Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Finnair will join Avios – what does it mean for you?

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

In an unexpected move, Finnair has announced it will be adopting Avios as its loyalty currency from early 2024.

It joins British Airways, Qatar Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus in adopting the currency.

With ‘just’ 4 million members, Finnair Plus is a minnow compared to British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club, adding just 10% to the total member base. However, it brings new options to earn and redeem Avios on non-airline partners, as well as letting BA members use Avios to upgrade Finnair flights.

Finnair will join Avios - what does it mean for you?

Full details of the changes are on the Finnair website here.

Finnair Plus points will convert to Avios at 3:2

If you already have a few orphaned Finnair Plus points, they will be turned into Avios in ‘early 2024’ at a 3:2 ratio.

Off the top of our collective heads, we can’t think of any way of gaming this by moving points to Finnair Plus in advance. For example, whilst Finnair Plus is a 1:1 partner with American Express Membership Rewards, there is no value in moving points there only to see them devalued at 3:2 into Avios.

If anyone can think of an interesting one – perhaps a programme which offers conversions into Finnair Plus but which doesn’t allow Avios conversions – let us know.

The Finnair Plus redemption chart will also convert at 3:2

The Finnair Plus redemption chart is, in general, a Great Dane-sized dog. There are good reasons why, in 11 years of HfP, we have never suggested transferring (say) American Express points to Finnair for oneworld alliance flight redemptions instead of into British Airways Executive Club.

We need to see how the revalued chart looks after the 3:2 change, and also how the taxes and charges stack up.

Finnair can’t afford to be uncompetitive, otherwise its members will simply transfer points into British Airways Executive Club and redeem from there. Because of how these partnerships are accounted for, Finnair will not want this.

The way it works (as I understand it) is that Finnair will not pay IAG for the Avios it issues to its members as long as they are earned and redeemed within the Finnair ecosystem. If members transfer Avios to British Airways Executive Club to redeem, money changes hands.

For the same reason, it appears that ‘Combine My Avios’ will be restricted to moving to/from British Airways to ensure an income flow into IAG. Letting members move Avios directly from Finnair to Qatar Airways, or vice versa, wouldn’t generate any cash for IAG, although you will be able to do ‘Finnair to British Airways to Qatar Airways’ (or vice versa) if you wish.

‘Combine My Avios’ will apply to Finnair Plus

From the way the press release is worded, you will be able to move Avios in and out of Finnair Plus at will, for free, at 1:1.

What new opportunities will this give you as a British Airways Executive Club member?

When Qatar Airways Privilege Club adopted Avios, it opened up a huge new list of car rental, airline and hotel partners. You can now earn Avios via Hertz and Virgin Australia, for example.

This is what Finnair Plus will bring you (I have only listed non-BAEC partners):

  • Car hire – earn Avios via Hertz, Europcar, Sixt and Rentalcars.com
  • Hotels – earn Avios via GLO, Scandic, Sokos, Strawberry / Nordic Choice, Shangri-La
  • Hotels – spend Avios via GLO, Scandic, Sokos, Strawberry / Nordic Choice, IHG One Rewards, Clarion Hotels Finland
  • Airlines – there will be two new airline earn and spend partners: Braathens (13 routes within Sweden) and Juneyao Air, a Chinese carrier

There are also a lot of individual earn and spend deals with specific hotels in Finland, plus leisure options such as restaurant vouchers.

How does the IHG One Rewards deal work?

Yes, assuming that the partnership doesn’t go away, you will soon be able to transfer Avios into IHG One Rewards points.

Don’t get too excited.

The current exchange rate is 20,000 Finnair points = 10,000 IHG One Rewards points.

Given the 3:2 revaluation, this will become 13,333 Avios = 10,000 IHG One Rewards points.

As we value an IHG point at 0.4p, you would be getting 0.3p of value per Avios. Forget it.

