I spent the day with my mate Tom (Who also took the A350-900 flight in Business Class) exploring Helsinki Vantaa for spotting and visiting the Finnish Aviation Museum on the airport. We got some good images on both instances from the Viewing Deck and Museum.
We spent about 2 hours in the SWISSPORT APSIRE LOUNGE at HEL. We heard it was the best lounge for views. We were disapointed by it. We enjoyed a quick snack and drink for an hour before we went back to exploring for some nice places to picture the aircraft before we left Helsinki back for London.
We found our plane was boarding from Gate 37E. We went down to it and found we had a bus service to the Airbus A320. I used this opportunity to get some air side images. We were surprised to find our aircraft a 10 minute ride across the airport to a remote area where we boarded, I got some nice footage and images from that- this was a brilliant experience in itself.
After 3 bus rides and a 30 minute wait we were all boarded and ready to go pretty on time. I noticed that my area of Row 9 (Seats D, E & F) was empty apart from me. This was a first time for me and I was happy to make the most of it! I got 3 seats for the price of one!
We departed Helsinki Vantaa and the flight was really smooth and there was great flying weather for nice images. I slipped over to the completely empty Row 10 A-C and got some pictures out of that window while I had the opportunity. Having such a quiet flight made the atmosphere seem quite relaxed.
The service for food/drink began about 30 minutes into the flight as we flew over Denmark. I opted for a complimentary tea (from a selection of Tea, Coffee, Water and Blueberry Juice) and I paid 2EUR (c.£1.50) for a chocolate bar made in Finland. Very nice combination.
I spent most of the flight with my feet up on the other two seats just listening to one of my all time favourite songs on my MP3, IRON BUTTERFLY's IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA. (Video bellow of song is not mine, I take ZERO credit)
I got up and went to the back of the plane to grab a cabin shot of the Finnair Airbus A320 economy cabin for my video. I also spent some time talking to the stewardess before I went back to my seat.
After relaxing throughout most of the flight, we began to prepare for our descent into London Heathrow as we passed the coastline of Holland. We had to pass LHR and come in over my home town of Burnham. We landed about 5 minutes ahead of schedule and as is the normal, I went via the Flight Deck for a short video shoot and photo session as well as thanking the crew for a lovely flight.
Flight Review Video:
Thank you for the FR!
It's really awesome that Finnair now's got it's first A350, but the A320s are cool too.
At least you got the whole row.
This is a first for me. I don't think this will happen much though. Glad you liked the report.
Thanks for this FR.
The confort was sure nice with so many empty seats around you.
I only find it disapoiting that AY no longer offers a free snack on their european flights.
Bit of a downer. But at least the chocolate was not too expensive and a nice light thing to go with the Tea (which is still free)
Congratulations for scoring an empty row. Looks like you took full advantage of that lucky break and relaxed in comfort. ;)
Sometimes I think that having an empty row is more comfortable than sitting in a business/first seat in a narrow body plane. If the armrests go up, you got yourself a lie flat bed.
Great spotting in HEL. The JL and AY Marimekko are winners. You were really lucky to use the bus to board your flight and have a tarmac tour.
Thank you for sharing this neat report with us.
Sorry for the late reply. Thank you, HEL didn't fail to disapoint. Glad I got the Museum in, plus the DC-8 was a bonus. Camping in the airport terminal was fun and deffo something I will be doing on further trips. I got 2 Ryanair reports for JAN & another pair of reviews for AMS in February. Stay tuned :)
No worries. Looking forward to your FR's. Happy 2016!
Thank you