When you fly with Oneworld alliance member Finnair between Helsinki and India, the Middle East or the USA, you could be on an Airbus A330-300.
You might also end up on a Finnair A330 when flying Qantas from Sydney to Singapore or Bangkok. Finnair is currently operating these routes on behalf of Qantas under a wet lease arrangement. On these flights, you’ll be served by Finnair crew but get Qantas meals and entertainment.
The Airbus A330-300 is the older of Finnair’s two long-haul aircraft types (the other being the Airbus A350-900). I recently flew on it from Helsinki to Dubai in Economy Class.
This is a seasonal route that Finnair flies during the northern hemisphere winter, at a time when many Finns are desperately seeking the sun and some warm weather. Indeed, on the day I took this flight in January, it was around -15 degrees in Helsinki. It was lightly snowing and the daylight was only lasting around five hours. So, a cheap flight to Dubai was an easy sell!
As I’ll explain in this review, Finnair offers a comfortable A330 Economy Class experience. But you might want to bring some extra snacks with you!
Contents
Flight Details
| Flight number | AY1963 |
| Route | Helsinki (HEL) to Dubai (DXB) |
| Aircraft type | Airbus A330-300 |
| Class of travel | Economy |
| Seat number | 65A |
| On-time performance | We arrived on time |
| Star rating |  |
The route
The map below shows the shortest route between Helsinki and Dubai, however we did not actually fly over Ukraine or Russia. The actual flight path took us initially south over the Baltics, then over the Balkans, Egypt and Saudi Arabia – a fairly substantial detour that adds over an hour to the routing compared to the pre-COVID flight path.
Flight Cost
As Finnair is a Oneworld partner of Qantas, I was initially planning to redeem Qantas Frequent Flyer points to book this flight. There was plenty of Classic Reward availability in both Economy and Business Class, and the taxes & charges were very reasonable.
In the end, I decided to save my Qantas points and just bought an Economy Light ticket, as it was also priced very reasonably at only €188 (~AUD324) one-way. On Finnair, the Economy Light fare is non-refundable and excludes checked baggage, but I was able to check in a bag for free through my Oneworld status. (If you book a Classic Reward with Qantas points, you do get a free checked bag included.)
Airport Experience
Checking in at Helsinki Airport was an absolute breeze. Finnair had plenty of self-service kiosks available, as well as lots of staff available to assist.
Helsinki’s airport has been consistently ranked one of the best in Europe, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s efficient and well designed. I would even go so far as to describe it as “calming”, as it’s peaceful, quiet and rarely overcrowded. It took me barely a few minutes to clear security.
When it came time to board, Finnair first called forward passengers requiring assistance and (strictly enforced) the priority boarding groups.
Given the weather in Helsinki that day, I was not at all surprised that we had to make a quick detour to a de-icing bay on our way out to the runway so that some hot, colourful liquids could be sprayed onto the aircraft.
Finnair’s Platinum Wing lounge in Helsinki
As this isn’t a standard part of the Finnair Economy Class experience, I won’t factor the lounge into my rating for this review. But for those interested, Oneworld Emerald status can get you into Finnair’s excellent Platinum Wing when departing on a non-Schengen flight at a time when this lounge is open. I was able to access this lounge thanks to my Qantas Platinum status.
This is a seriously excellent airport lounge with an elegant Nordic design, a well-stocked bar and various different seating areas.
In addition to a buffet, there’s an a la carte dining area where you can order from the monthly specials on the menu. I tried the reindeer burger (there’s also a vegan burger option) and the fried salmon with creamed Jerusalem artichoke, which were both delicious and went down well with a glass of champagne.
The X-factor of this lounge, though, is the sauna. Finland has more saunas than cars, so it’s only natural that Finnair put a real sauna into its Platinum Wing lounge!
While the sauna is mixed gender, towels are provided so you can cover up. There are separate male and female changing rooms with showers, as well as lockers where you can store your belongings (in addition to the lockers at the entrance to the lounge).
There are cold drinks available right outside the sauna so you can rehydrate, and the lounge staff encouraged me to take a drink from the bar in as well (his suggestion was a nice whiskey). If this isn’t a relaxing way to wait for your flight, I’m not sure what is?!
The Hard Product
Finnair offers a standard 2-4-2 seating layout in Economy Class on its Airbus A330-300.
On board, the cabin felt spacious, clean and bright, aided by the pleasant mood lighting.
The plane itself wasn’t in 100% tip-top shape, but the only issues were cosmetic ones (i.e. nothing that would affect the safety of the flight). For example, some of the paint was chipped off the fuselage, and one of the Economy toilets was unserviceable for the entire flight.
Finnair A330 Economy seats
Initially I’d chosen a seat towards the front of the cabin. When I got to the airport and checked the seat map on ExpertFlyer, I noticed that the plane wasn’t full and that there were lots of empty seats towards the back of Economy. So, I switched to a window seat in row 65 which had an empty aisle seat beside it.