Whilst I am also very interested in the Strawberry / Nordic Choice option, since this is the top luxury hotel group in Scandinavia, I suspect it will go away. Strawberry is merging its reward programmme with airline Norwegian and I can’t imagine Finnair Plus wlll want you transferring points into a competitor airline.

Finnair Plus moves to a spend-based programme

Whilst not hugely relevant to HfP readers, the Finnair Plus programme will move to a new revenue-based earning platform.

Whilst very little information has been released, the program will feature new milestone benefits to enable members to receive extra rewards, such as additional upgrade benefits, when reaching certain point limits within their existing tier.

As an extra incentive to join Finnair Plus, members will receive complimentary internet access for messaging (not browsing) as a new benefit on Finnair’s short-haul European flights.

Finnair is also moving to spend-based elite status. Whilst the details are not known, members have already been told that the number of annual flights they take will play no part in earning status going forward.

Finnair will guarantee between four and eight award seats

This is more useful to HfP readers. Finnair will guarantee a minimum number of award seats for Avios redemption on each flight. This should make it significantly easier to redeem Avios for Finnair flights.

Finnair is promising:

  • 4-6 award seats on shorthaul European flights (two in Business where it exists, four in Economy)
  • 8 award seats on long haul flights (two in Business, two in Premium Economy and four in Economy)
Finnair Schengen lounge

A new Schengen lounge is coming

In addition to the changes to Finnair Plus, Finnair is investing in a new Schengen lounge at Helsinki Airport.

This is less relevant to HfP readers, since anyone connecting to/from Helsinki via the UK to a long haul destination will remain within the non-Schengen area.

Rhys was impressed with the Schengen lounge when he visited in 2022, although it admittedly doesn’t match Finnair’s new style, which you can see onboard with the new no-recline business class seating and in their Platinum Lounge at Helsinki (review here).

Finnair has generally been moving away from high-gloss, white finishes in favour of warmer, more natural finishes and textures.

The new lounge will be larger than the existing Schengen lounge and will be located elsewhere in the terminal. This will allow the existing lounge to continue operating until the new lounge is ready to open sometime in 2024.

The new Schengen lounge will also have a dedicated area for top-tier members. Presumably, that means Finnair Plus Platinum members. It will, hopefully, cater to oneworld Emerald (BA Gold) passengers.

Conclusion

Whilst, strategically, a big announcement for IAG Loyalty, the impact for British Airways Executive Club members isn’t huge.

The key things to look out for are:

  • the ability to upgrade Finnair cash flights with Avios
  • guaranteed Avios availability on every Finnair flight
  • the ability to earn and spend Avios with additional car, flight, hotel and leisure partners

We will keep you updated as we get nearer to the launch date.

You can find out more on the Finnair website here.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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 (103)

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

  • Mat says:
    16 Aug16 August 11:07

    I guess this sudden development is great news for Avios collectors based in IAG operating countries who would have variety of ways to collect and now with addition of Finnair another avenue to redeem. As a Finnish based AY plus member I’m horrified by this development since Finland with less than 6 million population does not have the same loyalty market as UK, Spain, etc when it comes to collecting through credit cards,etc and now redemptions will become a lottery for local members! One could say Qatar is also a small country who joined Avios, with the difference that Qatar is in another continent and redemptions are only concerning long-haul while with Finnair it would affect short-haul European availability.
    Hopefully SAS Eurobonus stays in Scandinavia and not going to join LH M&M 😒

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      16 Aug16 August 11:21

      Surely any impact will depend on the routings and peoples desires?

      Unless you can use a 2-4-1 on AY then that precludes a whole set of possibe punters.

      Then there are those that have no real idea where Finland is and when they do look at a map will say ‘heck i’m not flying there and then fly to the likes of BKK or SYD’ because it looks like you’re flying the ‘wrong’ way and will use QR instead.

      There is a heck of a lot of latency with many BAEC members who will only ever fly BA even if the likes of AY,AA and QR have a better product (especially on long haul) or schedules.

