Love it or loathe it, Premium Economy is becoming an increasingly common part of long haul travel – whether that’s for a slightly more comfortable journey, forced by stricter business travel policy or because of the ever increasing premium cabin costs. Finnair is one of the airlines that has added a Premium Economy cabin to their fleet over the past few years. I had a chance to try it using my Finnair Plus status upgrade vouchers – here’s my verdict and whether you should skip or choose. This flight took place overnight from Helsinki Vantaa Airport in Finland to Tokyo Haneda Airport in Japan.
In this post:
The seats and amenities
Finnair’s Premium Economy cabin on this A350 flight consists of 24 seats across three rows in a 2-4-2 configuration in a separate mini cabin – one less seat per row than Economy. Each seat come with 38 inches of legroom, are 18 inches wide and a very good recline just shy of 10 degrees.
It’s a smart looking cabin with cool Nordic colour schemes that almost any traveller that has frequented Finnair will recognise. Compared to British Airways, the Finnair design looks smarter and more modern than that on all but their latest Premium Economy product. The cabin layout will work well for most people, bar solo travellers, with the window seats good for couples and the central rows perfect for families. On today’s overnight flight to Tokyo, I was sat in the final row on the right (starboard) side of the aircraft
I am 187cm/6ft1 tall and found that legroom more than sufficient – after all, a couple months before I had flown on Air China’s much worse Economy class legroom! Reclining does intrude into the space of the person behind you which does impede on some of that space – however I found that it did not cause too much trouble. A leg rest also flips out to support your lower body while reclining.
Excellent storage can be found in the hardshell pocket ahead – where I could easily fit my MacBook Pro 13inch variant. Above this, and below the screen, is a small pocket to stow small items like a wallet and phone – which can also be charged through the USB-A port. An additional USB port and universal power outlet per passenger can be found between the seats.
Inflight experience
Firstly, sleep is never going to be as good on an upright seat versus Finnair’s layflat bed in Business Class – however, all things considered, I slept well grabbing five hours of light sleep during this journey. I had come prepared for this journey with a memory foam pillow but I needn’t have done since Finnair provide this fetching Marimekko neck pillow and matching blanket. It fits well and provides plenty of support – so I’m not surprised that the flight attendants go around the cabin to collect the pillows before landing!
Amenity kits were at the seats on arrival – and Finnair needn’t have bothered. Similar to Virgin Atlantic, but at least only in Premium, paper-based amenity kits are provided to passengers flying in this cabin. They have a fetching design and come with fine amenities but trying to infer or suggest they are more environmentally sustainable is nonsense. Most of these will damage quickly and end up in landfill faster than ‘proper’ amenity bags – in my view, in all cabins airlines would do better to offer the option of not having a kit during the booking process or offering a ‘pick and mix’ of items during the flight.
Food was aligned to what one has come to expect on Finnair in other cabins – acceptable quality and small portions. On this flight, I had selected a plate of braised beef stew prior to departure online which came served with creamy polenta, vegetables, salad and bread – which in all tasted pretty good but I wouldn’t have been satisified with just this had I not eaten in the Plaza Premium lounge beforehand. Dessert came in the form of Karl Fazer chocolate, which while I love this brand is not really acceptable for a dessert. From what I could see, Breakfast was not much different from what you get in Economy Class – consisting of a ham roll and a box of scrambled egg with cheese with neither being great.
The food choices looked far better in photographs on the inflight entertainment screen!
From that low point, drinks selection was better and close to what is offered in Business Class except it is served in plastic rather than glass. I recommend giving the Northern Blush canned cocktail a try as well as the extremely tasty Baileys alternative, Kyro Dairy Cream, which has a rich flavour perfect to send you to sleep. Drinks, including the signature blueberry juice, can be requested at any point during the flight from the inflight entertainment.
Inflight entertainment was excellent in my experience with a high definition screen that is thirteen inches in size – larger than the old British Airways Club World seats. Selection of content is good, although frequent flyers are likely to find the depth of content is not great (e.g. only a couple of episodes of a series), with an interactive map that works extremely well. The design is the same brilliant design as the other cabins which, in my view, is one of the best in the industry – particularly the feature that shows a timeline of what will happen and when in your journey. WiFi was available but, by the time of travel, my status had lapsed and I did not want to pay for the service. Finnair have not yet announced whether they will use a low-earth orbit services from the likes of Starlink – which will bring joy to some.
Despite claims by other publications, Premium Economy on this flight did not have a dedicated bathroom. The ones in front of the cabin are reserved for Business and we were instead directed to the Economy class bathrooms. They were kept mostly clean throughout the flight with no amenities available but having at least one facility dedicated to Premium passengers would have been nice.
Finally, crew on this flight were very good with a mix of Helsinki-based Japanese and Finnish crew who were friendly and helpful throughout the journey. I’ve found the Helsinki-based crew to generally be better at providing service than those who are based out of other crew bases, particularly the poor Singapore-based crew I once had on a journey in Business.
Conclusion
In my title, I called this a ‘good yet bad’ Premium Economy product. The bones of the product are excellent with a comfortable seat which provides a genuine step up from Economy, particularly on a route to somewhere like Japan where all fares particularly in Business and First are extortionate. Entertainment is good, the blanket and pillow are cleverly and functionally designed and the overall crew experience was very good in my experience. I prefer this Premium Economy seat design, where the seat reclines into the person behind you, versus a fixed shell design, such as in my China Airlines Premium Economy, review as the latter is less suited to taller travellers.
Food is the key let down – the airline could do with spending a few extra Euros per passenger to elevate that experience more. A slightly larger meal, a real dessert, breakfast on proper plateware. The Premium Economy food just feels a tiny bit better than Economy. Is that enough to put me off flying Finnair’s Premium Economy again? No. The rest of the experience was more than good enough to outweigh that negative – just fill up a bit before the flight or bring some instant ramen for an inflight snack!
What did you think of the Finnair Premium Economy experience? Let us know down in the comments!
