PSA: Beware moving points into Finnair: Points expire end of month if your account has had 18 months inactivity

A member of our Frequent Miler Insiders Group on Facebook reported an unfortunate situation. He had moved his Avios points from British Airways to his relatively new Finnair account. Then, a few months later, when his Finnair account reached 18 months old, his points disappeared. Finnair had determined that his points had expired due to 18 months of inactivity. Ouch! Similar reports can be found here and here. Below, I’ll explain what’s happening and how to avoid the same fate.

Moving points doesn’t count as activity

Moving Avios from another program (like British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, etc.) to Finnair does not count as activity. So, if you move points into an account that has had 18 months of inactivity, those points will expire quickly. This is supported by Finnair’s FAQ about points expiry (found here) which states:

Transferring Avios doesn’t extend the validity of your Avios. This includes both transfers to other members and between different own loyalty program accounts (e.g. between Finnair Plus and British Airways Club).

Points expire at the end of the transfer month

Points don’t expire instantly when moved into an 18-month inactive account. Instead, the points expire at the end of the month in which they were transferred. I got this tip from a friend, and I verified it via an online chat with Finnair (note that the AI chat agent incorrectly told me that transferring from British Airways would count as activity — I had to chat with a real person to get the right answer):

External transfers might count as activity

What if you transfer points to Finnair from a transferable points program, like Capital One, that allows direct transfers to Finnair? Will that count as activity? The same friend who clarified for me that points expire at the end of the month believes that external transfers like this do count as activity.

The Finnair agent I chatted with disagreed:

Unfortunately, help desk agents often get the finer points of their programs wrong, so I don’t know who to believe. My bet is that my friend is right, but I wouldn’t gamble on it.

How to avoid losing your points

There’s a simple way to avoid losing your Finnair Avios. Keep them in your British Airways account until you need them, then move them to your Finnair account. You’ll have until the end of the same month to use those points. When you redeem your Finnair Avios, that will count as activity, and any remaining points will be safe for the next 18 months.

What if you then cancel the award and get your points back? Does the activity on your account still count? I don’t know (and the chat agent didn’t know either). The safe thing to do is to move points back to British Airways as soon as you can.

British Airways Avios expire after 36 months of inactivity, but it’s easy to reset the clock by spending Avios, earning Avios, or transferring Avios into British Airways from an external (non-Avios) source such as a transferable points program.

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