Finnair Plus Now Uses Avios

Oneworld member Finnair has just adopted Avios as its new loyalty points currency, replacing Finnair Plus points.

Finnair becomes the sixth airline to use Avios after British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and Qatar Airways. Most of those airlines are owned by International Airlines Group (IAG), except for Qatar Airways which itself owns around 25% of IAG.

Finnair is not part of the IAG group of airlines, but it does already partner closely with British Airways and Qatar Airways through its Oneworld alliance membership. Finnair, which has had excess aircraft since losing access to Russian airspace, has also been operating flights on behalf of both carriers in recent years.

Transferring Avios into Finnair Plus

From around the middle of 2024, you’ll even be able to transfer Avios from British Airways Executive Club into Finnair Plus. This option isn’t available just yet, but Finnair’s website says:

Later in [northern hemisphere] spring 2024, you will be able to transfer your Avios between Finnair Plus and British Airways Executive Club accounts with a 1:1 ratio. Furthermore, you will be able to link your British Airways Executive Club account to your Qatar Airways Privilege Club or Iberia Plus account and transfer your existing Avios to your Finnair Plus account.

Once this feature launches, you’ll be able to indirectly convert both Amex Membership Rewards points and PayRewards Points into Finnair Plus Avios. This will be possible by:

1. Transferring Amex Membership Rewards points to Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios (2:1 transfer rate) or PayRewards Points to Qatar Avios (3:1 rate),
2. Transferring your Avios from Qatar Airways Privilege Club to your British Airways Executive Club account (1:1 transfer rate), and
3. Transferring your Avios from British Airways Executive Club to your Finnair Plus account (1:1 transfer rate).

Our guide to transferring Avios explains how to move Avios between the different programs that use this currency.

So, why would you transfer Avios into Finnair Plus? Well, there are a few reasons…

Finnair’s new award seat guarantee

Firstly, Finnair now guarantees a minimum number of award seats on its own flights:

• At least 4 Economy Class seats on all flights
• At least 2 Premium Economy seats on long-haul flights
• At least 2 Business Class seats on all flights (except ATR-72 flights without a Business cabin)

This guarantee does not include Finnair’s Doha-Stockholm or Doha-Copenhagen routes. And it’s still possible that there will no longer be seats on a particular flight you want because other people have already booked them. But it does mean that Finnair Plus members should find it easier going forward to find award availability on Finnair flights.

Unlike British Airways, it does not appear that Finnair is reserving this amount of Economy and Business award seats only for Finnair Plus members. (At least, not yet.) This means, for example, that Qantas Frequent Flyer members can also benefit from some of the extra award availability.

However, on a random flight that we checked, Finnair is currently reserving Premium Economy award availability for its own Finnair Plus members.

Upgrade on Finnair flights

You can also use Finnair Avios to upgrade Finnair flights to Premium Economy or Business, or to book award flights on Finnair’s other partner airlines.

Redeeming Finnair Avios for flights on partner airlines

Interestingly, Finnair has different award charts for travel on each partner airline – and award pricing on Oneworld partners does not match that of British Airways Executive Club Avios or Qatar Airways Privilege Club. This means it may (or may not) cost fewer Avios to book certain award flights on partners including Qantas, compared to using Avios in other programs.

For example, here is the award chart for Finnair Plus redemptions on Qantas:

While British Airways Executive Club uses a distance-based award chart for partner airline redemptions, Finnair Plus uses regional zones. This means short domestic Qantas flights cost fewer Avios when booking through British Airways Executive Club, but domestic routes over 2,000 miles are better value when booked through Finnair Plus.

For example, Finnair Plus charges 22,500 Avios + $147.72 for a one-way Qantas Business Class flight from Sydney to Perth. But British Airways Executive Club charges 38,750 Avios + $64.03. (It’s not clear why the Finnair Plus taxes & charges are so high – this appears to possibly be an error.)

By comparison, Qantas Frequent Flyer charges 41,500 Qantas points + $48.25 for the same Sydney-Perth redemption in Business.

Finally, and admittedly this is a bit niche, you can also redeem Finnair Avios to fly with Juneyao Airlines – something that isn’t possible with other programs that use Avios.

When booking award flights on partner airlines, you cannot combine flights on multiple airlines onto a single ticket (except for Finnair and one other airline). One free stopover is permitted on intercontinental round-trip awards (only).

Buying Finnair Plus Avios

Finnair also sells Avios for €27 (~AU$44) per thousand, at full price. The airline does occasionally offer discounts and bonuses during limited-time promotions. You can buy up to 200,000 Finnair Avios per calendar year.

Converting Avios into tier points

Interestingly, you can also exchange Finnair Avios for tier points. Tier points count towards Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum Lumo status within the Finnair Plus program.

The conversion rate is 3 Avios = 1 tier point, and you must convert at least 1,500 Avios at a time.

You can only exchange Avios for tier points once during each membership year, and there are limits to the number of tier points you can “buy” with Avios, depending on your tier. (These limits roughly equate to around 40% of the tier points you’d need to renew your existing status.)

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.