My British Airways flight didn’t start well. Having booked British Airways Club Europe (their European effort at business class) for our latest flight to Nice from London Heathrow Terminal 5 we were allocated a wetlease Finnair plane for our travels. When BA “wet lease” a plane (I know, it sounds like they’re having some form of messy campaign!) they take on a plane from another airline complete with its staff. This is what happened to our British Airways flight.
As an aside, I also booked a window seat at the BA online check-in but was re-allocated an aisle seat when I got to the gate. The airline had bought the club class curtain forward one row, taking away the row of business class seats that I had picked at online check-in. Usually, I get the seat I pick at online check-in, but this was not the case on our latest BA flight.
Why are BA using Finnair?
Online rumors suggest that BA is wet leasing these Finnair Airbus A320 planes because the airline picked up some of the old Flybe slots since it went bust, which is why they need to borrow some planes to fill these slots. I’m not sure how true this is, but it would seem logical.
What we do know for sure is that British Airways is short of planes and crew, and Finnair, which used to have a number of flights to Russia, has spare planes and crew, so they are operating some flights for BA. On the website, the flights are detailed as “Finnair for British Airways.”
How was the flight itself on British Airways wet lease Finnair?
Check-in was in the usual departure hall, and we used the Heathrow Terminal 5 North fast lane through security, which was surprisingly fast, particularly as we were traveling the day before Easter Sunday. This brought us out at the entrance of the Galleries Club Lounge North. We usually go to the Galleries Club Lounge South, but for a change of scene, we had a bite in the North Lounge for convenience.
The departure was from a gate in the Terminal 5 satellite, which required a quick tube-style train trip from the main terminal.
The plane itself was not that different from BA’s usual planes. Perhaps a touch cleaner and I actually preferred the grey fabric seating, which was brighter than the deep blue wipe-clean BA seats. We flew on an Airbus A320. The seat layout was much like BA, with a 3-3 setup and no one in the middle seat in Club Europe. The legroom and pitch seemed slightly more than standard BA, and the seats were slightly more comfortable. Maybe this was my imagination, maybe not.
This business class is not really a premium experience. It isn’t on Finnair, and it isn’t on BA, either. You have a little more room, although arguably, the seat in the middle is wasted space, and crucially, the overhead bins tend to be emptier in club class than in economy. You do get food and drink during the flight, which I really enjoy. Even if the food isn’t great, it’s nice to have a jolly person serving you a drink and a bite to pass the time. I value this human interaction on a dull flight.
Catering & staff on Finnair – British Airways
I was impressed with the Finnair air hostesses. There were three friendly and chatty air hostesses in the Club Europe cabin and they were full of smiles and were very super helpful in offering the drinks and food. Although the crew was all Finnair, the catering loaded was the BA afternoon tea service, the same as usual.
I felt they didn’t have the support that BA would usually give its staff as they hadn’t been told what the contents of the afternoon tea was, and had to explain to each of the 6 Club Class rows that they had guessed that one tray was offering beef and the other was vegetarian.
This is classic and usual British Airways afternoon tea. I went for veggie. My guess at the contents was a goat’s cheese roll, a sandwich with red in it, and a rather dry quiche. BA may be cutting back again, as it wasn’t very nice. I did, however, appreciate the sparkling water, tea, and scones.
I would always reccomend taking advantage of the food in the BA Galleries lounges pre-flight, as it is pretty lovely, whereas the food onboard the short-haul European flights is never particularly appealing, at least to me, although I appreciate having something to pick at, and drink during the flight.
The flight was smooth. We didn’t hear much from the pilots except at the start when they explained in a heavy Finnish accent that our departure had been delayed and then at the end to let us know when we had started our descent. The pilot had quite a heavy accent, so I didn’t manage to work out what he’d said about the weather on our arrival, but the landing was super smooth.
Conclusion
I have no complaints about the Finnair flight we experienced, and if BA allocates me another Finnair wet lease flight, I won’t be too worried. You get the same food and, if anything, better service, which tends to make or break the flight. The only thing I missed was an intelligible weather report from one of the jolly British Airways pilots. Otherwise, there was no disadvantage to flying Finnair, in my opinion.
Although the fact remains, that when you book a flight at a specific time on a specific airline, you expect to travel with that carrier at that time. In so many cases, the airline can change the plane, carrier, and staff to a completely different liner, change the time of your flight and sometimes the day of your flight, and even change the seat that you prebooked at the online check-in without offering any compensation.
When I was a kid, I used to visit the captain and joined several children’s frequent flyer clubs, which came with badges and sweets. I miss the days when the airlines seemed to care about their passengers…
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