Decent Finnair sale to Thailand, Asia, India …. earns British Airways tier points and Avios

Finnair is a British Airways partner, courtesy of its membership of the oneworld airline alliance. This means that you will earn Avios and British Airways tier points on Finnair flights.

The new Finnair long-haul sale is therefore worth a look.

You can see full details here.

Some of the business deals look very attractive. Delhi is just £1,299 return, Phuket and Krabi are £1,299 and there are a few Chinese destinations from £1,199.

Economy tickets start from £419 to Chongqing.

You need to book by January 15th. You can depart from either Manchester or London to Helsinki and then onwards.

These are the dates where the sale prices are available for business class:

Bangkok, 6 January – 30 June, £1499

Chongqing, 7 January – 21 June, £1199

Delhi, 1 January – 31 October, £1299

Xi’an, 29 March – 21 June, £1199

Phuket, 11 January – 28 March, £1299

Krabi, 13 January – 28 March, £1299

Seoul, 7 January – 31 March, £1499

Hong Kong, 7 January – 31 May, £1799 (although cheaper to fly to Xi’an and redeem Avios for a Dragonair connection)

Tokyo, now – 30 September, £1999

You need to stay a Saturday night to get these fares. Full terms and conditions are on their offers page here.

Note that, unless Finnair has updated its IT recently, you cannot put in a British Airways Executive Club number at the time of booking – it needs to be added later via their ‘Manage My Booking’ function.

If your flight is scheduled to be on the new A330 aircraft then you will get the new fully flat beds in business class. On the A340 routes it is hit and miss, unfortunately.  Of the routes above, I think only Tokyo, Seoul and (until the end of the Winter timetable in late March) Hong Kong will almost guarantee you the new seat and you are always at risk of a last minute change of aircraft.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.