Attractive long haul flight deals from Scandinavia from Finnair and Etihad
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Finnair – a British Airways partner – is currently selling Business Class flights from Oslo to Singapore for as low as NOK 13,360 (£1,100) return.
As well as Finnair’s excellent service, this is also a way of picking up some British Airways Executive Club tier points and Avios. You would earn 360 tier points for the return trip (40 for Oslo – Helsinki and 140 for Helsinki – Singapore, each way).
Helsinki to Singapore is an A350 route as far as I can see, which means that you would get the excellent new Finnair Business Class seat which I reviewed here.
It isn’t as lucrative for tier points as a Qatar Airways deal, so you should look at those too. Because Scandinavia to Doha is over 2,000 miles, triggering long-haul tier points, a return Business Class flight from Scandinavia to Singapore via Doha on Qatar Airways would earn 560 BA tier points (140 + 140 + 140 + 140) return. That is 90% of a British Airways Executive Club Silver card.
If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency. This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.
You can find out more about Finnair’s A350 on its website here.
Have a look at Etihad too …..
Etihad is currently running its own aggressive deals out of Oslo and Stockholm.
Deals are available around the £1,100 – £1,300 mark (business class) to:
- Bangkok
- Hong Kong
- Jakarta
- Manila
- Phuket
- Seoul
- Singapore
Sydney and Melbourne are also available for around £1,800 return.
You need to travel outbound by 25th June, although there are blackout dates between 2nd-12th January and 12th-26th April. No return flights are possible before 28th December or between 27th March and 12th April.
There is a snag though. Etihad does NOT fly from Stockholm or Oslo to Abu Dhabi. You cannot route Stockholm – Abu Dhabi – XXXXXX. You will be flying Stockholm / Oslo – [somewhere in Europe] – Abu Dhabi – XXXXXX. Let’s not forget that you need to get from the UK to Stockholm or Norway too!
You don’t earn Avios or British Airways tier points with Etihad although Etihad Guest is not a bad loyalty scheme. You can top up your miles using American Express Membership Rewards points. Here is my review of Etihad A380 Business and you get the same excellent seat on the Boeing 787, just without the bar.
Let’s be frank – these are excellent fares on an excellent airline but you need to love your flying to book them. You can book via the Etihad website here.
How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (March 2024)
Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card. However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.
Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:
- American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.
- The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Etihad Guest miles.
- American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for life.
Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate. The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.