Finnair rolling out new AirLounge Business Class to more Asian cities

It probably hasn’t escaped your attention over the last year or so that Finnair has a brand new Business Class product on its wide-body Airbus A330 and A350 aircraft, which has been making headlines for its unique non-reclining padded ‘seat shell’ design.

Singapore was the carrier’s launch long-haul route for the new seats, which debuted on ‘Vaccinated Travel Lane’ flights (remember those?) four times a week last year, and have since become daily restriction-free services, thanks to border easing.

Bangkok and Phuket were both added to the roster of AirLounge routes during the current winter season, and now with more aircraft refitted there’s further news of additional routes for summer 2023.

More Asian cities get the AirLounge seats

The oneworld airline has now confirmed that following a roll-out to Singapore and Bangkok last year, all flights to and from Delhi, Doha, Hong Kong and Tokyo (Haneda) will be picking up the new seats during the summer 2023 season, from 26th March 2023.

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$40 one-way, since these routes fall within a lower award band for Asia Miles partner redemptions compared to Singapore.

That makes them a useful option if you can’t find award space on the Singapore route, not to mention a 9,000 miles saving each way from Bangkok, Delhi, Hong Kong and Tokyo, due to the shorter zone combination.

From Doha to Helsinki, the award rate is highly competitive at 30,000 Asia Miles + S$70, for a 7-hour flight in the new Business Class product.

You can even score 18 hours in this new seat (if you really want to put it to the test!) between Delhi and New York via Helsinki for 75,000 Asia Miles + S$109.

Award space on the Singapore – Helsinki route is almost non-existent these days, but thankfully that’s not the case at the time of writing to and from Bangkok, Delhi, Doha, Hong Kong and Tokyo Haneda.

Hong Kong has now reopened to travellers with minimal restrictions and no testing, especially if you’re simply making a connection there, so this could be a good way to redeem the AirLounge from Singapore to Europe this summer with a DIY transit or stopover in the city.

Finnair’s Phuket flights flights are currently also receiving the AirLounge Business Class seats, however this is a seasonal (winter) route for the airline, and will not be operating between April and October 2023.

The schedule

Here’s how Finnair’s AirLounge Business Class flight schedule to and from the Middle East and Asia looks for the summer 2023 season.

Bangkok
26th March – 28th October 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	AY142 A350-900 AirLounge
BKK 07:15		HEL 15:35
	AY141 A350-900 AirLounge
HEL 13:45		BKK 05:25*

* Next day

Delhi
26th March – 28th October 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	AY122 A330-300 AirLounge
DEL 07:40		HEL 14:35
	AY121 A330-300 AirLounge
HEL 18:10		DEL 05:20*

* Next day

Doha
26th March – 28th October 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	AY1982 A330-300 AirLounge
DOH 08:10		HEL 15:15
	AY1981 A330-300 AirLounge
HEL 17:10		DOH 23:55

Hong Kong
26th March – 28th October 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	AY100 A350-900 AirLounge
HKG 20:45		HEL 05:55*
	AY99 A350-900 AirLounge
HEL 00:45		HKG 17:55

* Next day

Singapore
26th March – 28th October 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	AY131 A350-900 AirLounge
SIN 21:50		HEL 06:15*
	AY131 A350-900 AirLounge
HEL 00:15		SIN 18:20

Tokyo Haneda
26th March – 28th October 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	AY62 A350-900 AirLounge
HND 21:50		HEL 04:40*
	AY61 A350-900 AirLounge
HEL 18:30		HND 13:50

* Next day

Do note that Finnair’s four times weekly Tokyo Narita flights are not AirLounge equipped this summer, only the Haneda route is guaranteed to have the product.

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.

If you’re looking at a Finnair Airbus A330 route, like Delhi to Helsinki or Helsinki to New York, the AirLounge cabin is identifiable from a 1-2-1 layout on the seat map with 28 seats in total across 7 rows (unlike the A350, seats 1A and 1L do exist in the A330 AirLounge configuration).

