Travel Diary

This vacation started as the second half of another vacation. I was done with my trip to New Orleans and instead of flying home I had decided to fly to New York, and then to London since, you know, I was already on the east side of the United States. Why not continue east farther?

The first thing I did was fly from New Orleans to NYC using JetBlue. Once at JFK, I got to learn that you can get from one terminal to another without having to go through security again – if you can find the transfer bus, which I did and that save me some time and headache. I think I was the only passenger on it.

Since I was flying on Finnair business class, I was able to check into the American Airlines flagship lounge, which I believe they partner with. It's a really nice lounge; they serve you champagne when you walk in. The food options were plentiful, and you have access to pour your own wine when there is no worker in the area, as the bottles were accessible. They have some good window spaces to watch the planes, but as well, there's plenty of seats, even though it was fairly crowded, so I guess depending on the time you're there, it may affect where you can sit.

After the lounge, it was time to board Finnair and find my business class seat. The seats were fairly new – and a bit unusual. Instead of a more traditional seat, it’s sort of a cubby area or you slide in and have pillows to prop yourself up. I'm not a huge fan of it, but it does allow for more movement inside the seat, although your legs have to go into a small cubby area when you lay flat.

One really cool thing was wireless charging, which came in handy with my iPhone. Champagne was served once I got settled in. I did notice that the storage area got packed fast, since I had my phone, a water bottle, my earbuds, a camera charger, a gimbal, and more. (They definitely could increase the storage area.) Once we were up in the air, wine was served and I ordered probably some of everything they offered. The meal was delicious. I believe I had a roll, salmon, a salad, rice, and chicken – with some key lime pie type dessert.

The TV screen was a decent size, although I don't think I used it for much. After a short time, I just turned my seat into the bed and slept. My stomach was a little uncomfortable from all the food and wine, but that wasn’t unusual. It made it harder to sleep though, but I managed.

After sleeping for some time, I awoke for breakfast and had the quiche, cheese, roll, fruit, yogurt, and more salmon. They definitely give you a large quantity of food, and thankfully, the quality is really good as well. Finnair does not disappoint in the culinary arena.

And finally, seven hours later, we were landing in Helsinki, Finland, where I would have a layover and then be on another flight to London. It was a bit of a hassle, but much cheaper than flying on British Airways, and I got to check out a new airline’s business class. I exited into Helsinki airport.

It was now Tuesday morning.