Review: Finnair Business Class Lounge Helsinki Airport

Previous posts in this series:

Review: British Airways Club Europe A320 (LHR-HEL)
Review: Radisson Blu Plaza Helsinki
Helsinki in 48 Hours

After a couple of days in Helsinki it was time to head to Los Angeles and it was time for one of those early morning starts that I really don’t enjoy. The flight from Helsinki departed at 8am and, with the train journey to the airport from the Central Station taking 30 minutes + a shuttle bus trip, it was a 4:45am wake-up call for me. Did I mention I’m not a morning person?

One of the advantages of Helsinki in the summer is that you can get up at an ungodly hour like 4:45am and it’s light outside – which makes the early rise slightly easier. What also helped was that the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel I was staying at was right around the corner from the Central Station so I didn’t have far to go with my suitcase.

Helsinki Central Station

The train was Finnish efficiency at its best, arriving at every station exactly on schedule and getting me to the shuttle bus at 6am. A 7-minute shuttle bus trip later and I was at Helsinki Airport Terminal 2. Once I’d figured out that the shuttle bus had dropped us off at the arrivals level and I had taken the elevator up to departures everything went very smoothly. There was no one in the priority check-in line and there was no one in the priority security line so I was through to the duty-free shops in less than 5 minutes – if only that happened more often!

There are two Finnair lounges at Helsinki airport. Both are past security but one is before passport control and the other (the one I visited) is after it and between gates 36 and 37.

The lounge is a large open-plan space with a number of different seating areas:

In addition to all that seating there were also 3 workstations for guests to use….

There was a feeling of space in the Finnair lounge and I don’t think it was entirely due to the fact that it was pretty empty while I was there. The seating was well spaced out so, even if there was a sudden large influx of passengers, I don’t think the lounge would feel too crowded.

The furniture was comfortable and the reclining chairs were a particularly nice place to kill time before departure (although the lack of power points around those chairs was a drawback).

Food-wise there wasn’t exactly much on offer for breakfast (double-click to enlarge):

To one side there were some rolls with which you could turn the ingredients on the menu (above) into a pretty decent sandwich but that was about it.

There were some mini-meatballs and scrambled eggs on offer as well but neither looked particular appetizing.

The lounge is clearly set up for more substantial catering than was on show for breakfast so perhaps lunch and dinner options are more impressive:

There was a good choice of beverages on offer from tea/coffee making facilities to self-pour beers and a selection of red and white wines.

I didn’t notice any spirits on my walk around the lounge although they’re clearly offered as this poster/menu proves:

Perhaps they make an appearance later in the day?

Overall this Finnair lounge was a nice place to pass the time before a flight. The limited food options were a disappointment but the rest of the lounge was very nice. It easily beats most US domestic lounges (Amex Centurion lounges aside) and I preferred it to the various OneWorld business class lounges at Heathrow T3 & T5. I value space and comfort over alcohol and food selection so you should bear that in mind when drawing your own conclusions from this blog.