More movement in the world of loyalty, with Finnair planning to adopt Avois as its Loyalty Currency.
The Finnair Plus programme will make the change in early 2024. According to the airline, partnering with IAG Loyalty (the owners of the Avios programme) will bring new opportunities for existing and new Finnair Plus members to collect and use the program’s new loyalty currency.
The program will feature new milestone benefits to enable members to receive extra rewards, such as additional upgrade benefits, when reaching certain point limits within their existing tier.
As part of the changes, Finnair will also increase the number of award seats – the most popular award among members – and guarantee at least 4 award seats on Finnair flights within Europe and 8 on Finnair long-haul flights.
And as an extra incentive to join the Finnair Plus program, its members will now also receive complimentary internet access for messaging as a new benefit on Finnair’s short-haul European flights operated with the narrow-body Airbus fleet, regardless of their tier status.
What are the kickers?
There is a significant kicker, with Finnair moving from segment-based earning to spend-based earning (like British Airways and Iberia), except this applies both to Tier Points and Avios.
Finnair Plus award points will be converted to Avios with a 3:2 ratio, and the purchasing power of the current points remains unchanged – Avios prices are also updated with the same 3:2 ratio.
Tier limits will be revised to reflect the switch to Avios and the new spend-based earn of tier points. Collecting tier points and loyalty currency on partner-marketed or -operated flights will continue to be based on the travel class, booking class, and distance flown. However, you will collect based on miles, not kilometres, flown.
More information is now live
Finnair has launched a page on their site at https://www.finnair.com/gb-en/finnair-plus/finnair-plus-changes, which gives a lay of the land.
When flying on flights marketed and operated by Finnair, you will collect tier points and Avios from flight tickets and travel extras, such as seats, meals or extra baggage. However, taxes, fees and other airport and service charges will not collect tier points and Avios.
You will not be able to earn Tier Points or Avios from travel extras if you purchase them on board the flight or in connection with award flights.
In Quotes
Ole Orvér, Finnair’s Chief Commercial Officer, said:
“2024 marks the start of a new era with our loyalty program, with new benefits and improved options for our members to use their earned Avios – both within Finnair and IAG Loyalty’s partner network.“
“The move to a spend-based program rewards customers directly for their spend, just like many retail loyalty programs do. These moves allow us to leverage the full potential of our loyalty program and make it attractive to a wider audience.”
CEO of IAG Loyalty Adam Daniels, said:
“Finnair’s adoption of Avios is a recognition of the global significance of the currency, and the incredible value it has for members worldwide. They join a leading global network of airline partners, including British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling, and Qatar Airways.
“We are excited to play a central role in Finnair’s new era for their loyalty program and for their members.”
The value of points goes down as well as down.
I’ve always believed that the value of points, miles, etc is transient, with constant devaluation being a theme – either award prices change, or the goalposts shift significantly.
As such with this change, you can bet with even money someone will be adversely affected by the change, whilst others may find that spending more money may be the only way to earn the same amount of miles,
Finnair will communicate the exact date for the changes to the members later this year. We’ll have to wait and see how this shakes down – although the Iberia and BA versions of the change should give us a few hints…
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Was hoping this move might bring some interesting new non-Oneworld airline partners to earn & redeem Avios on… there’s only Braathens (Sweden) and Juneyao Air (China).