      • meta says:
        16 Aug16 August 11:27

        AY flights to Asia are even more impacted by Russian airspace closure which isn’t going away anytime soon, so only some who don’t mind flying 3 hours to Helsinki then spend 3-4 hours there and take the afternoon 12-15 hour flights. And you are also forgetting that taxes from the UK will be much higher. And for some flights it’s wise to fly a day early. Same as with Iberia and Madrid, hence why we get endless questions on the forum about this.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          16 Aug16 August 12:09

          I’m nor forgetting any of that but despite the “endless questions” about ex Europe trips only a very small proportion of people actually do them if they live in the uK

      • Mat says:
        16 Aug16 August 11:38

        “Surely any impact will depend on the routings and peoples desires?”

        Makes sense 🤓

        However, I’m more concerned with European routes, especially to Eastern Europe/Baltic/Balkan, which would make sense for British/Irish passengers to redeem on Finnair.
        There’s a massive imbalance in supply&demand between Finland and Ireland/UK when it comes to number of passengers all year round and number of available seats. In Finland 6 months in a year most of plane seats remain empty affecting all airlines operating to/from Finland on short-haul routes. It’s not strange to see a European route being operated by ATR, CRJ, variety of airbuses in a span of two months.
        I’d say that’s the reason Finnair has decided to make AY+ part of a wider common currency to prevent a further collapse is passenger numbers since Covid and then Russian airspace closure has already casted a doubt on their existence.

      • BJ says:
        16 Aug16 August 12:24

        Personally I’d prefer to go to Helsinki for an uninterrupted 14-15h flight heading East than mess around with two 6-7h QR flights and 2-3h transit in DOH in the wee hours. But decision will come down to difference in cost. What I now fancy though is Y on a ERJ190 between EDI and Hel, a night or two there then the longhaul direct in J from HEL-XXX. Let’s see how it develops.

        • Dave Hughes says:
          16 Aug16 August 15:48

          i always book the 31hr trips to far east now on Qatar, Manchester 9pm overnight , (day in doha via stopover £31 5* for the day then next night overnight to KUL / SIN / BKK) also gets maximum use of lounges / dining etc! , £361 + 75K Avios 787-9 MAN-DOH then A380 1st Class to BKK is an absolute bargain IMO!

    • memesweeper says:
      16 Aug16 August 12:22

      OneWorld flyers from around the world could always redeem on Finnair with points earned from credit cards. That doesn’t change. Your own currency is now more useful, and Rob thinks your redemption charts are going to become more competitive. Sounds like a win for a Finnair loyalist to me?

    • Alastair says:
      16 Aug16 August 13:40

      Finland based AY and BA member here and I’m not sure what this will mean. Basically all of my point collection now is (was) from Nordea (I guess I need to move to Aktia now) CC spend. I have a feeling that we’ll see that halved from 2+/euro to 1 avios/euro soon then.
      I can’t think of any practical way to generate Avios from my Euro spend before this becomes clear – I have a UK and Finnish Amex (Gold + Green) but the Finnish MR conversion rate is poor and the UK one would charge a fee…
      Interested to hear what others think of this.

      • Mat says:
        16 Aug16 August 14:04

        Pretty much in same situation as you Alastair! Hence my original comment!

        Finnair has already cut ties with all financial partners in Finland with Only Aktia (which I’m not a customer of) and Amex (which has a horrible conversion rates for all of its airline partners) remaining active as of now. Having Nordea AY MC for a few years I had a good run of earning decent amount of AY+ points, but that goes out in a month or so.

        Can’t think of any other way of earning AY+ points tbh

        • Alastair says:
          16 Aug16 August 14:47

          I guess we don’t have any choice really. I’m might wait until the last minute to get the Aktia card in case they offer some kind of bonus (they did when it first came out). I got the letter from Nordea today saying that their Finnair card will no longer earn points from October.

