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Finnair launches flights to Nagoya, bookable on Avios

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Finnair has taken another step to rebuilding its Asia network post pandemic.

Flights from Helsinki to Nagoya – the fourth largest city in Japan – will resume from 30th May 2024.

The service will operate twice per week. Outbound flights will be on Thursdays and Sundays with the return flight on Fridays and Mondays. The flight time is interesting, leaving Helsinki after midnight – at 00.15 – to land in Nagoya at 19.05. The return leaves at 22.50 and lands in Helsinki at 05.55.

Finnair launches flights to Nagoya

Existing Japan routes to Osaka, Tokyo Narita and Tokyo Haneda will continue, with a total of 20 flights per week to the country.

Finnair has historically had a strong focus on long haul routes to Asia. Geographically, Helsinki is ‘on the way’ for much of Europe and so connecting in Helsinki is convenient – especially as the airport is a single terminal with a 35 minute Minimum Connection Time. The route network was severely hit by the delayed reopening of much of Asia post pandemic, and then hit again by the closure of Russian airspace which led to substantially extended flight times.

Finnair now guarantees two Business Class reward seats per flight. These can be booked via ba.com with Avios, as Finnair is a BA partner in the oneworld airline alliance. Remember that if you book your connecting flight separately you pay less in taxes, as no long haul premium UK Air Passenger Duty is due, but you are responsible for ensuring you make your connection.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (November 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:

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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.

Comments (46)

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

  • Scottydogg says:

    I did read that using 100% SAF would cost the airline / Passengers 3 – 4 times as much for the same amount of fuel compared to standard aviation fuel.
    It would be good if they forced all the people that use private jets to only use SAF

    • Rob says:

      You BUY SAF, you don’t use it. I assume you don’t believe, if you buy renewal electricity, that what comes into your house is renewable?

      When Virgin says it wants to be running on 10% SAF by 2030, it doesn’t mean that. It means that it will buy SAF equivalent to 10% of its fuel use and pour that SAF into the massive Heathrow fuel tanks used by all the airlines where it is all mixed together.

      • ADS says:

        apparently SAF has a much shorter shelf life than JetA1 – so I don’t think any physical mixing will be going on. but I get your main point!

        • Rhys says:

          ….physical mixing already happens! It’s the only way SAF is being used right now, as aircraft are only certified to use it up to 50% at the moment.

          • Tariq says:

            Large International airports will be on the end of pipelines anyway? I would imagine that the contents of those tanks will be turned over many times in day.

          • ADS says:

            well yes, it happens at the end … but I’m pretty sure that they will be fairly careful about how they mix it on the way to the aircraft !

          • Rhys says:

            Rolls Royce told me that theirs gets mixed on the Isle of Grain then railfreighted to Derby.

    • cin4 says:

      Well that’s only because the price of jet A1 doesn’t include all the downstream costs.

  • Swifty says:

    Gosh Rob, I really like Rhys, don’t send him please

  • His Holyness says:

    SAF is going nowhere. But I wish it would, if we moved to full SAF it would massively reduce available fuel for aviation and there would be a huge drop in flights, a Covid-style shut down.

  • KevMc says:

    A major problem with SAF, as with most Biofuels, is that in order to produce enough of it on a mass scale, it would involve using huge amounts of arable land. The decision / trade-off then becomes do you grow more food crops, or more biofuel crops?

    • Rhys says:

      SAF consists of many different types of fuel, including those made from waste feed stocks, biofuels and ‘power to liquid’ which uses carbon capture to synthesise it. So it’s not just a single technology.

      • Dubious says:

        One of the interesting complications of SAF – that has already been identified and processes worked on to overcome – is that different states end up with different production requirements. For example some users will not tolerate SAF produced from fats of some animals. It is quite an interesting complication once you delve into it.

        • Rhys says:

          No different to jet fuel from fossils. Jet A1 is a performance standard, not a chemical standard. Depending on what it is refined from you get varying chemical composition but it will perform the same in the engine.

    • ken says:

      I’m pretty sceptical of SAF, however synthetic fuels are not alway quite the same as agricultural biofuels.
      They can be made from waste oils, tree pulp waste etc.

      It will only ever be a tiny market (the waste products could equally be used in other processes).
      Still releases CO2 and the feedstocks will never be inherently sustainable.

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

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