Review: Finnair Premium Lounge Helsinki

October 22, 2015

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The Finnair Airbus A350 XWB Trip

Finnair has a number of lounges at Helsinki Airport and, back in July, I reviewed their Business Class lounge which I visited on my way to Los Angeles. This time around I visited their Premium lounge which sits right next door.

Finnair’s Premium lounge is their name for the First Class Lounge at Helsinki Airport and, just like with other OneWorld lounges, access is available to those with a First Class ticket or to those with OneWorld Emerald status.

As you make your way through the glass doors of the Finnair Premium Lounge the bar/food area is on your right-hand-side and the first setting area is directly in front of you:

It was pretty hard to get any pictures of the bar/food area as there were a lot of people crowding around to try to get at the limited food offering. You’ll just have to take my word for the fact that there was a selection of small open sandwiches (the two salmon sandwiched were very nice), fruit, bread and cheese and two or three unhealthy-looking (fried) hot dishes. Nothing to get excited about.

Beverage and drinks-wise there is a coffee/tea machine behind the bar:

and a self-serve coffee machine just around the corner:

As you can see, the self-serve coffee machine also has a soft-drink fridge next to it.

The bar has a self-serve champagne/wine area:

And there is a menu of complimentary drinks available to order from the bar:

If soft drinks are what you’re after then bar has plenty of those too.

Around the corner from the bar is a second seating area with comfortable high-back chairs:

And behind this section is where you’ll find a “work area” with a number of iMacs:

Next to the work area is a small “Kids Room” (why they’ve put a kids room next to a work area is a mystery to me but that’s another matter)….

The last and best seating area that the lounge offers is just past the work area and up a few stairs. This space has a mixture of high-back chairs which recline (a bit) and comfortable loungers:

As you can just about see from the photo above, this section also has a small soft drinks section with orange juice and sodas.

The best part of this section of the lounge is the row of recliners that face out, though the floor to ceiling windows, over the airport apron…..

This section of the lounge is a lot lighter than the rest of the lounge and is easily the nicest place to while away the time while you wait for your flight.

To the left of this area are a couple of small rooms which have been designated as the “Relax Area”:

If you have a long lay-over and you’d like to catch up on some sleep this could be the place for you.

The Finnair Premium Lounge shares showers and a sauna (yes, a sauna!) with the Business Class lounge next door….

……and, while I didn’t get a chance to check out the sauna, this is what the shower facilities are like:

As you walk in

Entrance to the Sauna

Entrance to the Showers

Overall this is a this is a nice enough lounge with very friendly staff but it has two downfalls as a First Class lounge.

Firstly, the salmon aside, the food offerings are mediocre. They’re probably acceptable for a US business class lounge but not good enough for a European First Class lounge.

Secondly, the lounge has an overcrowding problem. When I first arrived there were a good number of seats still available but, at around 15:30, the place was packed out. There was standing room only and more people were trying to come in.

Issue one can be solved quite easily but I’m not sure what the solution to issue two is. The fact of the matter is that at off-peak times this is a nice place to hang out but, at peak times, it’s as relaxing as Grand Central at rush hour. I took a quick look at the very large business class lounge that Finnair has next door and even that was full, so I’m not sure what’s going on – either Finnair gives out elite status like candy (unlikely) or they have a lot of OneWorld elites flying through here (probably on their way East). Either way, they probably need to do something about it….unless I just got super unlucky. I’m sure I’ll be flying thorough Helsinki again in the next 12-18 months so I’ll see what the lounge is like then and report back.