Background: My initial reaction to the cancellation of my Lufthansa A340-300 flight LH426 from Frankfurt to Philadelphia was disappointment, seeing as how I was hoping to catch the LH A343 for the first time. But then I realized that the replacement flight on a Finnair A350-900 operating for Eurowings Discover would be a pretty unique flight opportunity, and in fact, I'd be flying on its first day of operations.
Lufthansa decided to transfer some of their North American routes to EW Discover over the winter this year, and then a subset of those routes was scheduled to be operated by Finnair under a wet lease agreement using their A350-900. As far as I know, this is all just a temporary arrangement, in place only this winter, so I was excited to unintentionally end up on the first such flight FRA-PHL. Also as far as I know, this would be the first time Finnair ever flew into Philadelphia International Airport.
Please enjoy this trip report, and I look forward to your comments.
FRA-PHL
EW Discover 4Y050 operated by Finnair
Departure: 13:00 (actual 13:49)
Arrival: 17:00 (actual 17:12)
Actual Block Time: 8h23
Actual Flight Time: 8h3
Seat: 3L Business Class
Airbus A350-900
I had originated in London, flying LCY-FRA on Lufthansa flight LH927, operated by Lufthansa Cityline E190 D-AECH. I arrived FRA Gate Z13 at 10:27, giving me plenty of time to transfer to Gate C18, where boarding for EW Discover was set for 12:20 and departure for 13:00.
EW Discover is a relatively new airline in the Lufthansa group. I had not planned to fly with them, and frankly didn't really know what to expect, other than the fact that I was flying on their first flight to Philly on a plane operated by Finnair. I was excited to give it a try, and it was special to unexpectedly be on the first flight.
I first spent some time in the Lufthansa Bistro Lounge at Gate C14. Then, expecting a passport check prior to boarding, I headed to Gate C18, getting there 25 minutes before scheduled boarding, just in time to see the flight crew going through the gate down to the bus to the plane. All the gates in this area of FRA are bus gates. There was indeed a passport check, but with essentially no line. Once that formality was complete, I took a seat to wait for boarding to be called.
I had been surprised that there was no line for the passport check...but apparently that was because it had not yet been announced. 10 minutes later, they decided to announce the mandatory passport check, and only at that point did everyone else go get in line for it. I was glad I avoided the huge line that resulted from the announcement.
Boarding was finally announced 20 minutes behind schedule, despite the fact that there was still a long line of people waiting to get their documents checked. Nevertheless most people decided to go ahead and attempt to board, resulting in most people being turned away, since they had not yet gotten their documents checked. This predictably led to a huge mob of people unable to go to where they needed to go. I don't know why it's so hard to board an international flight.
I finally made it out to the first bus to the plane. My airplane today was a Finnair A350, making Finnair only my second A350 operator after Delta. My A350-900 today was the Finnish-registered OH-LWG. OH-LWG has flown for Finnair since 2016, making this the oldest A350 I've flown. Of course six years is not old for an airplane, and I usually fly much older planes!
During boarding:
I was finally onboard by 13:00, our scheduled departure time. It seemed like we were going to be departing late for no obvious reason, other than that they neglected to start the document check in a timely fashion, leading to pointlessly delayed and slow boarding. In any case, boarding was through the second door and the last door, and I was happy to be onboard the beautiful modern A350, featuring a great contemporary business class cabin, with 1-2-1 reverse herringbone-style seats A-DH-L, angled away from the aisle, all with aisle access. My seat was window seat 3L.
Seat 3L:
The flight attendant was waiting for passengers to board, and she promptly greeted me and offered a beverage before we depart - either sparkling wine, a signature nonalcoholic beverage called The Bay, or a water. I decided on a sparkling wine to toast this unique flight. I asked the flight attendant about the flight, and she confirmed that she was an employee of Finnair, and it was their first time flying to Philadelphia.
Settling in, the seat had a Finnair safety card, a Eurowings pillow and blanket, and a souvenir Lufthansa tote bag, where each one features one of seven different Lufthansa destinations, to collect them all. The cabin was very light, in white and grey tones, plus there were no overhead compartments in the middle, making the cabin seem large, spacious and airy. Also spacious? My seat 3L. I hadn't flown in a reverse herringbone seat in a while. The footwell was very large, there was a nice-size screen, and overall I thought it was a very good seat. The headphones were single-prong, but a two-prong adapter was provided at each seat to plug them in. And at the front of the cabin, mounted to the bulkhead, there was a large screen displaying the view from a camera mounted on the tail of the aircraft.
Footwell:
Overhead panel:
Seat controls & remote control:
Safety card:
While waiting for the second busload of passengers to arrive, my pre-departure beverage was served, and I thought I'd deploy the screen to check out the Finnair Nordic Sky Entertainment system. I found plenty of movies and TV series, and picked out three or four movies to watch.
Pre-departure beverage:
Screen & footwell:
Welcome screen:
The captain made an announcement to welcome us onboard this Eurowings Discover service, first in German then in English; if I had to guess, the captain spoke German as a second language, because he had a different accent than I expected. He introduced himself and the other pilots on the flight deck, and advised that the flight time today would be shorter than usual, at only 8h, so he still estimated landing on schedule, with smooth skies to Philadelphia.
