical.
The A330 flying to San Francisco offers 45 Business Class seats and 178 regular economy class seats while the A330 on the Chicago route has fewer Business Class seats (32) and more Economy Class seats (217). Both aircraft also offer 40 Economy Comfort seats.
The best news here is actually in the Economy Class cabin because Finnair’s A330-300 is considerably more spacious than most Economy Class cabins you’ll find flying across the Atlantic.
- Economy Comfort offers seats that are 18″ wide and have at least 35″ of seat pitch
- Economy Class offers seats that are 18″ wide and have at 32″ of seat pitch
Finnair Economy Class Cabin A330-300
Finnair Economy Class Cabin A330-300
Finnair Economy Comfort Seats A330-300
There’s also reasonably good news for Business Class flyers as well….as long as they choose seats carefully.
The Finnair A330-300 doesn’t offer the excellent reverse herringbone seats that are found on the airline’s A350…but the cabin is still ok:
Finnair A330-300 Business Class Cabin
Finnair A330-300 Business Class seats
Finnair A330-300 Business Class seats
While I haven’t flown on the Finnair A330 the seat maps tells me all I need to know.
The best seats for solo travelers will be the “Throne Seats” (2A, 4A & 6A on the Chicago route and the same seats + 8A on the San Francisco route). I suspect the other single window seats will suffer from the same drawbacks as I found on the Malaysia Airlines A330 last November.
If you’re thinking of booking the Throne seats you should consider reading this review of the Malaysia Airlines A330 Throne seat as it may be helpful. If you want to know about the other single window seats then my second review of the Malaysia Airlines A330 (where I sat in a non-throne single seat) is a “must read”.
Couples will be best reserving the seats in the center section as they feel more spacious to the pairs of seats by the windows.
Bottom Line
As a flyer who primarily travels on oneworld airlines I’m naturally happy to see yet more transatlantic service from Finnair. We haven’t seen many good Business Class sales from the airline in the past year (they used to come along pretty often) but this is still a nice airline to travel with and Economy Class passengers in particular would do well to consider these routes.
From a Business Class point of view I’d be happy to book the Finnair A330 if I could secure one of the Throne seats…..but my Malaysia Airlines A330 experience in the other type of solo seat offered on the A330 has warned me off.
