TRIP REPORT: Taking the Longer Way Home – A Helsinki Layover

A Helsinki Layover
Taking the Longer Way Home

In this trip

• So. Keeping it original for autumn, aren’t we?
• Off to Heathrow in the Dead of the Night
• Terminal 3 Lounges… And more delays
• American Airlines AA99 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare (Main Cabin)
• In the USA, Candlewood Suites O’Hare
• TRAVEL PLUS: Fooding around Chicago
• Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Airplane Art Extra – from the 10th Floor of the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• TRAVEL PLUS: The Art Institute, Chicago
• Back to O’Hare, Air France/KLM Lounge
• Finnair AY010 Chicago O’Hare to Helsinki Vantaa
• A Helsinki Layover
• Finnair AY1335 Helsinki Vantaa to London Heathrow
• Coaching Homewards
• Sometimes, it’s more the journey

 

Welcome to Helsinki Airport

With not the greatest sleep in the world, I headed off the aircraft and into the new 40’s wing of Helsinki Airport – and very pretty and airy it is too.

Welcome to HEL.

First big Passenger Experience thing I like: The local time in big numbers on a display in case you don’t know what time it is and have a tight connection.

Thank you OH-LTT 

Juneyao Air Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner

At this time of the day, the airport was pretty quiet, to say the least. Which in my semi-comatosed state was not a bad thing.

Power outlets at gates. I like this.

Passing the Kioski down the new 40 gates

Lots of natural light

The quiet 40 gates… 

Dear airports. More of these please. 

As for the 40 wing – it has a lot of wide spaces and … a Moomin Coffee Place.

Yes. Moomin Coffee is a thing we now all have to live with.

Passing Moomin Coffee, there is a performance area, as well as some notable Duty-Free outlets (Moomin Shop, Iittala Glassware, Marimekko… I swear this is Finnair on the ground).

Performance area

All the songs

Iitala.

Finnair in a few shops.

However, my brain needed coffee, and not served by Moomins.

But I had a bigger problem – I managed to misplace my boarding pass and luggage tags. Thankfully, I queued up at the Finnair transit desk, where a new pass was issued, along with my baggage tag numbers in a cheerful fashion.

Finnair Transit Desk

That wouldn’t be the last time I would need Finnair staff help.

With the new boarding pass in hand, I headed to the Lounge. Coffee would help at this point.

Finnair Lounge, Non-Schengen

I was welcomed into the Non-Schengen lounge and headed for a place to perch. Unlike the last time I was here – the lounge was deserted.

High table seating… with power outlets?

Power and USB Outlets

Dining seating

Although the lounge DIY team seemed to have employed me at some point to drill holes.

Seating

 

And I mean bar a few other souls lurking… it was quiet.

Whilst this lounge cannot cope at peak travel times, during the morning and early afternoon, it’s a rather pleasant area to be in the morning after the first bank of arrivals.

I grabbed some food and took the time to go through my luggage.

Cold items 

Meat and Vegetable options 

Bubbles

Stronger items

Coffee machine (used actively)

And then there was that “uh oh” moment.

What ballup had I done this time? A quick check revealed that I had left the duty free aboard the aircraft.

With swear words being cussed under my breath, I went to the lounge receptionist, and explained the situation, where I was sat, and what flight I would be on next,

The agent kindly listened and made notes, and asked me to relax in the lounge whilst the investigated.

With that in hand, I went to explore the food. We’ll get onto that in a minute. But do you have a juicer? Is it app-controlled? If not, Why not?

WHY DOES THIS NEED TO BE APP BASED FOR ANY REASON IN THE WORLD? 

This thing cracks me up every single time without fail. Whilst TopJuicer can make all the arguments in the world, it is truly is a solution looking for multiple problems.

In terms of hot items, there were meat and vegetable pasties, soup. There was also salads and a selection of cakes too. All very welcome.

Sweet items

As for me, coffee was the order of the day as I tried to kick my brain into first gear. And I was also thanking my lucky stars that I had booked the day off after landing off work – because I was feeling rough as heck.

However, around 40 minutes later, the lounge attendant came to find me at my seat… with a little duty-free bag.

I thanked the agent profusely. Whilst it might have been three items of duty-free – it was memories that would be attached to them that matters.

Meanwhile, this temporary lounge is still not sized right. Having a single toilet cubical isn’t a good idea in the small room – even if there are a number of shower rooms.

I guess this will be fixed when the main lounge is opened – but this needs to be sooner, rather than later now.

Rookie mistake number 1: Check the departure gate…

I checked on the status of my flight – it was time to head to the gate.

Well, I thought it was down here. 

Finnair/Norra ATR72-500

I also made a pit-stop in the Moomins store. Because. Moomins.

 

Of course – did I check the gate? Nope. I headed to Gate 42 and found it dead. The flight had been re-scheduled to Gate 50.

Again

Gate 50 is the Finnish equivalent of Gate A10 – the bussing gates.  At least there enough space to handle passengers and make it stylish – as opposed to the Heathrow Airport attempt.

Welcome back. It seems most of my Helsinki trips go via this place.

I had long since missed the first bus to aircraft – and passengers were held back boarding the second bus – mainly as they were waiting for more passengers to show up, but also to keep the warmth in the terminal.

All quiet in the 50 gates

Upcycled stools

It was, of course, a mild 2c outside. Welcome to Finland.

With a blip were allowed to board the bus.

It was time to head to London.

Next: Finnair AY1335 Helsinki to London Heathrow

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