Two different layouts are installed on the A350 and one on the A330, all of which are used on selected Asia routes including Singapore flights, with either 28, 30 or 43 seats in Business Class.

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
A330-300 ‘Lo-J’	32 seats	28 seats
A330-300 ‘Hi-J’	45 seats

You can also count the total number of seats on the seat map to determine whether your flight has the AirLounge product, but for the A350 it’s much simpler just to spot the ‘missing’ 1A and 1L, which are present on the older A350s, while for the A330 a 1-2-1 configuration at all rows means it’s AirLounge.

Finnair already has the AirLounge cabin fitted on seven of its 17 Airbus A350s and five of its eight Airbus A330s, which is why the airline is able to ramp up operations with the new seats in the months ahead:

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.

Other AirLounge routes

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

• Chicago (A330)
• Dallas (A350)
• New York JFK (A330)

The product also makes an appearance on other routes, like Helsinki – London, on selected flights.

Great value Asia – Europe redemptions

Finnair imposes a very small EUR12 (~S$17) fuel surcharge (YQ) on award tickets between Helsinki and Asia, among the lowest in the industry.

The low fee makes it a great redemption option to and from Europe with minimal cash to pay on top of your miles outlay, with Asia Miles being the frequent flyer currency of choice due to its competitive Asia – Europe award pricing.

Here’s how it looks for these latest AirLounge routes, to Europe or all the way to the USA via Helsinki.

Finnair AirLounge Business Class Asia Miles redemption to / from ME / Asia
To / From	Helsinki or Europe	New York (via HEL)
Doha	30,000 + S$67	75,000 + S$135
Delhi	61,000 + S$40	75,000 + S$109
Bangkok	61,000 + S$48	90,000 + S$115
Hong Kong	61,000 + S$60	90,000 + S$127
Tokyo	61,000 + S$540	n/a
Singapore	70,000 + S$80	90,000 + S$146

One exception to the low fuel surcharge is the Tokyo Haneda route.

Finnair operates its Tokyo service under a joint venture business with British Airways and Japan Airlines, and because of the streamlined fare structure due to the ability for travellers to seamlessly mix-and-match flights between carriers, an identical fuel surcharge is applied to services by all three airlines on this route.

This additional surcharge (coded YR) adds around S$270 to the Asia Miles award cost in the Helsinki to Tokyo direction and a whopping S$480 in the Tokyo to Helsinki direction.

It’s a good reason to consider Alaska Miles for the Tokyo route, since no fuel surcharge is passed on when redeeming via that programme, making the award 60,000 Alaska Miles + S$56, instead of 61,000 Asia Miles + S$540.

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, based on travel to Helsinki from selected Asian cities served with AirLounge Business Class this summer.

Finnair Business Class redemption SE Asia to Helsinki
FFP	Bangkok Hong Kong*	Tokyo	Singapore
	60,000 + S$76	60,000 + S$56	60,000 + S$41
	61,000 + S$60	61,000 + S$540	70,000 + S$39
	77,250 + S$60	77,250 + S$540	92,750 + S$39
	90,000 + S$60	90,000 + S$540	90,000 + S$39
	131,000 + S$60	131,000 + S$540	131,000 + S$39

* Ex-Hong Kong taxes and fees shown, Bangkok is cheaper.

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.

As you can see, Asia Miles is probably the top pick among our readers in the region, allowing you to redeem the new AirLounge product to Europe from Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan for 61,000 Asia miles, with minimal fees to pay in most cases, through your Cathay account, as shown below.

Flights between Singapore and both Bangkok and Hong Kong 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. Hong Kong 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 last year’s devaluation.

We’ve been impressed to see 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 Middle East and Asian cities from late March 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 addition of Doha, Delhi, Hong Kong and Tokyo Haneda flights actually brings more non-stop redemptions in at only 61,000 Asia Miles each way in most cases, while (hopefully) improving award space to and from the region.

Tokyo sadly suffers from a scary fuel surcharge using Asia Miles on Finnair, but Alaska Mileage Plan is one way to wriggle out of that one.

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

(Cover Photo: Finnair)