Review of Finnair flight Helsinki → Paris in Business

Hello,

I arrived around 2 hours before departure at the very nice and modern Terminal 2 of Helsinki airport.
Security check was very quickly as there are separate Premium passengers security check points at the upper level of the building.

I wanted to visit the Finnair Schengen lounge however the lounge attendant did not allow me to go in.
The reason was that I booked my flight with Air France and therefore had the AF codeshare flight number.
Strangely Air France sold tickets are not allowed to Finnair lounge but those passengers have to visit the Asphire lounge instead. A very strange cooperation between Finnair and Air France - I have never exerienced something like this where Business Class passengers are not given access to the operating carrier's lounge.

So I headed for the rather small and crowded Asphire lounge. It was modern but not to comfortable and offered a basic selection of drinks and snacks.



Boarding started on time and was very smooth.



A friendly crew greeted us at the door and also distributed a choice of newspapers once boarding was completed.



Business Class cabin consisted of 8 rows but only the first 5 rows were occupied with guests. I was seated in 5F so it was nice to have nobody behind me.
Atmosphere on this flight was great: very calm, friendly and extremely relaxed. The cabin looked splendid and very modern with nice cool colours.
Seat pitch was excellent as well. On each middle seat blankets and pillows in great green Nordic design had already been placed.



We departed on time and left cloudy Helsinki to fly down towards Central Europe always with a nice sunset outside the windows :)



Cabin crew soon started to hand out menus. This flight would offer a hot dinner however no choice for the main meal.
Meal choice would be a nice touch for a Business Class flight of 3 hours in my opinion.

Afterwards the friendly flight attendant distributed hot towels before starting with aperitif service from a trolley.



I enjoyed a gin tonic with some pretzels.



After a while dinner was served including a nice selection of warm breads from a basket.
The meal tasted very good and was served on very nice modern and stylish table ware.



Afterwards I enjoyed some tea and liqueur. The glasses Finnair uses in Business Class look great and add a very stylish feeling.



The flight passed by very calm and it was very relaxing on board.



We started our descend just before sunset and touched down at a foggy and rainy Paris CDG airport before reaching our parking gate at Terminal 2D.