Finnair rolling out new AirLounge Business Class to Bangkok and Phuket

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).

In Finnair’s announcement about the rollout of AirLounge seats on the Bangkok route it stated that the product was only set to be guaranteed from 25th November 2022, but in fact only AY145 (Fri) and AY146 (Sat) flights on or before 25th November 2022 have the older seats.

All other Bangkok services have the AirLounge right from the start of the winter season on 30th October.

Phuket schedule

Finnair operates seasonal weekly (Friday) flights from Helsinki to Phuket, with the return service operating every Saturday, from 4th November 2022 through to 9th December 2022.

These will all have the AirLounge Business Class product for this upcoming season.

4th November 2022 – 9th December 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	AY151 A350-900
HEL 17:30		HKT 10:00*
	AY152 A350-900
HKT 11:45		HEL 19:50

* Next day

The service then picks up to three times weekly, from 10th December 2022, again all with AirLounge seats planned.

10th December 2022 – 25th March 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	AY151 A350-900
HEL 17:30		HKT 10:00*
	AY152 A350-900
HKT 11:45		HEL 19:50

* Next day

This also represents another daytime option to Europe.

Singapore schedule

Good news is that Finnair will continue using its AirLounge-configured Airbus A350s on the Singapore route throughout the northern winter season, as outlined in the following schedule.

30th October 2022 – 25th March 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	AY131 A350-900
HEL 23:55		SIN 18:55*
	AY132 A350-900
SIN 22:30		HEL 05:55*

* Next day

Other AirLounge routes

Aside from these South East Asia services, Finnair will operate AirLounge-configured Airbus A350s and Airbus A330s on selected flights between Helsinki and the following cities this winter:

• Dallas (until 31st December 2022)
• Doha
• New York JFK
• Tokyo Haneda

If you’re looking at a Finnair Airbus A330 route, like Helsinki to New York, the AirLounge cabin is identifiable from a 1-2-1 layout on the seat map with 28 seats in total (unlike the A350, seats 1A and 1L do exist in the A330 AirLounge configuration).

Great value Asia – Europe redemptions

Finnair recently reintroduced a small EUR12 (~S$17) fuel surcharge (YQ) on award tickets from Helsinki to Asia, due to high fuel prices, though Alaska Mileage Plan awards do not attract the fee.

No such charge is levied in the Asia – Helsinki direction, but either way the low (or no) fee makes it a great redemption option to and from Europe with minimal cash to pay on top of your miles outlay.

We recommend using the British Airways Avios portal or the American Airlines site to search for award space on Finnair (and indeed on all oneworld carriers), since we find those the easiest to use.

However, when it comes to actually locking in an award, here’s how the pricing looks with a variety of oneworld frequent flyer programmes, from Helsinki to selected Asian cities served with AirLounge Business Class this winter.

Finnair Business Class redemption Helsinki to SE Asia
FFP	Bangkok	Phuket	Singapore
	60k +S$42*	60k +S$42*	60k +S$41*
	61k +S$41	61k +S$41	70k +S$39
	77.25k +S$41	77.25k +S$41	92.75k +S$39
	90k +S$41	90k +S$41	90k +S$39
	131k +S$41	131k +S$41	131k +S$39

* Note that Alaska Mileage Plan now adds a US$12.50 partner award booking fee, which as you can see almost exactly cancels out its removal of Finnair’s of fuel surcharge on these routes!

Pro Tip: If you have Qatar Airways Avios (formerly Qmiles), you can access the rates shown above by transferring them free 1:1 into your British Airways Avios account (if you don’t have one – open one) and then booking your Finnair redemption via that portal.

Notice how we’ve highlighted our top choice for Finnair redemptions on these new AirLounge routes – Asia Miles.

That’s because the programme’s zone-based award principle actually puts Bangkok and Phuket in a cheaper redemption band to or from Helsinki compared to Singapore (BA Avios does the same, but has higher award rates).

That means you can redeem the new AirLounge product between Thailand and Europe for 61,000 Asia miles, with minimal fees to pay, using Asia Miles through your Cathay account, as shown below.

Flights between Singapore and both Bangkok and Phuket are relatively cheap, especially if you book in advance with a low-cost carrier, so this could be a nice way to have a two-centre trip (e.g. Phuket and Europe) and take advantage of this competitive award rate for the long-haul sectors.

Even if you manage to snag a Singapore – Europe AirLounge Business Class redemption on Finnair, the widely-held Asia Miles option remains the best for most of our readers, allowing redemptions on Finnair for 70,000 miles each way.

That’s quite something, given that Singapore Airlines now wants 103,500 KrisFlyer miles for a saver award ticket in Business Class to Europe, following this year’s devaluation.

It’s great to see an airline with a new Business Class product start to roll it out relatively quickly on the network, and Finnair’s plan to deploy its brand new innovative AirLounge Business Class seats to and from more South East Asian cities from late October is great news for many of our readers.

It’s particularly good to see a European airline concentrate its latest products on Asia-Pacific routes first, since these carriers usually focus on their transatlantic markets before we get a look in ‘out East’!

The AirLounge seat gets mostly positive reviews from what we’ve seen so far, and this introduction of Bangkok and Phuket to Helsinki flights actually brings non-stop redemption costs down to only 61,000 Asia Miles each way, while (hopefully) improving award space to and from the region.

The new seats will also continue to ply the daily Singapore – Helsinki route during the upcoming winter season, as they currently do, if you’re able to snag an award on this potentially more popular city pair at the still-competitive 70,000 Asia Miles rate.

(Cover Photo: Finnair)