Is this the hottest airport lounge in the world?
Airport lounges can sometimes be described as comfortable waiting rooms, though airlines and lounge operators have gone to great lengths over the years to make the experience as nice and comfortable as possible in order to spoil their premium passengers.
Lounge offerings will almost always include food — sometimes buffet, sometimes restaurant-style, made to order — drinks, newspapers, comfortable chairs to lounge or work and often even showers. Access is usually either granted to an airline's premium passengers in business or first class or status holders.
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Some of the more exotic offerings in airline lounges including the ability to get haircuts — like in the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at London Heathrow's Terminal 3 – baths and foot massages — like in the Cathay Pacific First Class lounges in Hong Kong — and spa treatments — like if traveling with British Airways in Club World or First from London Heathrow or New York-JFK.
Finnair recently refurbished its lounge at its hub in Helsinki (HEL). With the refurbishment, it retained one feature from the previous lounge in the Platinum Wing, which, without any doubt, makes it the hottest lounge in the world: a sauna!
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What is otherwise a straightforward and quite decent lounge has interesting signage not normally seen in other lounges. Passengers who have access to the Finnair Platinum Wing can follow those signs and find themselves either in a female or male dressing room and then in a mixed sauna.
If you're traveling through HEL and have access to the lounge, you don't need to book an appointment to use the sauna. Instead, you can enter it at your leisure for free.
It's worth noting that the sauna is mixed gender — meaning you'll share with both male and female fellow travelers.
To get entry to the Finnair Platinum Wing, you'll need to be a Finnair Plus Platinum Lumo (up to four guests) or Platinum member (up to one guest). Additionally, Oneworld Emerald members can access with one guest. For all, you'll be able to access if your flight is leaving from the non-Schengen area during the same day and is operated and marketed by a Oneworld airline.
All photos by Christian Kramer/The Points Guy.
