For those who are members of Finnair Plus, you would have been locked out of your account this weekend as Finnair completed the migration to Avios as its loyalty currency.
Now fed on Avios – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
Finnair joins fellow oneworld airlines, including British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways in using Avios for their frequent flyer programme earn and spend currency (with Aer Lingus, LEVEL and Vueling too).
The airline has taken the opportunity to switch to “revenue-based earning” – in terms of Avios and Tier Points.
What can you earn?
Like a lot of programmes, it will vary how far up the tree you are in Finnair Plus:
- Basic –6 Avios and tier points per €1 spent
- Silver – 7 Avios and tier points per €1 spent
- Gold – 8 Avios and tier points per €1 spent
- Platinum – 9 Avios and tier points per €1 spent
- Platinum Lumo – 10 Avios and tier points per €1 spent
This is based on spend on flight and travel extra purchases with Finnair. It excludes taxes, fees (except for possible extra fees set by the airline), other airport and service charges and travel extra purchases made onboard the flight or in connection with an award flight.
You can collect tier points from:
- Flight and travel extra purchases with Finnair based on the revenue earned pre-taxes and fees
- Flights marketed or operated by an oneworld partner airline based on travel class, booking class and miles flown
- Purchases made with a Finnair Visa Credit card, when you make purchases of at least €1,500 per month (provided you can get hold of it)
You can collect Avios from:
- Flight and travel extra purchases with Finnair based on revenue earned pre-taxes and fees
- Flights marketed or operated by a partner airline based on travel class, booking class and miles flown
- Purchases made with Finnair Visa Credit card
- Finnair Plus partners’ services
Your tier affects the final number of Avios and Tier Points you earn. The higher your tier is at the time of flying, the more Avios you collect.
How does it look in the booking system?
I’ve run a basic search between London Heathrow and Helsinki, with both Economy and Business Class, showing the base 5x earnings.
(Three-day trip, Departing LHR 19th April, return from HEL 22nd April)
From the Economy Class, it is anything from 533 Avios and Tier points, scaling up to 926 when spending the money on a flexible fare
The amplification effect or spending more to earn more can be seen here, with the light ticket earning a mere 1,690 Avios. Scale up to business flex, and it’s 2,522 Avios.
Going through my previous flights, I earned 2,260 Avios on a business promotions fare in 2022 and 848 Avios in Mid-Economy in 2023.
Existing Points
All Finnair Plus Member points are in the process of being converted to Avios, with some backlog of February flights being processed at the time of writing.
The conversion was done at a 3:2 ratio – where 3 award points are now worth 2 Avios.
Tier points have been converted accordingly, along with the reward charts.
Elite Qualification
Elite Frequent flyer programme qualifications (along with reward milestones) have been published. It’s going to take a lot to earn those benefits…
For those who need the oneworld equivalents:
- oneworld Ruby – Finnair Plus Silver
- oneworld Saphire – Finnair Plus Gold
- oneworld Emerald – Finnair Plus Platinum or Platinium Lumo
Integration with other Avios programmes
There’s going to be a level of integration with the British Airways Executive Club, as you will be able to link the accounts later in spring 2024 and transfer your Avios between your loyalty program accounts.
No formal date has been confirmed.
From here you can use your British Airways Executive Club account to link to Qatar Airways Privilege Club or Iberia Plus account to transfer your Avios around.
A Brave New World… for Finnair Plus
For those hit, head to https://www.finnair.com/gb-en/finnair-plus/finnair-plus-changes, where most of the questions you have will have some answers.
Like a lot of us recently, we’re all adapting how to earn points and tiers effectively and cheaply in the new world.
For Finnair Plus members, it could be a lot harder, when both Avios and Tier points are tied together at the hip.
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