As you may recall from our coverage earlier this year, Finnair has a brand new (and frankly quite revolutionary) long-haul Business Class near, dubbed ‘AirLounge’, now fitted to selected Airbus A350s and A330s, and already flying full-time on the carrier’s daily Singapore – Helsinki route.
The oneworld airline has now confirmed that after Singapore, it’s Bangkok and Phuket that are next on the list in Asia for the AirLounge seats, effective from the start of the northern winter season in late October 2022.
That will open up more low-tax redemption opportunities to and from Europe in this well-rated cabin, from just 61,000 Asia Miles + S$41 one-way, a useful option if you can’t find award space on the Singapore route, not to mention a 9,000 miles saving each way, due to the shorter zone combination.
About AirLounge
Finnair was the launch customer for the Collins AirLounge product, which doesn’t have a traditional reclining seat like most Business Class cabins, but instead is effectively a contoured padded shell, designed to allow you to position yourself at a wide variety of different angles.
In this new seating concept, you can rest your feet on the ottoman or use extendable infill panels to create a large flat surface. Pillows are provided to offer support in various seating positions.
The fully flat surface also has a mattress, duvet and pillows provided for a flat-bed experience.
Modern features also include wireless charging, Wi-Fi connectivity and a new 18-inch touchscreen in-flight entertainment system.
Universal AC, USB-A and USB-C power sockets are also fitted at each seat.
It’s certainly a unique product, and we look forward to trying it out ourselves to find out how comfortable it is on a long-haul flight.
Here’s our summary of the new seat, from its launch announcement earlier this year.
You can also refer to some recent A350 AirLounge Business Class flight reviews, for more information:
- Suitesmile: HEL-SIN (April 2022)
- Turning Left for Less: HEL-SIN (May 2022)
You can identify the Airbus A350s with the new configuration because seats 1A and 1L are missing on the seat map, either via the Finnair website or through a system like ExpertFlyer.
Two different layouts are installed, both of which are used on selected Asia routes including all Singapore flights, with either 30 seats or 43 seats in Business Class on the ‘Hi-J’ aircraft with a small three-row mini-cabin in the second section.
New Business Class Configurations
| Aircraft | Old Business |
New ‘AirLounge’ Business |
| A350-900 ‘Lo-J’ |
32 seats | 30 seats |
| A350-900 ‘Hi-J’ |
46 seats | 43 seats |
You can also count the total number of seats on the seat map to determine whether your flight has the AirLounge product, but it’s much simpler just to spot the ‘missing’ 1A and 1L, which are present on the older A350s.
Finnair already has the AirLounge cabin fitted on five of its 17 Airbus A350s, which is why the airline is able to ramp up operations with the new seats in the months ahead:
- OH-LWD
- OH-LWE
- OH-LWF
- OH-LWH (under refit in HKG, completion mid-Sep)
- OH-LWS
These reconfigured aircraft also have a Premium Economy cabin, the first time Finnair has offered this product.
This makes aircraft swaps to non-AirLounge aircraft on these routes much less likely in our opinion, since Premium Economy passengers would have to be re-accommodated in a different cabin class in such events.
Bangkok schedule
Finnair will fly 11 times weekly between Helsinki and Bangkok this winter, exclusively using AirLounge-configured Airbus A350s on all services.
30th October 2022 – 25th March 2023
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
 |
AY141 A350-900 |
||||||||
| HEL 13:55 |
BKK 06:35* |
||||||||
|
AY145 A350-900 |
^ | |||||||
| HEL 16:35 |
BKK 09:15* |
||||||||
|
AY142 A350-900 |
||||||||
| BKK 08:15 |
HEL 15:35 |
||||||||
|
AY146 A350-900 |
^ | |||||||
| BKK 10:55 |
HEL 18:15 |
||||||||
* Next day
^ AirLounge Business Class from 26th November 2022 onwards
This adds a daytime option on the Asia – Europe route, for those concerned about whether the AirLounge Business Class seat will be comfortable for sleeping (something Suitesmile alluded to for non-bulkhead seats, in his recent review).