Tallinn Tier Point Run – Helsinki Airport and the Finnair Gate 22 Lounge
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!
With the co-tier point runner and myself off the plane, our next target was to head to the Finnair Lounge in preparation for the flight onto Tallinn.
First nice Passenger Experience touch: A big clock showing the local time. Simple to do, but effective.
Arriving into the Non-Schengen part of the terminal, one has to negotiate the terminal to get through to the Schengen part – where our flight would be departing from.
More nice Passenger experience things: A free place to charge your phone.
Ooh. Moomins.
It’s Christmas!!!
Of course, there’s a tunnel thing… and you wind up… where else. The Duty Free Shop.
Past the duty-free shop – it was time to head through Passport control and into the Schengen Zone.
With a quick inspection of the passport, I was let through, and into the Schengen zone. From there, it was a matter of heading towards the gate.
Passing the Moomin Shop…. and not stopping by for a friend.
Past more duty-free than you could imagine.
Finally! The lounge.
From here – it was a matter heading up the stairs to be checked in to the lounge. And it’s a very Nordic design. Clean and simple.
There were some foodstuffs and drink around too. 
For those who were a bit nutty… and want Glogg.
Soft and stronger options.
Salads – Fruit or otherwise
Lots of blue lights
And power outlets everywhere.
I’m not a great interior designer, but I do love clean simple lines – and this place delivered that in a quiet environment.
The lounge itself was quiet – people just going about their business in a quiet space.
Another major test of any lounge is the WiFi speed. The lounge used the main airport WiFi – and I tested it. The results… are amazing for free.
19mb down and 16mb up? That’s near enough some of the top speed you can get from a free WiFi hotspot.
With time ticking away, I headed downstairs and over to the gate, where the reception area had already started beeping people in.
My boarding pass was scanned, and I was allowed to head downstairs to the bus waiting area.
A bus turned up and everyone got on-board. Only to be told to get off and wait for 20 minutes to allow the crew to prepare and have lunch.
Oops.
Eventually, boarding was called again, and everyone got on the bus.
Queues everywhere
And buses too!
Once everyone was aboard, the bus headed over to the hard stands where our ATR72-500 was waiting for us.
Brr.
Heading out into the cold of a Helsinki winter I queued and boarded the ATR-72.
Next: AY107 to Tallinn operated by NoRRA.
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