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You are here: Home / Trips / Singapore and Bangkok / Summer Premium Adventures – A Helsinki Airport Stopover

Summer Premium Adventures – A Helsinki Airport Stopover

23/09/2019 by Kevincm

Exploring Helsinki Airport and the Temporary Finnair Lounge
Summer Premium Adventures

Singapore and Bangkok Trip Report

In this Summer Premium Adventure (Warning: Long!)

  • In the Summertime when the weather is hot…
  • Off to Heathrow, British Airways Galleries North Lounge
  • BA762 London Heathrow to Oslo – A321neo (EuroTraveller)
  • Oslo Airport, OSL Lounge
  • AY914 Oslo to Helsinki, Business Class
  • Helsinki Airport lounging
  • QR302 Helsinki to Doha (Business Class)
  • Doha Lounge Stop Part 1
  • QR946 Doha to Singapore (QSuites)
  • Hotel Indigo, Katong, Singapore
  • Exploring Hawker Markets
  • Intercontinental, Bugis, Singapore
  • Orchids Everywhere – The National Orchid Garden
  • Off to Changi featuring the Singapore Pokemon Centre
  • Scoot TR604 Singapore to Bangkok
  • Dream Hotel, Bangkok
  • Exploring the Wats
  • Food Mistakes in Bangkok (Or Regrets. I have a more than a few)
  • Back to Suvarnabhumi, Qatar Airways Lounge, Bangkok Airport
  • QR833 Bangkok to Doha (QSuites)
  • Another long Doha Layover
  • QR175 Doha to Oslo
  • Back at Oslo Airport
  • BA767 Oslo to London Heathrow (EuroTraveller)
  • Homeward bound
  • Always Curious

a plane with a staircase
And out. 

It seems that playing sardines is a game that airports like to play – with a bendy bus being sent for a planeload of passengers. Somehow or other, everyone got on board for the bus ride round to the Tallin Gate (Gate 23) where Schengen bus arrivals are handled.

a group of people on a bus
Bussing everywhere… 

From there, they can exit the airport, or go upstairs into the terminal to make connections.

a man with backpack walking in an airport
And I’m having flashbacks to my Tallinn Runs right now. 

I went upstairs, into very familiar territory – well, it would be familiar after multiple milages run in through airport and began the hike through the Schengen terminal through to the Non-Schengen area.

a group of white objects from the ceiling
Art they call it. 

people walking up stairs in a building
Not this lounge (although it’s very good). 

Of course, this means stopping to look at the Moomin store. Because. Well. Moomin’s.

a group of people in a store

a group of stuffed animals in a tub

a statue of a man and a woman

Once I passed the money trap that is the Moomin store, it was time to head out of Europe.

a group of people in a large airport
The main terminal area. 

a group of people sitting in a terminal
I just love the vistas you can get at this airport. 

With my passport in less than a biometric readable state – I chose to exit via a manual process (which unlike Oslo, was met with without a problem).

people in a building with a blue rope

The border agent took one look at it, scanned it, and sent me on my way without a discussion. You’ve got to love a quick border transfer

Once past this, it was time to fight past the duty-free shop, and into the main Non-Schengen terminal area.

a sign with a blue and white sign with text
Don’t forget the duty free…

a sign with numbers and people walking down a walkway
To the gates! 

a sign on a window
TOO. SOON.

This has gone under a major expansion since I was here in October last year, with a pair of piers being expanded. This would not help me … as unsurprisingly, my Qatar Airways flight had been assigned a bus gate already.

Hmm. It’s becoming a bad habit for me this trip.

That would wait for a bit – mainly as I had a new lounge to investigate. With Finnair opening up the new temporary lounge.

a white wall with text on it

Finnair Business Lounge

I was welcomed to the lounge, and directed into the lounge… and straight into a sea of humanity.

a hallway with a light fixture

a ceiling with many tubes
My god. It’s full of small poles.

 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen – I had hit the lounge at rush hour with Finnair’s Asia service filling up the lounge. And pretty heavily to the point where the first seat I could find was in the canteen area. One opened up quickly in the lounge area… but this lounge was busy.

a group of people eating at a restaurant
Rush hour.

a room with tables and chairs and a large white ball
An hour later.

two chairs and a table in a room

a room with a sign and chairs
It had quietened down by the time I started taking photos.

And yes. This is a temporary lounge. One look up would had revealed why.

a white ceiling with black metal poles
My DIY skills are awful. But this in a lounge… Oh dear.

To put it bluntly – it was struggling for seating at peak departure time. That’s never a good look for a lounge.

There’s some good news – with proper crockery and flatware returning to the lounge too, as well as copious bottles of bubbly (which is better than the recycled paper and wood wares they had last time)

a group of bottles in a bowl of ice
Bubbly.

Eventually, the lounge quietened down, and I grabbed some pictures of the lounge as well as the food offerings in the lounge. As usual, the food offerings did not let the lounge down. Just seating issues

a group of people standing around a table with bowls of food
Salad offerings

a table with food on it
Breads

a buffet table with bowls of food

a person holding a plate of food
Hot items – the use of a taco style tray is inspired… even if a lot of people still used plates.

a pan of food on a table
Soup

a table with food on it
Smoothies, fruits and sweets

a tablet on a counter
The question remains – Why is your drinks machine NOT controlled via an App?

a bowl of ice and bottles of alcohol
Non-App controlled beverages

This was a good base to work and sort a few things out, as well as prepare for the first of the big flights of the trip.

The staff were managing the lounge as best they can – even with the toilets – which were restricted to one cubicle and two urinals – again, a little under what I would expect for a lounge of this type.

I’m a bit of a Finnair fanboy sometimes – but this is one time the airline should have looked at its customer base and designed a better temporary lounge. This one just did not help the airlines premium image at all.

With time heading on, it was my cue to leave the lounge and head over to the Gate 50 complex. Or to you and me – the bussing complex.

people walking in a building
This way…

Whereas Heathrow Airport will stick you in a basement with little order, it seems Finavia is almost as bad – but with a lot higher ceilings and a lot of long haul flights heading out from here. I was moaning about Heathrow Airport not being able to handle its traffic. It seems Helsinki is just as bad at this game at managing gate space.

a large group of people in a building
Behold the wide sea of humanity

a group of people standing in a line
Going down 

None the less, I headed to the rear of the bussing terminal to find Zone 1 boarding had already started – my cue to head through priority boarding.

a group of people in a terminal
Over there some where. 

My boarding pass was scanned. In addition, the agent checked my baggage was loaded on the plane after its journey from Oslo.

A nice, but welcome touch

With that, it was time to board bus number three of the trip for the ride out to the aircraft… and to really kick the premium part of this adventure into high-gear.

Next QR302 Helsinki Vantaa to Hamad International Airport (Business Class)


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