We visited Helsinki for two nights on our way back from our Norway trip. Originally, we planned to stay just one night and catch up with a high school friend. Finnair was in the middle of a strike, and our Sunday flight got canceled, so they moved our flight to Monday.

| Photos | Bergen | Helsinki | Schedule | Costs |

Helsinki

We flew in Finnair’s Eurobiz seats with a blocked middle from Bergen to Stockholm to Helsinki. We spent some time in the Bergen Airport Lounge, a clean, basic lounge that can be accessed via J tickets or mid-tier alliance status.

Helsinki’s airport was interesting. I felt the subway was located a couple hundred feet below the airport terminal level, and you could see the giant escalators going down. As you go down, there was a big TV screen showing some sort of dance performance.. I think we could hear the music as well. Random. The train connecting the airport with the city center was fast and spacious. 

Catching up with friends

As we originally only had Saturday night in Helsinki, we met up with my friend Nadia and her boyfriend that same night. We went to Colegio Bautista High School in Temuco, Chile. After high school, she went on to study law, become a human right law professor, while also doing tango on the side. She ended up liking tango much better and opened her own studio recently. Quite a life journey!

We went to the Ravintola Salve restaurant and tried out some traditional Finnish dishes—grilled fish and seafood soups. It was… okay. We shared high school memories. Nadia recalled how we organized a poetry contest at the student government level; I couldn’t remember it very well.

We went to Ravintola Salve restaurant and tried out some traditional finnish dishes. Grilled fish and seafood soups. It was.. okay. We shared high school memories. Nadia recalled how we organized a poetry contest at the student government level. I couldn’t remember it very well.

Flight cancellation

While we were hanging out at the coffeehouse, I got the final confirmation that our Sunday flight was officially canceled. Nadia gave us several tourist spot recommendations for Helsinki, but we were so tired by this point in our trip that we ended up not going out much the next two days.

Finnair gave us vouchers to airport hotels, but that would be a waste of our additionally gained day in Helsinki. After coming back to the hotel, I checked with them, purchased another Finnair Scandic Hotel voucher, and applied it toward a Sunday night stay extension. The idea would be to get reimbursed for these under EU261 compensation. On Sunday, we restocked on some medical needs (contact lens solution, pads), canceled Monday’s doctor’s appointment, and did laundry.

Scandic Helsinki Hub had a great buffet breakfast included in the Finnair voucher rate. We watched the movie Brothers Sun in the hotel’s second floor lobby area.

We took the light rail to a supermarket on the northern side of the city that had a coin laundry service. At one point, we got too tired of walking, so we got on scooters. We went to a bakery a mile away while the laundry was running. When it was done, I hung the laundry bag on my neck and took the scooter back to the bakery, which Christine thought looked goofy. We ended the day going to a Korean BBQ for dinner. It was a surprisingly good KBBQ. Fancy cuts, nice desserts.

Our flight back to LAX on Sunday was uneventful.  Apparently until last year Finnair allowed OneWorld Sapphire to their First Class Platinum Lounge, which has a built-in sauna facility. That policy changed recently and we could only access the Business Class Lounge. From my research, I read the Finnair Business Class seats tend to have smaller footrest areas, but there were 8 seats (the first row of each minicabin) that were the exception. We got those seats – 10D and 10H. Another passenger asked us if we could switch seats with them because his son was sitting pretty far from him in the business cabin. The son seemed a bit annoyed. I said yes at first, but then remembered about the footrest space, apologized and changed my mind. The footrest was spacious and I had no problem sleeping sideways. 

Finnair reimbursed all our costs from the delay and for the main EU261 compensation, offered a choice of either receiving $1,600 in cash or $2,400 (50% more) as a Finnair flight voucher. As we fly almost exclusively on points, I chose cash.

Costs

The trip cost us $4,300 and we used 555k points that covered flights and hotels that would have cost $15,000. Because both the LAX-LHR and HEL-LAX flight were delayed, we received a UK261/EU261 compensation of $2,300, bringing our final out-of-pocket spend to $2,000.

• $500 + 95k Virgin miles, LAX-London Virgin in Business
• $380 London-Bergen Norwegian Air in Economy
• $70 + 36k Avios, Bergen-Helsinki Finnair in Business
• $380 + 125k Avios, Helsinki-LAX Finnair in Business
• -$2,300 Delay Compensation
  • $700 Virgin Airlines UK261 compensation (3.9 hour delay)
  • $1,350 Finnair compensation (Cancelled and moved to a day later)
  • $250 Finnair compensation for one day’s expenses (Hotel, food, bus, scooter)
• $570 2 nights in London Hilton Doubletree Victoria Station
  • -$300 Hilton Credit Card Statement Credits
• $0 + 240k Hilton points, 5 nights in Bergen Opus XVI
• $170 + 1k Avios, 2 nights in Scandic Helsinki Hub
• $1,000 Food
  • -$150 Hilton Statement Credit toward dinner in hotel
• $460 Fjord Tours
• $230 Expenses
• $200 LAX Airport Taxi
• $220 Public Transit
• $400 Credit Card Fees