          I guess in terms of status etc – it’s a no-brainer to stay with BA for that thanks to the soft-landing and it’s not (yet) revenue based for TPs.

          Akitia does give you Finnair TPs monthly for meeting a spend target so would be worth keeping an eye on though (this ‘milestone’ thing might offer some value there)

  • meta says:
    16 Aug16 August 11:20

    Might this open the possibility of using 241 vouchers on Finnair?

    • Rob says:
      16 Aug16 August 11:22

      Potentially although I think Qatar’s discussions have stalled.

      • BJ says:
        16 Aug16 August 12:41

        I would not be surprised by this, QRPC appear to me to be much too fond of their ‘2x points’ rewards to seriously entertain 0.5x points rewards. It’ll probably take a huge carrot to shift the needle on this.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          16 Aug16 August 13:45

          Whilst it didn’t really matter between BA/IB becuase it was all under IAG Loyalty so all came out in the wash with QR they would likely want to be paid the proper amount for a 2-4-1

          And the same would likely be the same with AY.

          As their avios is (like QRs) a standalone scheme they would want paying properly for avios seats.

        • Rob says:
          16 Aug16 August 13:47

          Qatar is moving to peak / off-peak pricing soon, although how Q2 fits around that I don’t know. Upside will be a sharp improvement in availability.

          • LittleNick says:
            16 Aug16 August 13:55

            No doubt the excellent current rates of 90k to AUS/NZ for example will become the off-peak rate and the peak rate will be an increase. So another devaluation coming soon in some sense I suspect

          • Rob says:
            16 Aug16 August 14:18

            But those seats are exceptionally hard to find now that the word is out, so it will effectively be an improvement.

          • BC says:
            16 Aug16 August 14:21

            Its already happened in some (most?) markets. I recently booked ZRH-DOH at christmas for 54,000 avios in business rather than 43,000 (though as you said it was a win for me as I had previously booked this for the flex price of 86,000 avios but they released classic avios availability after this change).

          • Alex Sm says:
            17 Aug17 August 11:42

            Will it be different to BA? Eg. August is a low season due to heat and Ramadan might affect travel patterns

          • Rob says:
            17 Aug17 August 12:09

            I asked this and didn’t get a sensible answer! There may be different dates for each leg, so there could be four different prices for UK – Oz – PEAK UK OFFPEAK OZ, PEAK PEAK, OFF OFF, OFFPEAK UK PEAK OZ.

            Let’s see. It will be accompanied by a sharp availability increase because the higher pricing feeds directly through to revenue management being willing to sell more seats to Privilege Club.

  • G says:
    16 Aug16 August 11:40

    Only inevitable until BAEC becomes revenue linked as well.

    £5 per tier point anyone?

    • Qrfan says:
      16 Aug16 August 13:50

      No chance. A single £6000 fully flex ticket would get you most of the way to gold.

      • G says:
        16 Aug16 August 13:54

        But given the way things are going at present; all airlines care about is corporate travellers on flexible fares. loyalty counts for nothing in the leisure market.

        • James C says:
          16 Aug16 August 19:53

          I think BA are serving two masters and have split their loyalty scheme to attract and retain two customer types. Premium leisure is driving J sales. These customers want lounge access, priority boarding and check in etc. They don’t fly every week but when they do they do they like the perks even on Y tickets so TPs to accrue status works for them and keeps them coming back. If it didn’t BAH Double TPs wouldn’t have been extended. BA however really wants the £10k fully flex J bookings from corporate travellers which is why they’ve chosen to give those corporate bookings enough Avios to book flights to Europe in the summer on one LHR-JFK run. What they don’t want is to reward the leisure booker buying a cheap J ticket twice with both TPs and loads of Avios. So whilst I can see revenue based status earning in the distance I don’t see it soon.

