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How to fly to Dubai with Finnair with Avios for just £127 tax

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Finnair announced on Thursday that it was removing fuel surcharges on redemption flights for travel in Europe, to Dubai and to Tel Aviv.

Why is this interesting?  Because Finnair is a member of the oneworld alliance, like British Airways, which means that you can use your Avios points to redeem with them.

Let’s take a look at the costs of flying London to Helsinki to Dubai in Economy:

British Airways – 40,000 Avios plus £328 per person, return

Finnair – 40,000 Avios plus £126 per person, return

Finnair A350

This consists of 15,000 Avios + £35 to fly to Helsinki (using a British Airways Reward Flight Saver redemption) plus 25,000 Avios + £91 return for Helsinki to Dubai.  You need to book each flight separately on the outbound to avoid paying long-haul Air Passenger Duty.

This means an impressive saving of £200 per person.

Whilst Finnair flies from Manchester, this would push up the cost and reduce the saving.  An Avios redemption on Finnair from Manchester to Helsinki does NOT qualify for Reward Flight Saver and costs 15,000 Avios + £93.

This means that the total cost of Manchester – Helsinki – Dubai in Economy would be 40,000 Avios + £184.  You still save £134 over flying on BA but the saving is less impressive – on the upside, you save the trouble of changing planes in Heathrow.

Note that Dubai is a seasonal route for Finnair.  Services will finish in late March and should restart in late October.

It is also worth mentioning that ba.com was behaving a little oddly when searching for Helsinki to Dubai.  Some searches would bring up flights, identical searches a few minutes later brought up nothing.  Occasionally it would refuse to price services that it found.

Similar pricing is available on Finnair to Tel Aviv.  However, there is no point in booking this.  As Tel Aviv is under 3,000 miles from London, the direct British Airways redemption is only 25,000 Avios points plus £164 return in economy.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

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Barclaycard Avios card

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

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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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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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.

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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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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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.

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American Express Business Gold

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

Category

Finnair and Finnair Plus

Comments (38)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • sandgrounder says:
    11 Jan11 January 08:03

    if you are going for a full weekend before consider TLL as well. Great old town, good value, budget flights out there are often cheaper too. Then its a fast ferry tram and a bus and you are at HEL. Maybe not the best option from EDI but worth others considering.

    • James67 says:
      11 Jan11 January 09:49

      Thanks for tip Sandgrounder. I have been to Tallin and travelled through Estonia before so will give it a miss this time. However,like you, I would strongly endorse it to others; great place 🙂

  • JQ says:
    11 Jan11 January 08:37

    On the subject of 3Vs, has anyone seen any in Tesco recently?

  • George says:
    11 Jan11 January 08:39

    Do you think that Qatar cutting fuel surcharges will translate in refunds for pre-booked future cash tickets?

    • JQ says:
      11 Jan11 January 09:20

      No. What is a “pre-booked future cash ticket” anyway? Aren’t all tickets pre-booked for travel in the future?

      I tried to get a refund of HK$40 when HK reduced their permissible fuel surcharges but was told that it was applicable to the time when the ticket was booked.

      • George says:
        11 Jan11 January 10:00

        I thought so. I was referring to a ticket for a journey that will take place after the reduced fares have come into effect (to the best of my knowledge, even though Qatar has announced the reduction, it has still not trickled down to the booking systems)

  • Toby says:
    11 Jan11 January 09:35

    The problem is they use short haul aircraft with European seating.

  • Brian says:
    11 Jan11 January 09:50

    I thought the Air Belin option got you onto an Etihad aircraft?

    • Rich says:
      11 Jan11 January 10:40

      TXL – AUH is on an air Berlin A330.

      I am guessing that Finnair use a short haul aircraft from HEL- DXB which is probably why Raffles hasn’t commented about a business class redemption on this route.

      Good to see some airlines responding to lower fuel prices.

      • James67 says:
        11 Jan11 January 11:00

        Probably because his focus was on impact of AY scrapping fuel surcharges on y flights.

  • What's the Point says:
    11 Jan11 January 10:13

    We are flying LHR – TXL – AUH in April this year. Business on the leg that counts. Then flying back DXB-LHR in CW.
    Bit of hassle, but a bargain on the Avios and surcharges paid.

  • @mkcol says:
    11 Jan11 January 10:55

    Should I be able to find the reward availability on ba.com for the likes of AY’s HEL-DXB or QR’s LHR or MAN or EDI-DOH?
    I ask purely because every time I look for something akin to that I find nothing, or am forced to fly BA via LHR. I’m just never sure if the search I’m doing is “faulty”, if the BA site is playing up or if there’s just no redemption seats available!

    • James67 says:
      11 Jan11 January 12:18

      You should see what is available. QR seems to go from having huge chunks of availability at all three UK airports to none very quickly so best to look regularly over wide range of dates if you have the flexibility. If you are searching an itinerary that comprises more than two sectors it will not show so you need to break journey down to check availability for each sector then call to book. On itineraries via London you can get it to show more than two sectors by selecting the stopover option. Note that you can any same date for arrival and departure flights with stopover option thus allowing you to book three sector itineraries online.

  • PaulW says:
    11 Jan11 January 11:04

    I’ve flown this route before DXB – HEL and used the BA lounge in Dubai which was far from where the Finnair flight departed. Was very disappointed with the on board service, paid drinks (even soft drinks) although you do get complimentary food and the plane is in an entire economy configuration.

    Anyone looking for a bit of luxury the. I’d suggest Qatar or BA… Also don’t forget about the Air Berlin service to Abu Dhabi from Berlin which is a good value redemption.

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