I found the seat itself fairly comfortable. The seat back had a good amount of padding, but the seat cushion had a bit of a “dip” – the kind that forms over many years of people sitting on it. This made the bottom part of the seat a bit firm.
The legroom was quite decent for Economy. It was enough to comfortably work on my laptop during the flight. The seat also reclined a bit more than I expected for an Economy Class seat – luckily, there was nobody sitting directly in front or behind me on this flight, so I could recline guilt-free!
On the Finnair A330-300, the first several rows of Economy Class seats in the middle block have several inches more legroom. Finnair sells these as “comfort” seats for a small additional fee.
Finnair A330 in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi
Every seat on Finnair’s A330 has a large, responsive and high-definition TV screen. Each seat also has access to USB and USB-C charging outlets, but there’s no universal power socket.
I really liked Finnair’s in-flight entertainment system, particularly the flight overview on the home screen. This shows a timeline of the flight including when the meals will be served and the estimated arrival time in both the origin and destination time zones.
There’s a comprehensive selection of movies, TV shows, music and games. For those who like to track the progress of the flight, there are two versions of the moving map (on the kids version, the plane looks like a Pterodactyl). There’s also a live feed from the plane’s external cameras.
If you prefer to watch something on your phone, there’s a handy device holder that folds out below the entertainment screen:
Finnair’s excellently named “Nordic Sky” Wi-Fi is available on most of its planes. This costs extra, unless you have Finnair Plus status.
I purchased a three-hour internet pass on this flight, which I was able to get at the discounted member price by logging into my Finnair Plus account (even though I was crediting the flight to Qantas Frequent Flyer). It wasn’t the fastest connection, so I don’t think you’d be able to stream movies. But it worked OK for what I needed.
The Soft Product
After being handed a bottle of water at the door of the aircraft, I also found a blanket and some (low-quality) headphones – but no pillow – waiting at my seat.
Finnair served one complimentary hot meal in Economy at the start of this flight from Helsinki to Dubai. There was only one “option”, but the airline does provide the opportunity to pre-order special meals if required.
On this flight, the single meal was chicken with rice and vegetables, which came with various sides.
Finnair offers unlimited complimentary water and blueberry juice on all of its flights, including in Economy. You could also order soft drinks and one “mild alcoholic beverage” (excluding sparkling wine) with the main meal. This was the only complimentary alcohol served in Economy on the entire flight. I chose to order Finnair’s signature Northern Blush cocktail with lunch, along with some blueberry juice.
I thought this meal was pretty good. Unfortunately, it was the only complimentary food served on the 7+ hour flight.
Other drinks were available throughout the flight. You could ask for soft drinks, juice or water at any time, and the lovely cabin crew regularly came through the aisles offering cups of water.
But the second “meal service” was about as anticlimactic as it gets for a long-haul flight on an ostensibly full-service airline. This was the menu on the entertainment system for the “before landing” meal service:
I was getting hungry towards the end of the flight, but couldn’t find anything on the snack menu that I thought was actually worth buying. So, I just asked for a cup of coffee when the cabin crew came around with the trolley 1 hour and 45 minutes before landing.
The snack menu was available on the entertainment system, and mainly consisted of sugary ambient snacks. The most substantial menu item was instant noodles.
You can pre-order more substantial snacks, including fresh options like salads, on Finnair’s short-haul flights – but not to Dubai. In hindsight, I should have brought my own snacks on board with me.
To be honest, I think that the stinginess with alcoholic drinks and the limited amount of food cheapened Finnair’s otherwise excellent long-haul Economy experience.
If Finnair would have even just provided a small sandwich or something before landing, I would have left this flight with a more positive impression. Even just something that would cost Finnair a few dollars per passenger to provide would have made a difference.
Now, I understand that Finnair’s logic here might be to avoid cannibalising sales from its onboard snack menu. Perhaps the airline wants passengers to feel hungry towards the end of the flight so they’re more likely to buy food! If this is the case, they could at least go to the effort of providing some fresh, healthy and more substantial food options for sale. The snacks available to purchase were uninspiring junk food.
With a duration of 7 hours and 40 minutes, this flight is comparable in length to one from Sydney to Singapore. When Finnair operates that route on behalf of Qantas, it does provide a free pre-landing snack – but that’s because Qantas decides what food to serve on those wet lease flights.
Finnair A330-300 Economy Class
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Airport Experience
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Hard Product
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Soft Product
Final thoughts
I had a comfortable and enjoyable Economy Class flight from Helsinki to Dubai on Finnair’s Airbus A330-300. The seat, legroom and entertainment were all good, although the plane was starting to show its age just a little bit.
I could not fault the airport experience in Helsinki, which was great, but there are a few small things that Finnair could do to improve the experience – such as replacing the seat bottom cushions on the A330 Economy seats.
While I liked the lunch that was provided at the start of the flight, I did think a small, complimentary fresh snack should have been served before landing. That said, the flight attendants were friendly and hard-working, and the airline did provide complimentary blankets.
Ultimately, I do feel that this flight was good value for money overall.
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