Finnair slashes taxes to £30 in Business on many long-haul Avios redemptions

Finnair, as a oneworld alliance member, is a British Airways Executive Club partner. This means that you can earn and spend Avios on Finnair flights.

Finnair is more useful than you might think. Helsinki is ‘on the way’ to Asia from much of Europe, meaning that a connection there is not a lot slower than flying direct.

The airline also has a decent Business Class seat which is better than ‘old’ Club World, and is on a par with Club Suite. Here’s the A350 seat:

We reviewed Finnair A350 business class here.

Over the Summer, Finnair removed ‘carrier surcharges’ from its long haul flights. A couple of weeks ago it also removed them from European flights.

The latter doesn’t make a lot of difference, but stripping out surcharges from long-haul Business Class flights makes then exceptional value.

How good are the deals?

Here is an example, from Helsinki to Singapore in Business Class.

Using Avios and booked at ba.com, this is what it costs just £44 of taxes plus 185,500 Avios.

Let’s compare that to a British Airways flight from London to Singapore on a peak day.

The taxes and charges are a crazy £607 and you need more Avios – 210,000 in total. This is because the flight is longer from London and it pushes it into a higher Avios pricing band than Helsinki to Singapore.

This is a big saving

If you are a solo traveller or a couple without a 2-4-1 voucher, the saving here is huge. The Finnair flight requires 24,500 fewer Avios and £563 less tax per person!

There are snags, of course:

• the Avios difference would change if your BA flights were on an off-peak day (cost falls from 210,000 to 175,000) although the huge tax saving would remain

• you need to get to Helsinki, which will cost you in cash or Avios (BA has dropped it but Finnair flies from Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh, various low cost carriers also fly it)

• because your flight to Helsinki would need to be on a separate ticket, you will need to build in a big gap to ensure you don’t miss your connection

• you can’t use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher on Finnair

This doesn’t work on all routes

Finnair operates a number of joint ventures. It is, for example, part of the British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia joint venture across the Atlantic. These JVs restrict its ability to remove surcharges.

You will not find deals as good as Singapore on routes to:

• North America
• China
• Japan

Your best bets, based on routes that Finnair is currently selling, are:

• Singapore
• Seoul (now dropped by BA)
• Phuket (not a BA route)
• Bangkok
• Krabi (not a BA route)
• Hong Kong
• Dubai

Here is Seoul:

Yes, just £30 of taxes in Business Class. Bangkok is the same.

Conclusion

Finnair is now exceptional value for anyone looking to redeem Avios for long haul business class flights to much of Asia.

You will have to jump some hurdles – availability is patchy and you need to get yourself to Helsinki – but if you can get over this you will get a good quality seat and an exceptionally good value deal.

(PS. If you collect Finnair Plus points directly, instead of redeeming for Finnair via Avios, our guide to earning them from UK credit cards is here.)

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Avios. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Avios! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. Click here to apply.

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 9th December 2024, there are EXCLUSIVE sign-up offers for our readers on the two Capital on Tap small business Visa cards. You can earn 20,000 points on the Business Rewards card and 30,000 points on the new Pro card. Click here to apply.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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.