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Finnair announced numerous changes to its Finnair Plus loyalty program. While changes were initially expected to launch in January 2024, it was announced that the new program will actually launch in March 2024. The changes probably don’t look good to long-time Finnair loyalists, but as a collector of transferable currencies, I saw a number of bright spots in today’s announcement. Given that few readers probably credit to Finnair for the purposes of earning elite status or earning milestone rewards, I’m going to focus this post on award chart changes.
Finnair joining the Avios family
As a reminder, Finnair is going to be sharing the Avios loyalty currency with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Qatar Airways. While each airline offers its own frequent flyer program (with its own award charts and award policies), they all share the “Avios” currency. Avios points can currently be moved freely between your loyalty accounts with the existing 4 airlines that use Avios. Beginning in March 2024, you’ll also be able to move Avios to and from Finnair.
That’s good news because it means that there will be numerous ways to collect points that can be used with Finnair. While Finnair Plus has long been a Capital One transfer partner, it isn’t currently possible to transfer points from other transferable currencies to Finnair Plus. Once Finnair adopts the Avios currency, it will suddenly be possible to move points from all of the major transferable currencies to Finnair Plus, whether directly or indirectly by transferring to one of the other Avios airlines. That also means that you’ll be able to take advantage of transfer bonuses to any of those airlines.
Unfortunately, existing Finnair Plus points will convert to Avios at a rate of 3:2. In other words, if you have 300,000 Finnair Plus points at the time that Finnair Plus adopts Avios, you’ll end up with 200,000 Avios. That probably feels like a raw deal for anyone hoarding Finnair Plus points, particularly because some of the award chart changes will already have a negative affect on the value of each Finnair Plus point — losing value on the conversion from Finnair Plus points to Avios probably feels like an extra kick.
That said, as someone without any existing Finnair Plus points (or not very many), I am happy to see some situations where Finnair differentiates its award chart from other Avios-based programs.
New Finnair Plus Award Chart for Finnair Flights
Finnair has launched a new award chart in March 2024 for its own flights that doesn’t look too bad. Economy class awards will cost a pretty standard 30,000 Avios each way and business class awards will cost 62,500 Avios each way, which is a decent deal for folks further west (particularly if you’re able to land a transfer bonus).
Taxes and fees ring in around $150 each way on Finnair (departing the US was around $140 and departing Finland was around 150 Euro).
Sadly, folks with connections beyond Helsinki will pay the cumulative price for each separate segment. However, if you’re connecting in Finland or Northern Europe, you will not pay for the connection separately. For example, here is New York to Helsinki to Rovaniemi for the same 62,500 Avios.
However, if you connect onward top Paris, you’ll pay 82,500 Avios.
Keep in mind that if the flights you want are available to partners, they may cost fewer Alaska Airlines miles. That said, Finnair allows a longer booking window, which means you can book flights farther in advance. They may also release more seats to their own members on some flights.
The award charts as they stand are neither incredible nor terribly bad. If you wanted to fly from New York to Helsinki, you would pay 30K in economy class or 62.5K in business class. If you wanted to fly from New York to Helsinki to Rovaniemi, Finland to visit Santa Claus Holiday Village, you would pay the same 30K / 62.5K since the connection is in Finland or Northern Europe. However, if you wanted to fly from New York to Helsinki to Amsterdam (in Central Europe), you would pay 42K in economy class or 70.5K in business class (30K / 62.5K from New York to Helsinki + 12K / 18K from Helsinki to Central Europe). Trips to European destinations outside of Finland and Northern Europe quickly become a less interesting deal.
Furthermore, Finnair is setting the following minimum award availability guarantees:
- Short haul flights will have at least six award seats (two in business and four in economy)
- Long haul flights will have at least eight award seats (two in business, two in premium economy, and four in economy
For years, finding Finnair award space was nearly impossible. Things have improved a bit on that front in recent years, but it’s great to see this turn into a minimum guarantee.
New Finnair Plus Award Chart for partner airlines
Finnair will be launching new individual award charts for each of its partner airlines. While some of the partner charts aren’t particularly interesting, there are some “sweet spots” that could make for niche opportunities.
For instance, the Alaska Airlines award chart shows a flat charge of 13,500 Avios from North America to Hawaii.
That won’t be a good deal for connecting itineraries to Hawaii, but the economy class rate of 13,500 Avios one-way undercuts British Airways Avios for flights from the west coast / Alaska to Hawaii (which would cost 16K Avios via British Airways).
