Finnair has activated a useful freebie for its Finnair Plus members who are travelling on its European network – free-inflight messaging.
This is being offered on the Finnar single-aisle Airbus fleet (Airbus A319, Airbus A320 and Airbus A321). For those flights operated by the A330 or A350 within Europe, you’ll still need to pay for the long-haul packages.
The messaging tier is available to any level of Finnair Plus member (be you Classic, Silver or higher), with you being able to message people on services including:
- Viber
- Kakao Talk
- Apple iMessage.
The service supports messaging by text only – it won’t support messaging of images through this free tier.
If you’re a Finnair Plus Silver, Gold, Platinum or Lumo member you can get different levels of internet access:
- On Short Haul – Gold 30 minutes of Internet access + messaging, Platmium 30 minutes of access + messaging, Lumo Stream Package for the entire flight
- On Long Haul – Gold 1 hour of Internet access, Platium and Lumo get internet access for the entire flight.
Some tickets also offer internet connectivity for a period (business class ones). Check when you book.
If you’re not an elite member, you’ll need to pay, with the airline charging the following:
Long Haul (Powered by Panasonic Avionics):
- 1 hour – €7.95 or 1,300 points
- 3 hours – €14.95 or 2,700 points
- Entire flight – €24.95 or 4,700 points
Short Haul (Powered by Viasat).
- Messaging – only available with Finnair Plus membership
- Browsing – Web browsing only. Sub-two-hour flights €5.95 or 900 points, Flights greater than two hours €9.95 or 1,700 points
- Stream – Web browsing, streaming and VPN. Sub-two-hour flights €12.95 or 2,300 points, Flights greater than two hours €24.95 or 4,700 points
What is the experience like?
I was flying last week on Finnair Short-Haul, and found this messaging service had been activated early – so it took it as an opportunity to see if I could break it. I connected to the Nordic Sky Portal (Finnair’s brand for its connectivity).
You’ll then either need to sign in to your Finnair Plus account, or create a new one. I created a new one, as I forgot the password to my old one (and annoyingly couldn’t reset it online). Thankfully, a new account can be created whilst in the air.
Once submitted, you can start messing – and of course, there’s a buy-up.
The coverage is reasonable – allowing me to message during the flight to various WhatsApp chats. Sadly, it doesn’t support things like Instagram Messaging or Kik. For those of you who are image-based in your chats, you’ll have to get used to typing and sending text messages (the images were delivered once I landed).
There are some coverage gaps – some which are legally there and others that are more regional based (such as the hole over the North Sea, THe Bag of Biscay and so on).
A good freebie – if you sign up
When flying, the sense of disconnection from the world is “freeing” to some, whilst to others that disconnection can be disturbing, and need some contact with loved ones on the ground – or with a business.
Finnair’s solution for European flying is a good one, as it covers the majority of the flights on its network (wide-body services will have to pay up still), and could provide a useful touchpoint on the ground.
Just don’t try to send pictures messages, or try to use services outside the prescribed messaging services. Spinning waiting wheels will be on for a long time…
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