Tallinn Tier Point Run – AY3126 London to Helsinki in Business Class

Tallinn Tier Point Run – AY3126 London to Helsinki in Business Class

In this trip report:

• 400TP to Go…
• 2am at a Birmingham Coach Station and Heathrow Airport
  
• The new The Cathay Pacific Lounge at Heathrow
• AY3126 Heathrow to Helsinki
• Helsinki Airport Finnair Gate 22 Lounge
• AY107 Helsinki to Tallinn
• Exploring the old town of Tallinn
• Hotel Ulmestie
• Back to Tallinn Airport
• AY118 Tallinn to Helsinki
• The Finnair Gate 39 Premium Lounge
• AY381 Helsinki to Heathrow with an Airbus A350
• A Delayed Ride Home
• 200 Tier Points down… Let’s Tallinn that again!

I was welcomed aboard the plane, and headed to my home of row 5 of this Airbus A320.

Designed for you… we’ll see…

So let’s get onto the ugly bit – sadly, Finnair like a lot of European airlines have not chosen to fit a proper business class seat to their short-haul planes – rather, they have gone for installing the same seats throughout the cabin, and blocking the middle seat to provide separation space.

“EuroBusiness”

Forward view. Document wallet at the top.

Legroom. Passable, but not excellent for a business class product. Typical Eurobusiness…

What you’re really paying for in Eurobusiness – the empty middle seat.

The cabin slowly filled up for the 2 hour 40 run to Helsinki, with economy class seemingly filling up, and business class having a smattering of spare seats.

It’s all in the details.

On time, the plane was buttoned up and pushback approved.

Time to go!


For your safety.

The safety video played, and we begun the short taxi to the runway, heading out from Terminal 3, past Terminal 5 and finally to 09R.

To Drag, To maintenance.

In case you need a reminder of who dominates this place.

It may had been Saturday morning at Heathrow – it doesn’t stop the place being constantly busy. As such there was a mixture of departing and arriving traffic to wait out until our plane was released to take off into the sky.

Jet Airways Boeing 777-300ER coming in to land.

Soon enough, it was time for our competitively smaller Airbus A320

With the plane in the sky, nature gave an amazing morning show .

Sun under the cloud…

Warming the world below.

Through the cloud layer

Sunrise.

Stunning sun.

With the nature show complete, our Airbus A320 begun its merry way to Finland. Meanwhile the curtains a few rows behind me to make the business cabin a bit more quieter. Buy on Board started for Economy Class (with Tea, Coffee and Blueberry juice offered free of charge in economy).

Service commenced, with a hot towel service.

The meals in business class were warmed up and soon the trolley was along to feed those who were awake in the cabin… (of which there weren’t that many… I’ll be honest).

Let’s have a look at the Finnair Breakfast. In business class on these short Euro-hops. Normally a breakfast on a plane isn’t anything to be excited about – it fills in time between take off an landing though.

The Tray.

It’s all in the details – glassware, tableware all complimenting each other.

Fruit salad – mainly melon.

So we have some fresh fruit with berries and melon, yoghurt, and for a hot item – Cheese and spinach omelette, Potato bits, Tomato based thing and a cheese and spinach thing.

It was pretty nice to be honest (although compared to the Dan Dan noodles on the ground…. well) with the food tasting fresh and nice.

I’m going to look at some other things. For example – the glassware – a lovely Finnair detail

Of course, this being at 35,000ft – bubbly was in the offering – Nicolas Feuillatte Grand Reserve. Also love the crockery details. In fact. I need to get some of those glasses. Because.

I also had water… and once the meal was cleared down – coffee.

Meanwhile, morning had broken in the skies above.

I must admit, between this point and landing, I was dozing on and off… occasionally watching the world go by before dozing off again. Having little sleep the night before doesn’t help really. My tray was cleared away – leaving me the coffee.

As we closed in on Helsinki, announcements were made, and the friendly crew cleared the cabin and prepared it for landing. And throughout – it seemed the cabin crew wanted to be there – which is nice to see.

The plane dropped below the cloud layer and begun its approach to Helsinki. Outside it looked cold.

Finland in sight. Snow. Cold . Brrr.

Dropping further.

The cabin was cleared and screens were put away as we closed on Helsinki Vantaa airport. Soon, the undercarriage was released, indicating we were less than three minutes away from landing.

The landing was rather aggressive, but we safely landed at Helsinki Vantaa airport – bringing an end of the first segment of this tier point run.

Finnair Embraer lining up.

I’d be aboard one of these the next day – a Finnair A350

Our plane made a short taxi from the runway to the terminal, ending AY3126’s short two-hour forty run to Helsinki.

Overall: A rather impressive morning performance from the crew of AY3126 between London and Helsinki with a tight and friendly service.

Next: A Helsinki Transfer and the Finnair Gate 22 lounge.

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