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Finnair restricts Avios flight reward bookings in business class

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One Mile at a Time is reporting that Finnair has started to block its business class availability for partner airline award redemptions beyond 60 days in advance.

This means you will no longer be able to book Avios tickets on Finnair as soon as flights are released. Other oneworld and Finnair partners face the same restrictions.

Whilst this is annoying, Finnair is not the first airline to do so. Lufthansa, SWISS and Singapore all restrict First Class availability to their top frequent flyer members up until a few weeks before departure (or, in the case of SWISS, never offer it at all).

Finnair A350

It looks like Finnair may be limiting availability for all but its top tier Platinum and Platinum Lumos members.  Unfortunately there is no formal announcement of these changes that clarify the exact restrictions that have been imposed.

Economy does not appear to be affected by this change – these appear available beyond 60 days in advance.

Here is an example – Helsinki to London is available for 22nd March in Business Class:

Finnair Avios availability

…… but not 23rd March, or any day thereafter:

Finnair Avios availability

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Category

Finnair and Finnair Plus

Comments (211)

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

  • stevenhp1987 says:
    24 Jan24 January 11:52

    OT: Got my first Virgin CC statement generated after the cap came in.

    Accidentally spent £10 more than the cap, got the full points anyways.

    • Heathrow Flyer says:
      24 Jan24 January 11:57

      Interesting. I’ve spent considerably more than the cap this month so am keen to see what VM have done for me.

      Any other data points would be good to hear.

      • Shoestring says:
        24 Jan24 January 11:59

        there was a hint that it doesn’t apply to Premium cardholders – let’s see

        • EwanG says:
          24 Jan24 January 12:06

          I thought Rob said it doesn’t apply to cardholders with status – can’t recall if it was Gold only, or Gold and Silver! Is that what you are referring to Shoestring?

        • stevenhp1987 says:
          24 Jan24 January 13:24

          I have the Premium card without any VS status, just a lowly Red.

          I imagine this is more an error on VMs part than anything else…

          • Rob says:
            24 Jan24 January 14:31

            That’s not what we’re saying. We’re saying that Gold members of VS are not impacted by the ‘you can’t churn your credit mid month’ rule.

          • stevenhp1987 says:
            24 Jan24 January 14:47

            @rob, yes I got that. I was just pointing out that I’m not Gold, yet they gave me full miles above the cap…

    • Benilyn says:
      24 Jan24 January 12:37

      Steven – did you get a letter about the cap?

  • Alex M says:
    24 Jan24 January 12:31

    OT: Finally decided to create Airfungus acct to move my IB avios to HHA BA.

    Have been trying for 3 days on different computers and browsers and every bloody time get this message in the end: “Unfortunately we are unable to complete your registration.” No explanation why.

    Called CS, but they were useless. Anyone else experienced this? Any advice on how to deal with this? Thank you!

    • Shoestring says:
      24 Jan24 January 12:36

      pretty sure CS can move your Avios direct from IB to BAEC on the phone, not that it resolves things going forward

      you’ve tried both combinations, I suppose? ie
      log into BAEC, pull Avios from AL
      log into AL, push Avios to BAEC

      check all ID/ profile details tally/ match perfectly (esp home address/ email address/ name)

      • Alex M says:
        24 Jan24 January 12:50

        Harry, I don’t have AL acct yet – the system does not allow me to create one – that’s the problem.
        And, as I understand, I can’t move from IB to BA directly if I am part of HHA.

        • Shoestring says:
          24 Jan24 January 13:01

          that last bit is true enough

          ah I see I was jumping the gun/ not reading properly – quite a few people had problems setting up a/c with Aer Club, I think they resolved it by using completely new details and not trying to resurrect old avios.com details

          ie your avios.com details are stuck in AerClub’s system and it won’t let you use them a second time

          so try new everything in terms of email address, user name etc

          • EvilDoctorK says:
            24 Jan24 January 13:57

            I had a similar issue with that same error message – Aer Lingus fixed it for my in a day or two after talking to them via the web chat form

            Works fine now to get them from Iberia -> Aer Lingus ( shows as ‘Avios Partners’ rather than Aer Lingus or AerClub in the Combine my Avios tool on IB )

            The BA.com combine my avios link seems sick at the moment so can’t do Aer Lingus -> BA but I guess that should work .. at any rate was able to get them out of IB which wasn’t possible going directly to BA

        • ankomonkey says:
          24 Jan24 January 14:34

          Fungus IT sucks. I’m still waiting for my free joining Avios…

          • JAXBA says:
            24 Jan24 January 17:23

            I emailed them a little while after Aer Club launched and I got mine. Easy.

    • Lady London says:
      24 Jan24 January 12:40

      Airfungus :-). Never heard that one before. Or did your text editor do that? Brilliant.

      • Alex M says:
        24 Jan24 January 12:51

        No, my text editor is not that clever, I had to come up with this myself (but to be honest, I heard it on HFP some time ago, from another frustrated AL customer, probably).

      • BJ says:
        24 Jan24 January 13:03

        That’s what people called BA before the deep clean last year.