          • LittleNick says:
            17 Aug17 August 15:58

            Makes Sense, more than just a coincidence that Avios boost has come out to replace the fall in lost Avios earning. If those leisure travellers want those Avios they would have earned + more then they can now pay more with Boost to get them back. Very clever

        • James C says:
          16 Aug16 August 19:56

          *enough Avios to book flights for the whole family from one JFK run!

    • Jack says:
      16 Aug16 August 18:51

      No it is not why do people keep saying this it will never happen at BAEC it doesn’t work you cannot apply revenue to status as that is no way to measure loyalty . Status should not be for the rich who get their business to pay . Business travel is down so airlines should focus very much on leisure customers. Any airline who does this clearly doesn’t have a clue . £5 for one teir point frankly is ridiculous and must never happen loyalty is how often you fly not money

  • LittleNick says:
    16 Aug16 August 12:03

    What I’m not sure about is why the exchange rate from Finnair Avios to IHG would change after the devaluation? Why would the exchange rate between Finnair Avios to IHG not remain at 2:1 so those 13333 Avios become 6667 IHG points after the adoption/devaluation? Why would it go from 2:1 to 1.33:1?

    • Rob says:
      16 Aug16 August 12:23

      All Finnair redemption pricing reduces by 1/3rd to reflect the 3:2 conversion rate from Finnair Plus points to Avios. Someone who has 20k Finnair points will wake up with 13,333 Avios.

      • LittleNick says:
        16 Aug16 August 13:47

        Including Partner redemptions? Call me a cynic but have they said non-airline partner redemptions will also be adjusted? Seems too good an opportunity for them to do some devaluations under the radar

      • JJ says:
        16 Aug16 August 19:21

        Great news for the side partnership with orphaned Scandic – Fin Air 500 miles per night.
        Now becomes 333 Avios per night plus Scandic points? I see this going, but was always one of the last double dips..

  • LittleNick says:
    16 Aug16 August 12:04

    Also how does Finnair price up partner redemptions on Cathay/JAL etc regards Taxes and Fees? Does it pass on any carrier surcharges?

  • mnlbay says:
    16 Aug16 August 12:11

    As an AY member (also who bought Plat in 2021) based in the UK, this seems a good move.

    Lifting directly from Finnair’s website:
    “Furthermore, you can link a British Airways Executive Club account to Qatar Airways Privilege Club or Iberia Plus account, if you have one. This will widen your opportunities to collect and spend Avios even more and make your Finnair Plus membership even more useful to you.”

    This should mean you can go AY BA QR/IB (theoretically, EI?) with BAEC acting as the glue to link the disparate schemes.

  • BJ says:
    16 Aug16 August 12:13

    When the guaranteed seats are released are we likely to see a flood of them for 2024 or will they likely only be made available one day at a time from the next new calender date bookable after launch?

    • Rob says:
      16 Aug16 August 12:20

      Not clear but I suspect it will be on the day of the switch and ONLY on flights where 8 seats haven’t already been released. You won’t see 8 more on flights where seats were already released and booked.

      • BJ says:
        16 Aug16 August 12:29

        That makes sense, and given Finnair reward release patterns to date it would probably be a good result.

      • meta says:
        16 Aug16 August 12:31

        Yes, that likely rules out the whole of 2024. I haven’t tracked when Finnair releases awards, but it used to be easy to score Avios seats from Helsinki, less so since Ukraine war.

        • BJ says:
          16 Aug16 August 12:46

          My feeling was that they were not releasing seats on every flight every day though. If that was the case then we might get a nice surprise, perhaps not a flood byt something still useful.

  • Christian says:
    16 Aug16 August 13:57

    This is decent news for me.

    I travel to Helsinki once a month on Finnair for work. The airline is nice enough.

    The Finnair points were pretty useless to me, as I dont travel enough to get enough for a decent flight, so I ended up just redeeming them for internet access on the flight. This was at a poor rate, but work dont cover it so its better than actual cash for me.

    Now it looks like I will get free internet, and transfer the Plus Points to Avios instead. Result!

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!