Book Avios-earning £1,040 Finnair business flights to Bangkok – or £835 ex-Stockholm

It’s just like the old days on HfP, with multiple excellent cash flight deals turning up this week.

The snag on this one is that you are taking a punt on Thailand opening. The odds are looking pretty good for next month, however, and you can book this deal until well into 2022.

Finnair is offering some very aggressive pricing to Bangkok from across Europe. Even with Air Passenger Duty, the UK fare is very reasonable – and you can also fly from Manchester and Edinburgh as well as Heathrow.

Finnair has a very decent business class product which is a substantial step up on British Airways Club World – see above. Our review of Finnair business class on their A350 fleet is here. There is no guarantee that you get an A350 but the seating on their other aircraft is also better than Club World.

Finnair’s website is terrible at showing you the flight details and total fare in one convenient place, so I can’t cut and paste any screenshots. Trust me that the flights are definitely there at £1,040 from London and SEK 9,984 (£835) from Stockholm.

There is a snag though ….

These are VERY restricted Business Light tickets.

We covered the new Finnair Business Light fares here and, to be honest, we don’t like them.

Be very clear what you are (not) getting here though:

• no lounge access (I’m not sure if oneworld status would allow this)
• no checked baggage (unless you have BA status – this is definitely OK)
• no advance seat selection
• no fast track security
• no fast track boarding

You will earn standard Avios and tier points.

In terms of tier points, Heathrow to Bangkok would be 80 + 140 + 140 + 80 = 440 tier points return, which is an excellent return on a £1,040 ticket. You would earn 80 fewer tier points from Stockholm because of the shorter hop to Helsinki.

Be aware of the terms and conditions of the fare. You can change the dates if necessary, but your ticket will reprice. If Finnair isn’t selling any dirt cheap flights to Bangkok at the time you come to reprice, you could face paying a substantial sum on top.

From the UK, the best way to pay is with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which gives double points – 2 per £1 – on airline spend. If booking from Stockholm or another starting point not priced in £, you should use any card you have which does not charge FX fees.

The Finnair home page is here.

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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:

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.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.