Next a Eurowings Discover menu was handed out. At 13:45 boarding was announced as completed and the boarding door was closed. According to the view from the tail camera, the stairs were being removed and all cargo doors were also closed.
The view from 3L:
Pushback occurred at 13:49. Finnair's safety video was played, and we took off from 07C at 14:00. I enjoyed good engine noise initially, which then quieted down; the A350 is a modern quiet plane, after all. It was a pretty long roll, and we smoothly lifted off.
Frankfurt Airport:
After takeoff:
Our intended route:
The bulkhead screen switched off from the tail camera and instead began displaying the map, showing 8h3 to go, meaning an arrival time of about 17:05 local time. The purser made an announcement: on behalf of Eurowings Discover, welcome onboard this Airbus A350. This flight to Philadelphia is operated by Finnair. The flight time is 8h. She apologized for departing late, but she was expecting an on-time arrival due to the short flight time. Her announcement was in English, followed by German. My first movie was In Good Company with Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace from 2004.
Hot towels began the service, followed by nuts and drinks. The beer choice was from Eurowings Discover - Beck's - as was the glassware. I joked to the flight attendant that I'd like to try a Finnish beer, and she said I'd have to try a Finnair flight to Helsinki, because while she does recommend their beers, today the catering was for Eurowings Discover.
Nuts & beer:
Appetizers were served next. I went with the German Speciality of pickled roast beef with lime pepper on truffled celery crème and roasted pumpkin slices. It was served on a tray with a Salad of baby leaf lettuce, olive oil, and balsamic dressing.
Appetizer:
Main courses were served next. The appetizer tray was removed, and the main served, along with a fresh serving of bread. My main was Homage to Jamaica - grilled jerk chicken with pineapple coriander chutney, and grilled pineapple on coconut rice with red beans. The main smelled really good, and I enjoyed how unique it was to get a Jamaican-style dish onboard. And it was really good, too.
Main:
I complimented the Jamaican main to the flight attendant, who agreed and said it was the best choice in her opinion. Speaking of my flight attendant, she was very friendly and caring, and was providing excellent service.
Dessert was served next: sour cream shortbread with cherry compote. Plus some chocolates.
Dessert:
Dessert was also very good. Overall it had been quite a good meal service on Finnair Eurowings Discover. It was now 16:00 European time, or 11:00 Eastern time, and we had 6h to go. We were south of Iceland, about to begin the transatlantic crossing.
Beginning the transatlantic crossing:
My next movie was State of Play with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck from 2009. The flight attendants were making multiple passes through the cabin checking on the passengers and offering drinks.
State of Play finished with 3.5h to go, and we were still showing as on-time. My next movie was The Batman from 2022. I had been a fan of the Christian Bale Batman series, and didn't care to watch a new one; however, several people had recommended it to me, and I had promised to watch it on a plane sometime.
With about 3h to go, no midflight snack service had been offered, so I decided to ask about the warm cookie service shown in the menu, and to drink, I requested a gin and tonic with Elephant gin.
Warm cookie service on request:
With 2h to go, just north of Quebec City, the second meal service began with warm towels and then The Bay drinks offered to everyone. Then the meal trolley came out, and everyone got a meal tray with everything on it. The second meal, or light dinner as described in the menu, included Spanish Tapas with grilled bell pepper, goat cheese, balsamic marinated onions, olives, and manchego cheese with apricot-mustard chutney, as well as Potatoes Papas Arrugadas with mojo sauce and citrus fruit salad. I also got a second glass of The Bay.
Light dinner:
The second meal was also quite good, and better than expected based on the description in the menu. I particularly liked the sauce to put on the potatoes. And I wasn't expecting both the tapas and potatoes, rather a choice of only one, so it was a nice surprise to get both.
Cookies & The Bay:
After the light dinner:
The captain announced our descent into Philadelphia to land in 30-35 minutes, latest at 17:00. The weather was cloudy and 18 degrees. "Oh behalf of the Finnair crew, thank you for choosing us for part of your journey on this Eurowings Discover flight."
Our route:
On approach to PHL:
Landing took place at 17:03 and we parked at gate A17 at 17:12. The US government counts a flight as on-time if it is no more than 15 minutes late, so the first Finnair flight to Philly was on-time, despite the horrendous boarding back in Frankfurt.
At the gate in PHL:
We parked beside Qatar A350-900 A7-ALY. Historical note, PHL was the first A350 destination in the USA, served by A350 launch customer Qatar since 2015.
This was my first time flying internationally into the US in about 33 months, and my first time ever flying internationally into Philly as my port of entry. It was really quick and easy to enter into the US in Philly, with only one international flight arriving at the time. The checked bag delivery was fast as well.
This had been a very nice flight. The Finnair flight crew had provided excellent service. The flight attendants were so friendly and attentive. Both meal services were really good, with each course delicious. And I had very much enjoyed the novelty of flying on a Finnair plane, operated by a Finnair crew, for a flight by Eurowings Discover, in place of a cancelled flight by Lufthansa. And I liked flying an A350 to PHL, the original A350 destination in the US. And of course I appreciated the unexpected chance to fly on this first Finnair flight to PHL.