Similarly, Finnair will come in below Avios on some routes within North America, which includes both continental US and Canada, at 11K Avios in economy class or 30K in “first class”. Keep in mind that this pricing is only for a nonstop flight (otherwise you’ll pay for each segment). If the 30K pricing holds up for true 3-cabin transcontinental first class, that could be a nice deal if you find availability.
The award chart for flights on Qatar Airways is also pretty good. Some of the longer flights across Africa, like Doha to Accra could be an especially good deal at 16.5K in economy or 38.5K in business class and Qatar to/from Europe at 41,250 Avios could also be an excellent deal that is a bit better than what American Airlines would charge before considering that you might be able to hit a transfer bonus and pay significantly less.
Not every partner chart presents opportunity to do better than you would with other Avios programs, but I’m happy to see at least a few opportunities for a better deal via Finnair Plus. I’d rather see a handful of opportunities to save a couple thousand miles than have a unified chart with no interesting sweet spots.
Again, if you’ve been collecting Finnair Plus points and they both get converted 3:2 to Avios and you face these new redemption rates, I could certainly understand the disappointment. But if you’re most likely to be transferring from US-based credit card programs (and hopefully with a transfer bonus), there are some reasonable deals here.
Loyalty program / elite status changes
In addition to all of the above, Finnair announced that it is going revenue-based in terms of both earning Avios and earning elite status. One Mile at a Time has the finer details, but the bottom line is that you’ll earn Finnair Avios and tier points based on how much you spend on flights rather than how far you fly. It’s disappointing to see that move, though the industry has been moving in that direction for years.
More interestingly, One Mile at a Time points out that it will be possible to redeem Avios for tier points at a rate of 3 Avios to 1 Tier point. The Tier Point requirements for elite status are as follows:
- Finnair Plus Silver status will require 15,000 tier points
- Finnair Plus Gold status will require 45,000 tier points (oneworld Sapphire)
- Finnair Plus Platinum status will require 80,000 tier points (oneworld Emerald)
- Finnair Plus Platinum Lumo status will require 300,000 tier points (250,000 of which have to be earned on Finnair)
We don’t yet know whether there will be limits as to how many Avios can be converted to tier points, but Ben points out that oneworld Sapphire would only require converting 135,000 Avios to Finnair tier points. I’m not sure I’m a buyer of oneworld elite status at that price, though if you mix in a decent transfer bonus I could see it being attractive enough for some people to transfer points and effectively redeem them toward elite status. That might make Finnair an interesting program for crediting oneworld flights to if you are able to make up a significant number of tier points via conversion. We’ll see.
Bottom Line
Overall, I find these changes to be pretty rough for long-time Finnair loyalists, but pretty good for US-based collectors of transferable points. Finnair won’t become the new darling of the award booking world, but there will at least be some opportunities where Finnair will make more sense than other Avios-based programs. Furthermore, if it becomes possible to gather meaningful oneworld elite status in whole or in part through points transfers, there could be some draw in that.
H/T: One Mile at a Time
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@ Nick — Can you guys please post the old Finnair PARTNER award charts for reference? I cannot find them anywhere. I’d like to see exactly how bad the devaluation is, but Finnair has done a great job convoluting/hiding the facts on this one.
Have you tried wayback machine? It’s great for finding old sites or stuff that was taken down. You just need the old url where the chart used to be.
Can you guys post a link?
So, does this mean you need to call in to book domestic AA flights? Also, what are the award taxes on those domestic flights?
Did you mean 80.5k in business class?
Another day, another devaluation. I dread announcements from programs that start with “Enhanced Benefits Coming Your Way!”
Transatlantic flights to Casablanca on Royal Air Maroc have decent rates on AY avios under the new pricing. I think 50,500. Depending on taxes and fees on AY, AA may have better overall pricing with only 5.60 passed on in fees in addition to their 57,500 miles, but their miles are much harder to come by than avios.
When did BA raise west coast to Hawaii to 16k? I made a redemption last year and pretty sure it was around 13k.
In the last month or so.
Nice. Raise award price just as cash price has been hitting bottom low.
My understanding is there is an upper limit to how many Award points you can transfer 3:1 to Tier points. Basic and Silver members can exchange up to 15,000 tier points (Gold up to 40k, Platinum/Lumo up to 75k).