      • Unsavage gerbil says:
        24 Jan24 January 13:07

        Aer Fungus, been called that in jest since at least the 1970’s,

        The Gerbil

        • AJA says:
          24 Jan24 January 17:08

          +! Aer Lingus has been known as Air Fungus for donkeys years. Along with TAP standing for Take Another Plane and Delta being an acronym for Don’t Expect Luggage To Arrive.

      • Mikeact says:
        24 Jan24 January 13:37

        @LadyLondon Hi, as this is Bits today….. I was scrolling back looking for something last night and I happened across one of your posts in 2003 ! Basically, I think you were relatively new to Avios and hadn’t really considered Long Haul and were promoting Short Haul … I think that was the gist of it. I guess times have changed over the last 8/9 years or so and you now turn left ? !

        • Lady London says:
          24 Jan24 January 18:25

          Hi @Mikeact, could not have been 2003 on here. Rob’s not that old!

          Over time, like a lot of people here I’ve got cheaper on short haul but will invest cash, or miles and points, on long haul.

          I’ve also been into status, out of it, and now considering whether I bother again with status. Likely to change back into yes to status – with Star Alliance not One world. For me, the jury’s still out on whether status with Virgin/KLM will ever become useful, for now.

      • yorkieflyer says:
        24 Jan24 January 18:07

        Michael Douglas, amongst others has a saucier name for them…..

    • rams1981 says:
      24 Jan24 January 14:12

      I had this. I called Aer Lingus and it was was due to having a previous Avios account. They deleted it and it was then fine when I registered.

      • Alex M says:
        24 Jan24 January 18:39

        That could be it! I did have avios account, but CS guy didn’t ask me if I did, so it did not cross my mind this could be an issue. Thank you so much!

        • DaveL says:
          25 Jan25 January 00:47

          Just to add, I also had this recently and was due to an old avios.com account. However, I had to call Avios CS (number on website) and they changed my old under name, which then enabled me to register with Aer Lingus.

          So, just a note that you may need to call the avios.com CS to get this sorted.

  • Jon says:
    24 Jan24 January 12:40

    OT: is there a referral bonus for the HSBC World Elite mastercard?

    • Rob says:
      24 Jan24 January 14:33

      No. Every 12-18 months there is some additional promo though, most recently a free hotel night.

  • Alan says:
    24 Jan24 January 13:24

    I know there has been lots of chat over teh last few days about Revolut top ups showing up as cash advances (I have been caught a little bit mysefl with this) but are Revolut saying that this is the way it will be now going forward or were they looking in to getting it back tohowit used to be? Sorry, but seem to have missed the definitive answer on this in the general “fog” of postings.

    • jc says:
      24 Jan24 January 15:46

      Their official line is that they are trying to get it changed back
      Just don’t hold your breath

      • Alan says:
        24 Jan24 January 20:11

        OK thanks. Let’s hope they succeed!

      • Grant says:
        24 Jan24 January 20:36

        The response I had from Virgin when I asked for a refund on my cash advance fees suggested it was an issue between Mastercard and Revolut. Is there any particular reason why Mastercard would get the hump with Revolut processing top-ups as purchases and not cash transactions?

        • jc says:
          24 Jan24 January 21:15

          I don’t believe it’s quite as simple as “Mastercard decided”.

          But generally… Mastercard, or other processors in the chain, will always want a merchant to be on the most appropriate MCC for their business activity. If someone at Mastercard has decided that top ups are more wire-transfer-like than financial-institution-like, so goes your MCC.

          You could argue this one either way, which is why historically it’s been different for Apple Pay than for direct, and why we’re seeing changes now. And why it _could_ change back. It’s just not hugely likely.

  • nick says:
    24 Jan24 January 14:27

    Question for a standard RFS flight -if I select the traditional number of avios plus £17.50 – and I later cancel – do I only “lose” 50p?

    Or must I select one of the newer avios options for this lower cancellation charge?

  • Heathrow Flyer says:
    24 Jan24 January 14:31

    OT: Vodafone ‘Very Me’ Rewards:

    2 Free Hussle Gym Passes – we’ve used these for 2 pool/spa/gym vouchers at Hilton Syon Park. Lots of venues nationwide available.

  • Liam says:
    24 Jan24 January 17:58

    OT — latest on FlyBe from *the* FT:

    “Flybe’s owners are seeking a £100m short-term loan from the UK government as part of the agreed rescue deal of the troubled regional airline, the Financial Times can reveal.

    A decision on whether the government will provide the loan is expected within the next two weeks, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.”

    https://www.ft.com/content/782da316-3ea8-11ea-b232-000f4477fbca

    • BJ says:
      24 Jan24 January 18:07

      Increasingly hard to see it surviving in anything like its current form.

      • Lady London says:
        24 Jan24 January 18:29

        +1. £100m has never sounded like anywhere near enough.

      • BJ says:
        24 Jan24 January 18:44

        Thanks all, sounds fine, I’ll try again tomorrow. I suspect the lady was new, she was having a hassle getting lottery tickets for an earlier customer too.

  • BJ says:
    24 Jan24 January 18:02

    Or just do both at the same time.

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